At the Honeytree Day Nursery we invest in apprenticeships as we believe that apprentices are practitioners of the future. We like to train apprentices and support them in gaining their qualification. We do this as we recognise that at times it is difficult for young people to gain the experience required to follow their career aspirations. All we ask for in return is hard work and a commitment to follow our ethos and values.

Apprentices allow us the opportunity to ‘home-grow’ our practitioners and as such we employ 98% of apprentices once they have completed their course. There are clear progression routes for our apprentices and this is evident in one of our Deputy Managers who started off as an apprentice within our business. I myself completed my Level 3 full time at college and if I was to turn back time I would have completed my qualification through an apprenticeship as the benefits are clear, both for apprentices but also employers. A very big benefit of completing an apprenticeship is the fact that you are getting paid as you learn, and you get to know what it's like to work in the industry. Employers see it as the ideal way to form their perfect employee, which is why so many apprentices are offered jobs at the end of their course. Apprentices are also entitled to paid holidays and other benefits.

The things that employers look for in an apprentice are quite simple. We look for people willing to work hard and commit to enhancing the lives of children. We work very closely with Weston College and we know at what stage each of our apprentices are at. This allows us to give support in the workplace.

Another benefit is that our apprentices work with a range of different ages ranging from 6 months to 5 years and in some of our nurseries the children are older as we offer holiday club. This means the apprentices receive a wide range of knowledge and understanding for different age children that may be in their care.

Jay Sparkle,

Lead Manager,

The Honeytree Day Nursery

Weston College has employed Chris Lemin as its new Curriculum Lead for Cyber Security. Cyber security is the process of protecting networks, systems and  data from cyber-attacks. It is a hot topic, with the government estimating that large businesses face an average cost of £19,600 when presented with a cyber-security breach.

Chris brings a wealth of knowledge to the role, having worked for the Royal Air Force and as a commercial cyber-threat intelligence analyst for the past three years. As part of his most recent role, Chris dealt with a wide array of companies, assisting them in defending attacks from the internet.  

In February, Capgemini’s Digital Transformation Institute produced a study based on 1,200 senior executives, which highlighted that 68% of organisations are reporting a high demand for cyber skills. Chris is now writing the Level 4 cyber security apprenticeship standards, and is ensuring that these meet the needs of employers and give students the relevant training to meet these skills gaps. These apprenticeships will offer students the perfect mix of both education and exposure to the cyber security world, while gaining a formal qualification.  

As well as the new cyber security apprenticeship, the College is developing a cyber lab which will be based at the Winter Gardens.  This will allow the students the opportunity to practice a range of scenarios, from testing insecure networks to reconfiguring a network, giving them hands on experience.

Chris said: “Education is the key to cyber security, we are aiming to help organisations to meet the needs of their skills gap.”

Weston College has held a series of MasterChef-style competitions in prisons across the south west.

Prison learners were taught a range of catering skills before putting them to the test and cooking a meal of their own. Prison governors then chose the winner after sampling the dishes.

The day-long courses were designed to inspire learners and encourage them to consider a career in catering when they are released.

The initiative was hailed a huge success by Weston College Training and Development Manager Brian Howe, who taught the courses with colleague Pedro Aparicio.

Brian said: “First, all the learners took part in a demonstration, which involved showing them how to cut poultry.

“They then produced a range of fantastic dishes using the skills they had learned – including Oriental, Asian and Caribbean-style chicken. Some even cooked their own naan and pitta bread from scratch. The standard was amazing.

“It was so rewarding to see the passion and skill on display – they took in absolutely everything they were shown.

“The idea was to show what a career in catering and hospitality could offer. I lost count how many said that’s what they wanted to do when they are released.”

The classes were organised by the Weston College - the school of food apprenticeship team chef apprenticeship team known as The School of Food – a new chef apprenticeship jointly delivered by Weston College. The School of Food is a unique training course, run by chefs for chefs and designed to tackle the local skills shortage. A new and exciting apprenticeship programme that launched in April 2018, training aspiring chefs. Among the School of Food’s latest intake is a learner recently released from HMP Leyhill, who was inspired by the prison MasterChef class.

Weston College provides education services to ten prisons across the South West of England – Leyhill, Eastwood Park, Bristol, Erlestoke, Guys Marsh, The Verne, Portland, Exeter, Channings Wood and Dartmoor.

The Weston College Offender Learning team delivers a wide range of training provision in South West prisons, including catering, English, maths, customer service, art, plastering, carpentry, plastering and bricklaying. Curriculums are designed to engage offenders in learning and help them gain the skills and qualifications required to find sustainable employment when they are released. Weston College is proud to work in partnership with and supporting the Ministry of Justice and Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service to rehabilitate offenders and reduce re-offending.