Bridgeway Launches Apprentice Centre
07 Jul 2010
Bridgeway Consulting has launched a new apprentice centre in partnership with West Nottinghamshire College.
Called ‘Vision Apprentices' the new training centre aims to help employers deliver long-term apprenticeships. Based in Beeston, Nottingham, the facility includes a 140-metre stretch of railway track.
West Notts College, Bridgeway Consulting and railway specialists, Trackwork, have joined forces to provide placements for 16-18 year-olds wanting to forge a career in the rail sector. Training is delivered by experienced tutors with courses in Railway Engineering (Permanent Way Renewals), Business Improvement Techniques and communications and numeracy. Students also study personal track safety and take a track induction course.
Gil Howarth, project director of the National Skills Academy for Railway Engineering (NSARE) and a colonel in the Engineering and Logistics Staff Corps, helped open the new site and said apprenticeships were vital to an industry that needed qualified people to design, build and construct the rail network.
Asha Khemka OBE, of West Notts College joined Pino De Rosa, managing director of Bridgeway Consulting; and Bill Alexander, national apprentice manager at Network Rail to unveil the scheme. Apprentices attending the launch event welcomed the new training facilities.
Says Brad Halfpenny, 17, of Sutton-in-Ashfield, ‘The facilities are great. They put you in a proper working environment and you couldn't ask for better training staff. I'm really looking forward to working in the rail industry. The possibilities are endless.'
Vision Apprentices is a wholly-owned subsidiary of West Notts College, specialising in manufacturing, engineering and maintenance apprenticeships for 16 to 18-year-olds. It is one of just 12 Apprenticeship Training Associations (ATAs) to be set up across the country, aided by £7m of Government funding.