This morning, we welcomed local employers to our Greater Manchester SkillCentre for our first Employer Breakfast!
To celebrate National Apprenticeship Week, we invited employers to join us at the SkillCentre for a morning of networking, collaboration, and insight sharing.
Guests were given a comprehensive tour of our facilities, providing many of them with their first opportunity to see where their apprentices practice their skills and observe some of our learners in action.
We also welcomed guest speakers from the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB), who shared valuable insights into the future of skills and training in the construction sector.
Representatives from across the Growth Company, including GM Business Growth Hub and the Manufacturing Institute, were also on hand to offer further support and share how apprenticeships and training can support business growth.
Paul Weir, Business Development Team Leader, said: “We haven’t held an event at the SkillCentre for quite some time, so we felt this would be the perfect opportunity to showcase our fantastic facilities to local employers so they can see where their apprentices are training.
“Guests also had the opportunity to speak to colleagues from our finance, business, and customer service teams to find out how the Growth Company can support them to develop their teams in these areas.”
Paul added: “Overall, it was a really positive event, we’ve been able to speak to lots of our employers to find out what we can do to continue to improve the delivery and better meet their needs and we look forward to having more exciting conversations going forward.”
Andy Baxter, Director of High Efficiency Heating, who attended the event, said: “Today’s event has been really informative. Our industry is changing rapidly, and I came today to see how these changes can be implemented. There’s a little bit of work to do across the sector but I’m going away feeling encouraged.
“I’ve been working with the Growth Company now for over 15 years and I’ve had many apprentices come through who have found the Skill Centre and the tutors and staff to be inspirational and I’m very happy with the progress they have all made over the years.”
Lee Henrys from Bibby Commercials, who has two apprentices enrolled on the HGV programme, said: “This is the first time we’ve been to the centre and it was good to see the workshop. Our apprentices are learning skills that fill gaps, particularly with engines and transmissions. We don’t often work on them because they’re so reliable these days but when we do the apprentices have the facilities here to learn these skills which will be a help going forward.”
Alan Fitzsimmons, Service Manager at Salford City Council, added: “We’ve been working with the Growth Company for going on four years and currently have three apprentices on the HGV programme. From the first visit with our apprenticeship department we were sold and since then working with the Growth Company has been very easy.”
If you’d like to find out more about how we can support the development of your staff through training and apprenticeships, get in touch with our team today: business@gceducationandskills.ac.uk
