It's National Apprenticeship Week, and our A Team network of local apprentices have been out and about promoting Apprenticeships as a cost-effective way to meet the skills gaps of industry. It was a cold and frosty Tuesday morning when local companies gathered at the Park Inn, Thurrock this week to gain an insight into the Apprenticeship programme and to appreciate how it can benefit their companies. A text message comes in..'Am at Grays Station. Have you got Will's number? ' Maybe I shouldn't have left it to the apprentices to sort out their own travel arrangements!

As it turns out the guys use their initiative and get themselves to the Park Inn in time for the 8.30am start of the business networking event. I wonder whether they've just covered a unit without knowing it? Travelling  to North Stifford via Grays from both Southend and Bethnal Green. That so should be a module.

At the event we set up our Skills Academy stand - well a table with some small cards promoting our Apprenticeship Training Service, and some hastily printed sheets of paper with the words WE'RE OUT THERE on them. I get persuaded by Royal Opera House apprentice Jamie to take their far more professional looking stand back with us to the Thurrock Learning Campus afterwards. Again another puzzle at the end of the morning - how to get two display stands and two apprentices plus me into a Ford Puma? Maybe there's an Apprenticeship in Logistics? Must ask Port of Tilbury when I go to meet them.

The network event gets underway and the apprentices are encouraged to get out there and make some contacts. Once I get them to come out from behind the Pop Up display promoting the work of the Royal Opera House's Thurrock team the boys find themselves a popular attraction. It is funny how these events seem to so often fail to use their best ambassadors - in this case actual apprentices. Who better to say it as it really is?

Other Thurrock apprentices are found - Ross and Reece - and the Park Inn offer to host a future A Team meeting.  Reece Cross puts his experience of an apprenticeship rather well on the South Essex College website. "I've been given the opportunity to shine", he says. South Essex College has an established history of providing Apprenticeship training across the Thames Gateway. As the lead for NOVA, the fifth largest provider of work-based training in the country, the Skills Academy Founder College were named ‘Top Provider in the Eastern Region’ for the recruitment of Apprentices by the National Apprenticeship Service.

Awards have been flying out for apprentices in the area. Our A Team's own Mohammed Rahman has just won an Award from City of Westminster College whilst Kayleigh Cletus, another South Essex College apprentice, won the Southend Business Award for Best Apprentice. Kayleigh puts the attraction of an apprenticeship over other entry routes well: "I had already taken BTECs and A-levels, but I found I still wasn’t able to get a job because I lacked experience. Doing an Apprenticeship was the best way to go about getting it."

Thanks to Richard at local Thurrock Printers RJS - the A Team have now created some postcards promoting a short series of interviews they have done for on-line newspaper Your Thurrock (front text WE'RE OUT THERE...). A peak at You Tube/Your Thurrock Films and a look under  Apprenticeships Week in Thurrock will give you an opportunity to hear their words about the positive benefits of apprenticeships.

Understanding the needs of young and local audiences is one of the benefits of creative organisations taking on apprentices. If you happen to be in the Grays area on Thursday 9th February (5-7pm) you could meet A Team members in person at our drop in Open House at Thurrock Learning Campus as part of a South Essex College's Apprenticeship Week event. They'd appreciate your support. Some things young workers can sort out on their own - like how to get to North Stifford for 8.30am on an icy Tuesday morning - others, such as providing an alternative entry route into industry they need your help with to make happen.

But make no mistake - We're out there...

To find out more about Apprenticeships and National Apprenticeship Week visit our website page at http://www.nsa-ccskills.co.uk/what-are-apprenticeships