Leicester Business Leaders to go back to the floor

04/02/2011

Three top Leicester businessmen, Martin Traynor, Chief Executive of the Chamber of Commerce; Henry Inman, Employer Services Director for the East Midlands, National Apprenticeship Service and Lee Smith, Head of Advertising at the Leicester Mercury will be going back to the floor to get a taste of life as an apprentice.

The three will each be shadowing either a brickwork or plastering apprentice at Leicester College as part of National Apprenticeship Week on 7-11 February 2011.

Leicester College’s apprentices shine a particularly bright light for Leicester College with bricklayer, Mike Hill winning a regional heat of Skillbuild 2010, and past bricklaying apprentice, Sam Fairgrieve flying the British flag after representing the UK at WorldSkills 2009.

Over 800 people train on Apprenticeships at Leicester College in areas such as Construction, but also in Business and Administration, Childcare, Customer Service and Information, Advice and Guidance, Engineering, Creative Industries, Cleaning Services, Dental Nursing, Hairdressing and Beauty Therapy, IT, Hospitality and Food Manufacturing, Health and Social Care, Leadership and Management, Marketing, Retail, Warehousing and Sport and Leisure.

Labour MP for Leicester South West, Liz Kendall will also be at Leicester College during Apprenticeship Week activities, meeting a group of six Year 10 Countesthorpe Community College students during a Hairdressing and Beauty taster workshop at the College. On Monday 7 February, the school students will meet some of the College’s Hairdressing and Beauty apprentices, be take a tour of the department, be given the opportunity to ask any questions they have about apprenticeships and take part in a practical activity in the Colleges salons.

Leicester College is also supporting the bid to boost employment via apprenticeships in the city by joining forces with the Leicester Mercury as part of the Apprenticeship Challenge to match 100 apprentices in 100 days. So far over 800 potential apprentices and employers have made enquiries about the challenge.
Martin Traynor said: “More than ever companies must invest in developing their workforce and to train for the future. As part of this investment taking on apprentices has to be a part of the solution. Apprentices can be a rich source of talent that can be harnessed to help businesses grow and succeed”.