Abingdon & Witney College kick off National Apprenticeship Week with regional award win

Abingdon & Witney College
Abingdon & Witney College have been recognised as the leading apprenticeship provider in the South of England at the inaugural Annual Apprenticeship Awards.

The awards took place at a reception at the House of Commons, sponsored by the chair of the education select committee Robert Halfon, kicking off the celebrations at the start of National Apprenticeship Week (NAW).

Support has flooded in since the announcement was made on Monday afternoon. Robert Courts, MP for Witney & West Oxon, was at the event to ‘celebrate all the great things that companies and apprentices are doing all over West Oxfordshire’ and commended the College, whilst MP for Oxford West & Abingdon, Layla Moran also offered her congratulations.

Di Batchelor, Principal at the College, said: ‘We can’t overstate the value of this kind of award and the recognition it brings to the College as a premier provider of high quality apprenticeships.’

7 thoughts on “Abingdon & Witney College kick off National Apprenticeship Week with regional award win

  1. Janet

    I hope that they are real apprenticeships. When I was working young people were placed in jobs like sweeping floors and other menial tasks so that they could be called apprentices and not shown on the unemployment statistics. These positions were not apprenticeships and they learned very little. It was cheap labour for companies.

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  2. Iain

    I suspect a lot has changed since you were at school Janet.

    This is an award for a college supporting apprenticeships with a strong training element, usually both on the job and in college itself.

    Well done A&W College

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  3. Janet

    It was not that long ago I was working Ian and the rubbish so called apprenticeships were in place then.

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  4. ppjs

    There are a couple of really good stories on BBC news page about apprenticeships. A single mum who has qualified as a bus mechanic – and is full of enthusiasm; and a clip on the German company Siemens who invest 100,000 euros in each of their apprentices – a company where many of the managers started their career in apprenticeships in house.

    Why we followed the American model of post-school education when the German one was staring us in the face beats me.

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  5. R.

    It would be nice, Janet, if when we get some good local news you didn’t immediately try to present a negative slant to it.

    Well done, Abingdon and Witney College. Such awards are not given lightly and you are clearly working hard to provide excellent modern apprenticeships.

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  6. Helen

    A friend of mine runs a business that takes apprentices from the College. A couple of years ago we had a conversation about it, and he described to me how he has to discuss what they are learning and when so that he can match their tasks to their study aims almost weekly, and how someone from the college checks to make sure he is indeed teaching them and not merely exploiting them. For him it’s initially a lot of work and a big time commitment, though clearly he thinks it’s worth it in the end, as well as a way of returning something to the community.

    So while I’m sure there are companies out there that regard trainees as cheap labour and get rid of them as soon as they could ask for a decent wage or some real training, I imagine that the College and its partners put a lot of effort into their apprentices and deserve their recognition. I hope that the decent business owners who take their responsibilities to the next generation seriously, like my friend, are also recognised.

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