This week marks National Apprenticeship Week! We took on our first apprentice 20 year old Jordan Woollett in September 2017 and we haven’t looked back.

Jordan is working hard to complete the Advanced Apprenticeship for IT, Software, Web and Telecoms Professionals (England) - BTEC Level 3 Diploma in Professional Competence for IT and Telecoms Professionals (QCF). The course takes 18 months to complete and Jordan is currently six months into the course with Stockton Riverside College.

Communicate decided to opt for a local apprentice as we are huge advocates of employing from the area, as well as growing our own talent, and the apprenticeship scheme allowed us to do both.

We take pride in supporting Jordan in the workplace, providing him with skills and knowledge whilst working towards his qualification. Jordan is now a key member of our busy engineering team as well as providing customer support.

We believe providing apprenticeships in the local area is immensely important to sustain steady and stable employment opportunities in the region. We were recently recognised by the Tees Valley Mayor for our efforts in committing to an apprentice in the Tees Valley.

Ben Houchen said in his letter to the company:

“As Mayor of the Tees Valley, I am writing to say how pleased I am that your organisation has committed to take on a new apprentice with the support of our funding scheme.

The Tees Valley Combined Authority that I lead provides funds to support the creation of new apprenticeship opportunities in our area and we have a strong track record of encouraging apprenticeships, with recent growth far higher than national rates. In the last year alone, over 1,000 new apprenticeships have benefitted from our support, helping the Tees Valley to become one of the fastest growing areas of the country for apprenticeships.

I’m of the view that the idea you can only get on in life by going to university is nonsense – it’s great to encourage young people to learn a trade. It is therefore really important to me that we do as much as we can to encourage people here to take up opportunities to train and develop new skills.

I very much appreciate your commitment to taking on an apprentice in your business here in the Tees Valley and I hope that the apprenticeship goes well.”

With the success of taking on our first apprentice we look forward to creating more opportunities within Communicate.

We can’t wait to see what the future holds for Jordan.