We at Exeter College feel we have benefitted from winning the TES FE Award for outstanding apprenticeship programme of the year in 2016. For the team, our apprentices and our employers, the award has given them all a lift, recognising that there is something truly sector-leading about the approach here at Exeter College.
Just over a year ago, our apprenticeship work featured in an Ofsted best practice survey, which clearly documented the quality of what we do. The TES FE Award, however, is a special accolade, as industry professionals and a world-class publication join forces to decide on the winners. It is this - the fact that the awards recognise the exceptional and standing out amongst your peers in further education - that makes the awards so unique. Winning the inaugural apprenticeship award creates a legacy we are extremely proud of.
‘If FE has one weakness, it is missing opportunities to celebrate excellence’
Since winning the award, apprenticeship provision at the college has gone from strength to strength and we have celebrated a record number of apprenticeship starts - 777 in one year. We have seen an increase in the number of apprenticeship frameworks on offer. The college now also works with an increased number of employers. We have capitalised on and celebrated winning the award by engaging in our first apprenticeship advertising campaign within the city.
Our director of apprenticeships and employer engagement, Mike Blakeley, says that the TES FE Award has supported the college’s drive to increase the profile of apprenticeships here at the college and in Exeter. As a college we have now transitioned from simply being an apprenticeship provider to an organisation that works in partnership with employers to offer apprenticeship solutions.
Exeter College believes that the further education sector needs to celebrate excellence. If the sector has one weakness, it is missing opportunities to celebrate excellence.
The TES FE Awards provide the further education sector with a moment to forget the daily challenges of running and working in large, complex multi-dimensional organisations and to simply celebrate the world-class work happening right across the FE sector in our country.
John Laramy is the principal and CEO of Exeter College
The deadline for entries to the the 2017 TES FE Awards is midnight on Friday 28 October 2016. Click here to enter
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