Andover College and JTL have forged a partnership to offer the highest quality electrical apprenticeships available in the UK to young people in the Wiltshire area.
Andover College has made a £6 million investment in a brand-new training facility on its main campus and entered into an agreement with JTL – one of the leading providers of work based learning in the building services engineering sector in England and Wales – and from September they have been offering 32 electrical apprenticeships a year to bright young people at the college.
JTL will be responsible for all assessments and use its experience gained across the country to ensure the highest possible outcomes for the apprentices working through the college. The new investment is partly in response to other colleges in the area either deciding to cease offering the old electrical apprenticeship or to only offer full time college courses rather than offering the new trailblazing standard. Andover College and JTL believe the new standard to be a more effective method of learning for the electrical sector – through work based ‘on the job’ learning programmes.
These new opportunities will be ideal for any electrical employers in the area looking to recruit apprentices, whether they are one-man band electrical businesses or larger electrical contractors. The apprentices are all employed by large or small electrical companies or a business that needs electrical apprentices – such as a housing associations or an industrial company. For in-depth electrical maintenance, and to gain the practical on the job training that is vital in any apprenticeship they will attend college every week for the classroom learning element of their training.
“We have seen major expansion of our activities over the past couple of years with the establishment of our own training centres in Birmingham, Norwich, Oxford and Orpington in Kent,” explained Mark Syrett, JTL’s Business Development Manager for the region. “We have also become involved in a number of new partnership arrangements – such as this one with Andover College. These have seen us providing expertise to a partner to establish a high quality apprenticeship programme that delivers highly trained young people and the best percentage of successful outcomes of any training provider in the country.”
JTL has a very close working relationship in Hampshire already with Eastleigh College, near Southampton and it is anticipated that the partnership with Andover College will mirror this in many ways, offering excellent co-operation and the high level of successful outcomes that have made Eastleigh College a beacon in electrical apprenticeship outcomes for the county.
“We’re proud of the huge steps we’re taking in improving the quality of apprenticeships and in the numbers of young people who are completing their apprenticeships within the time frames we set.”
JTL currently has more than 6,000 apprentices and adult trainees heading for qualifications across England and Wales, primarily in the electrical and heating and plumbing sectors and works with more than 3,200 employers of all sizes from one man bands to the major contractors.
JTL’S Commercial Director, Liam Sammon said: “We’re proud of the huge steps we’re taking in improving the quality of apprenticeships and in the numbers of young people who are completing their apprenticeships within the time frames we set.
“This new partnership comes close on the heels of a similar model we have just entered into in Yeovil with P&R Hurt Training and it’s the next piece in the jigsaw of quality training provision that we are aiming to provide. This will help meet the skills shortages that we have to take on and beat if this country is to deliver the number of professionals in these vital sectors of the wider building and construction industries.
“We need more bright young people – girls and boys – deciding to gain qualifications in practical professional skill sets to meet the needs of those sectors which are already struggling to find enough well paid and highly qualified people and seeing large numbers of older people in the sector retiring. They have to be replaced and we are doing a huge amount to ensure this happens.”
