It’s never too late to learn with apprenticeships

A Bizspace customer is helping our staff develop their skills as they undertake advanced apprenticeships.

Cultivate Training, based at our North Sands Business Centre in Sunderland, is currently training five of our staff in the region, including North Sands Business Centre Manager, Lynne Oliver.

Apprenticeships – learn while you work

Lynne is working towards a Level 3 apprenticeship in management and the administration team at North Sands are completing similar qualifications in customer service.

Lynne explains: “The apprenticeships are Government funded, so they are a fantastic opportunity for staff to gain an additional qualification and work towards skill development, at no cost to us.

“A lot of the assessment is based on finding examples in your working life of when you’ve made certain achievements, and recording those formally, so they are easy to do alongside a regular job.”

Cultivate Training was set up by four directors, who had each been made redundant from other firms.  Their combined experience led them to set up a firm to promote vocational training to those already in work and not just young people.

Recruiting and expanding

In fact, Cultivate Training has been so successful since it launched in January, that it has this month moved into a much larger business unit within the Sunderland centre. Business growth has seen the firm hire four extra staff, bringing its total to 14, and it hopes to be recruiting further in the coming months.

Director Sonia Dutton explains why Cultivate Training is “here to stay” at Bizspace.

“We really like the location of the centre and the business facilities available here,” she says.

“It has a nice atmosphere and the team on the front desk are always really friendly and helpful.”

“From the outset, the business centre has accommodated our needs as a company, and Bizspace has been flexible with us to suit our requirements. We sat down with Lynne to discuss our long-term business goals and it is great to be on the path to achieving those in partnership with Bizspace. It’s also fantastic that they have chosen to be a customer of ours as well.”

Free training

Currently there is Government funding available for over-24-year-olds wanting to do Level 3 apprenticeships and other selected courses. This runs out on 31^st July 2013, so anyone interested should act quickly. Email Cultivate Training for more information or to find out the range of courses available.