A Third of the Year Gone Already!

Here we are at the end of April… in what can only be described as the wettest drought I have ever experienced! Where did the time go?

Here at TTPL we have experienced the busiest year to date in our 16 year history – so firstly, a huge THANK YOU to all of our many Work Placements that continue to support our students and provide really top quality working experiences to our students. Thanks also go to our wonderful Host Families who welcome and take care of all of their students…THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU – without you we could not continue providing the service that we do.

The big office news is that Gemma has got the keys to her house…very best of luck to both Gemma and Kris who have been spending every spare moment immersing themselves in the joys of DIY! We all hope that you will be very happy in your new home.

Bide, a German teacher has been in Torbay to visit his group of students at their Work Placements and given a very positive reaction to the level of the placements and the satisfaction of his students. Good reports always make us happy :0)

We have also had a ‘Conversational English’ course for the group this was delivered by Gian, one of our brilliant tutors who reports that the group are making excellent progress, which is great news.

Bill (Callaghan)and Sabina (Rademacher) have also been continuing their programme with the group of German teachers who are with us for another couple of weeks. This weeks sessions were held in the conference room at Dots Pantry    – what a great local venue (with excellent coffee and cakes)

We have been interviewed by Katina Read who is producing some publicity material for the South West Innovation Centres – we are looking forward to seeing that. I have been to the Energess networking meeting at The Paignton Club  …It’s a ladies only breakfast club so I am very privileged to be invited to speak there…a great group of ladies who made me very welcome and a very good breakfast too…a good start to Friday and a great end to April. Keep a look out for the Energess ladies great Gig Wig or Wig Gig ... (and remember, you heard it here first!) it will be an amazing sight.

On Monday morning I will be at Riviera FM   talking to Kev Starr about The Training Partnership and all that we do in Torbay, have a listen and spread the word! Wednesday evening Wendy and I will be going to the Devon International Trade Forum  at South Devon College, a great organisation that helps and supports businesses who are, or who plan to, export or import…well worth a look. I spoke at one of their meetings last year in Exeter and can honestly say they are a really good group of people.

On Friday evening I am due at the Riviera Centre   to bid ‘farewell’ to Jenny Thompson, their Operations Manager, she is moving on to pastures new and will be sorely missed – good luck Jenny and thank you for all you have done for us.

So... have a great weekend, get out and do something interesting - even if it just a cup of coffee and something calorific at one of the many excellent coffee shops in Torbay.

Busy busy busy...

So much to tell, so little time.

We really are very busy at the moment and are currently building another record year (on top of last years record year!)

Apart from the sheer volume of students choosing to enjoy their work placements in Torbay we also seem to be a very popular choice for delegate visits...

We are currently hosting a group of German teachers who are interested in the integration of SEN students into mainstream education...we have arranged training sessions with a number of local providers - huge thanks to Bill Callaghan and Sabina Rademacher who have (and will continue) deliver some excellent course content. We also took the group out to South Dartmoor Community College in Ashburton...what an inspiring school - they hosted our German group for a morning and arranged for them to spend time in classrooms with their students - fantastic! Then they (the delegate group) enjoyed an hour or two walking around Hay Tor.

We are also looking forward to hosting a group of French Nurses, more about that when they are here but we already have a great programme planned with more training sessions and talks from Healthcare Professionals from around the area.

Debbie and Sue have just returned from the “Pre-Departure Training Seminar” in Rome to meet with the next trainees from the Safari Job Project co-ordinated by Eurodesk.

The trainees met with Debbie and Sue on Saturday 21^st April for a “Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Your Stay (But were Afraid to Ask)!” session and there was lots of questions and laughter! The trainees are already becoming friends and we look forward to extending a warm welcome to them when they arrive in May.

Just had a great meeting with Katina Read from Splash Publicity , she is doing some work for the TDA and SWIC and is visiting us to get some 'good news' stories to promote business in Torbay...Should be interesting.

As always we are actively seeking new work placements - we have about 50 young Italians arriving in June/July who will be getting out into the Bay and working with local businesses, shops, retailers etc...will your business be one of them? and on a similar note...does anyone fancy becominig one of our Host Families? Each of our students will need a warm, friendly host to accomodate them.

We are also looking forward to our annual Romanian group, very high quality students with a great attitude to work and self improvement, this year we have an added bonus of a group of Lecturers from the RAU (Romanian American University) in Budapest who will be here to enjoy a programme of events and training...exciting times.

Oh, one final point...Sue is still a non-smoker, well done Sue! Mia has lapsed, just a little, and is currently down to just 20 per week...Keep on going Mia, you'll get there eventually!

Thats all for now...see you all soon!

Happy Easter

Here we are again, another busy week at TTPL…loads happening as usual and plenty of good news.

The begining of the week saw the publication of This Is Business, a new free Business to Business magazine from Business Hub in Paignton, it is available all over the bay and is a good read (especially the centre pages). Tuesday morning saw another Breakfast Networking Club meeting at The Parkers Arms, great people, great breakfast and a really useful networking event.

Easter is on its way and we are all looking forward to a nice long weekend…we decided to have a ‘bright’ day in the office and Wendy excelled with a bright fluorescent pink top and I just had to dust off my ‘Sh1te Shirt’ … sunglasses required even on such a dull day :0) It isn nice be able to brighten up the world and would reccomend a loud shirt to make you feel good all day!

Jayne and Wendy, our Directors, came into the office this morning and presented us all with an Easter Egg and a bottle of Fizz…fantastic. This was in celebration and thanks, for  a record breaking first quarter! Great news.  We could not achieve this without our excellent Work Placements and Host Families. So a huge ‘Thank You’ to all our placements, hosts and of course Jayne and Wendy. While we are talking about Host Families, we are still looking for host families in Exeter who are able to accommodate ‘self catering’ students… contact Sue on 01803 321214 for more details or go to the Host Family tab at the top of this blog.

 I had a great meeting with Clr Dave Thomas regarding EU funding and ways in which we can work together… some really great opportunities there I think so will have to stay in touch - another Thank You to Dots Pantry for the coffee during our meeting:0) We have also re-established our connections with both The Grand and The Imperial hotels in Torquay, both of which have new contacts. Chris, the new GM at the Grand and Jenny the new HR Manager at The Imperial; belated congratulations to both of them on their appointments. Wendy and I also had a great meeting with Julian Reiman from World Host, we have been looking at Customer Service training for our students and are looking to set something up in conjunction with our Work Placements to benefit their employees too…it is a great opportunity for the whole bay, especially during 2012 with the Olympics and hopefully extra visitor numbers.

On the ‘Quit Smoking’ front … Sue has now gone a whole week without a ciggy and Mia is 4 days in… stick with it Ladies! Mia also has next week off, hmmm, not sure who authorised that... but I hope she has nice relaxing week.

Sue and Gemma are just about to go and meet our students for their ‘Thursday Meeting’… a walk through Cockington was planned but because it is soooo cold there may well be a hot coffee in The Grand instead. Much more civilised!

A little Easter Funny for you...

That’s it from TTPL for this week… don’t eat too much chocolate and enjoy the long weekend.