This is a Wheely good blog!

Lots happening in Torquay so I will start with our delayed trip to the utterly amazing Olympic wheel on Torquay Harbourside...70 students and a couple of the TTPL Team had a great ride on the wheel yesterday. The weather was not completely kind but the views were still brilliant. Here are just a few of the pictures that were taken...

What a view, even in the mist Torbay Marina is a wonderful sight from the top of the wheel.

Three of our Italian students with their Teacher

All aboard...you can just see Tanja, our TTPL student on the right, clearly still enjoying herself in spite of having to endure working in our office :0)

More good news, (more details will follow) one of our German partners has had the project they set up with TTPL recognised by their National Agency as demonstrating 'Best Practice' and one of our French partners has won first prize for their Leonardo project which led her to spend a day at the European Parliament. We have also had two of our graduate students on the Spanish Teachers programme offered the opportunity to teach at one of our excellent private school work placements. Very well done to them..it just goes to show the benefits of graduate work placements for assisting in CV building and job search.

 

The next blog will be interesting as I will be off to Bucharest to attend the British Council HE event. It will be a great event and I am really looking forward to visiting this lovely city for the first time.

 

So, until then... La revedere și să aibă un week-end minunat.

 

Thats Good bye and have a great weekend in Romanian :0)

How things have changed at TTPL

Once upon a time, many moons ago, when I first joined The Training Partnership, this time of year was the time we did all our 'catch up' stuff. You know what I mean, sort files, tidy desks...file everything and generally prepare for the coming year. Well that was then and this is now as they say... and we now continue to welcome students 52 weeks a year, well almost as not many actually arrive during the Christmas break but we still have students here all year. It certainly provides us with an exciting and constantly changing working environment, and give so many more students the opportunity to enjoy the best bit of this wonderful county. 

Currently there are over 100 TTPL students living and enjoying their placements in and around Torbay & South Devon and another 5 arriving next week! Over 77 of our students met Gemma and Andrea at Torquay Pavilions hoping to take a trip on the stunning  Wheel currently on the seafront...however, with English weather being what it is they had to delay the trip and simply enjoy a warming coffee in the Pavilions Cafe...I can just imagine the counter staff recieving an order for 77 coffees! But great to see so many of our students enjoying a good social get together.

 

 

Other than that, a good week for us all, new students placed and accommodation arranged, just waiting for them to arrive now! I have to mention a visit to a potential Work Placement earlier this week. Jonty and Carole Williams run The Husbandry School, (left) what a fantastic place. The Husbandry School is not, as I thought, where my wife thinks I should go for some lessons; it is in fact a school for experiencing and learning an ancient method of land and animal management. A process that actually gave us the word 'Husband'. The work they have done is amazing and I urge you all to have a look at their web site and try and arrange a visit.

On a more relaxing note (well for me anyway)...I am off next week and looking forward to spending a few days at the marvelous Porthminster St Ives Harbour Hotel in Cornwall - cant wait!!!

 So...have a great weekend everyone...be good while I'm away!

October update...

Here we are again, really don't know where the weeks go. Still busy and, as always, looking for businesses and families to become part of the Training Partnership family, supporting and working with some of the most amazing students you could ever wish to meet.

Lots been happening and in no particular order here we go with the first October blog:
 

Debbie, our Programme Manager has been off sunning herself in Cape Verde (alright for some!) and arrived back at TTPL Towers on Thursday...just to make us all jealous she even supplied a photo! it looks glorious.

When asked for a quote for her picture she said...
" Enjoying a busy day in Cape Verde Islands!  Good to be back with all the TTPL team again "
We believe you Debs! Good to have you back :0)

Last week Wendy and I spent the day at Exeter Racecourse, this was at the brilliant Business Gives Back Expo, organised by the equally brilliant Dave Barr from The Best Of Exeter - what a fabulous day! Lunch with Exeter Chamber of Commerce and a whole day of networking. Met with some great businesses and now planning some follow up meetings to hopefully engage with some of them - all who attended had a really good day. I even had a split second of fame on BBC Spotlight - in the background obviously ;0)

Meanwhile, Jayne and Mia have had a very productive trip to San Diego, representing TTPL and Torbay they attended the WYSTC 2012 conference... a global event for the student travel and internship industry. A long trip with long flights but a worthwhile and exciting event.

While we are on the subject of travel...I will be off to Bucharest at the end of October for the British Coucil Higher Education event - looking forward to a really interesting time there.

Thursdays student meeting was at AMF Bowl in Torquay, over 60 students attended and all had a great time. It really is a great way for all our students to meet and chat socially, it's also a valuable and integral part of their experience here in South Devon. Next week there is a trip to the amazing Torquay Wheel...direct from the Olympic Park. We hope that all students who go enjoy the trip. Pictures will, I am sure, follow.

So, not a great deal else to report for now... please do share this blog with others and follow our progress.

 

See you all soon :0)

Autumn is here!

Well the temperature has certainly dropped and autumn is definately here...chilly!
This has been another week that has flown by... We started by taking over 30 students to start their Work Experiences in and around Torbay - they have all settled in and are having a great time with their respective placements.
Tuesday brought another network meeting at The Grand Hotel, very well attended and great to see some new faces. On Wednesday I managed to spend the day in Exeter visiting a couple of new placements and enjoyed a very interesting talk, with a good lunch obviously, at the Exeter Chamber meeting at The Rougemont Hotel...great people there and some excellent new contacts. I visited Broadclyst Primary Scool to meet the team there and to see how their student Rafa was doing - very happy to report that all is well there and what a fab school - really great atmosphere there. Also went to CALM (Centre for Additive Layer Manufacturing)..wow, what a great place, such great technology and really looking forward to finding a suitably qualified student tyo enjoy a placement there.
On Thursday, yet another breakfast!!! this time with the South Devon Business Club SDBC, held at Follaton House in Totnes it was great to meet so many new people and catch up with some familier ones! Breakfast was 'continental' style and provided by Simon Dolly - made a really nice change (good coffee too)...the meeting did bring some really good contacts and opportunities so will have to have a good look at some incoming students to match to the placements.
Next week we have a group of Lecturers from the Romanian American University - always an interesting group. We are off to South Devon College University Campus to see Jon Hall and also to Exeter for a tour of the Exeter University among others, along with some social/cultural visits around the area.

The student meeting this week is a Friday night party at The Half Moon with a Karaoke provided by Phoenix Roadshow...I'm sure there will be pictures for Facebook for next week!

I have to dash off to introduce a student to her Work Placement at Roselands School, I know she, and they will have a great time..
No pics this week as I didn't take any!
So..gotta go, have a great weekend.
Ciao for now.

What have we been up to?

Well I must confess we have been fantastically busy just recently. As summer comes to an end there seems to be no shortage of students wanting to enjoy their European Work Placement in Torbay. We have already passed our record breaking total of 748 from last year...and more are near to booking! I think 800+ is going to be very realistic for 2012.

We have also had an increase in our 'programme' numbers with two groups in the last 2 weeks here for a Work Preparation course and Conversational English lessons, plus of course a practical Work Placement experience - fantastic the way that these young people from all over Europe adapt so readily to life here in the UK. Once again the people of Torbay, Exeter and Plymouth show how welcoming they can be, not to mention the many businesses that open their doors to host students and help them improve their English skills. What a great area we live in!

At the begining of September, Jayne and I went to London to the annual ALPHE conference, this is a huge event in our calendar and brings organisations from around the world together to meet and forge relationships. We were able to speak with representatives from all over Europe and showcase the fantastic area we live and work in, using our amazing video to help make Torbay the destination of choice for even more students and visitors. There is of course an awards evening and what a celebration of our industry that was - a fantstic event! We came back with many new contacts and potentially more groups coming to visit us in 2013.

This week also saw, amongst others, the arrival of a group of 5 students from Eurocentro in Italy. Prior to starting their work experience they have been enjoying a Work Preparation course and Conversational English. They also had the opportunity to visit 1-zero-1, a local IT company that also, by coincidence, look after all of the TTPL systems. The group visted the office and enjoyed a very informative talk with Chris Thompson.


Jayne and Mia are also busy preparing for a trip to San Diego, another conference and another busy week for them. Will update you all on how that went when they return.

There is also a relatively new web destination for anyone wanting to find out more about Torbay, English RivieraTV is the brainchild of John Reynolds and contains a number of interesting and informative videos - have a look. English Riviera.tv

Student meeting this week was a trip to the cinema to see Total Recall ...I remember the original!!! I know they all had a great time so a big thank you to The Merlin Cinema in Torquay.

Ciao for now...

Welcome...

This week has seen Nadine join us.

Nadine Stroud, daughter of Jayne our MD has taken on the role of Business Development, looking towards Europe for ways that we can engage with a wider variety of Partner organisations and projects, bringing more visitors to Torbay. She will also be exploring funding opportunities to enable us to send some of our local young people to enjoy the kind of life changing experience so many young Europeans have had here in South Devon.

After her first week Nadine said,

Having been a full time student for the last 3 years at Plymouth Uni, I am really excited to finally be a full time member of TTPL.  I’ve been involved with management meetings for a while now and I’m especially looking forward to building on the excellent partnerships that have been formed by the team and developing the fantastic service we offer.  I’ve been made really welcome by everyone and it’s great to be working in such a friendly atmosphere with people who clearly love what they do.  Finally, I’d just like to say thank you to all of the people who have made TTPL so successful to date and long may it continue!

What more can I say other than a big TTPL  'Welcome' to Nadine.

Sad news

This week has seen one of Paigntons longest standing businesses fall victim to the recession... taking with it sister shops in Plymouth and Exeter. Harbour Sports has been a landmark on Paignton Harbour since the mid 70's and will leave a large hole in the Harbour community. On a personal note, I have known Frank for some years and have been inspired by his drive and enthusiasm for this area. He has mentored students, both UK and EU and campaigned long and hard for a better environment for all who live, work and visit Torbay - he is also a thoroughly decent bloke. All at TTPL wish Frank and his team at Harbour Sports the very best and sincerely hope that a phoenix will rise from this sad event.

This is just one of our students with Frank, shared on his blog, please watch and enjoy this marvelous video.

I have also heard that Mark Jenkins - star of The Hotel has put The Grosvenor up for sale and the other two hotels in his group The Kistor and The Inglewood are in the hands of the receivers...so hard to see the real and personal impact of this global recession.

So, a bit of a gloomy blog here but if I know anything of the people involved in these two examples of recession fueled tragedy it is that they will not give up, the positive attitude thet is held dear and infectiopusly shared will bubble to the surface and we will see something special rise from this weeks sad events.