Happy New Year

Welcome to 2013...lets make it a great year.

I hope you have all had a fantastic Christmas/New Year break and are now raring to go!

I always find New Year a great time to focus...we all know that the last week or so before Christmas is a bit more relaxed than normal so it makes sense to hit January with all the energy you can muster.

Here at TTPL towers we are getting ready for another busy year and hope to be helping more trainees and graduates to experience the very best that South Devon can offer. We have trips abroad planned, I am off to Bucharest again in February and Nadine has been very busy putting together a funding bid to send some of our local students and young people to experience a Work Placement in another part of Europe - we really hope we are successful but are very aware of the difficulties in securing the funding - wish us luck!

We started the year with about 45 trainees arriving here during January, working in many different sectors across Torbay...that figure is only going to rise. Today we have groups from Spain and France in for a welcome meeting with two of their teachers. Thats 20 in one day! Brilliant!

 

So, Happy New Year...have a great 2013, be healthy and always be the best you can be...Have a good one!

Merry Christmas

Well here we are...Thursday 20th December, our last day in the office until 3rd January 2013 - woohoo :0)

It has been a fantastic year for us, 800 trainees, delegate visits, Jo and Suad joining the TTPL team and of course Nadine joining as our Development Director, we also sadly said goodbye to Sue who retired this month, we all wish her well. We have laughed, cried, screamed and generally had a pretty good time, we have welcomed trainees, partners and visitors, and we have travelled around the UK and Europe promoting Torbay & South Devon. Who knows what 2013 will bring!

Next year The Training Partnership becomes an adult - 18 years old, so I'm sure there will be celebrations attached to that.

As I sit here and look back over 2012 I realise what an amazing place The Training Partnership is...it is said that a man (or woman) that enjoys what they do will never work a day in their lives - this is particularly true here. Everyone here really enjoys what we do, changing lives - day in day out. 

Personally, I would like to thank the TTPL team for making work fun, for being supportive and for just being there. The best group of ladies anyone could ever hope to work with.

The temptation is to fill this blog with facts and pictures but I will not...

I will simply wish you all  

 Merry Christmas 

and a 

Happy and Healthy New Year 

from all of us at 

The Training Partnership Ltd

...and thank you for your support during the past 12 months

A very special event!

Wow.... what can I say, last week we welcomed partner organisations from all over Europe to join us here in 'sunny' Torbay. We had arranged for them all to stay at The Imperial and then spent Thursday presenting what it is about TTPL and Torbay that seems to be so appealing to trainees from across the EU. The Herald had this to say "two day thank you"

Nadine began by running through our plans, Jackie Bufton and Bill Callaghan spoke about the qualifications we are now able to offer - then a spot of lunch! After that it was down to yours truly to tell everyone about how our work placement programmes work. We also had the benefit of Adam Mackey and Frank Sobey talking about how the placements work for them and their businesses - inspiring stuff.

At about 4 o'clock we were delighted to host a fantastic champagne reception, again at The Imperial - attended by all of the TTPL team, our European guests from France, Spain, Belgium, Italy and Germany and a great cross section of local employers and business leaders - words cannot really do this event justice! Huge thanks to The Imperial (especially Jenny Shipton), to our partners for travelling a great distance, just before Christmas, to be with us, to our speakers - Adam and Frank, to Mark Whittaker and Adrian Sheene for speaking at the reception - and of course all the guests who joined us and made the whole event such a pleasure to attend... whoops! I nearly forgot!!! A huge thank you to our Jayne, without whom none of this would have been possible! 
You can see more pictures on our Facebook page here TTPL 2012 Event

Some would think that this would have been enough but no...on the Friday we all (TTPL and our guests) descended on The Linny at Coffinswell for an amazing Christmas lunch - fantastic food, great service and a truly wonderful location!

This is not our 'Christmas Blog but I will take this opportunity to say to you all
Merry Christmas and a Happy, Healthy New Year

Sad Face :0( Happy Face :0)

 

Why a sad face? well one of our long term trainees, Tanja has left us to return to Germany. During her time here at TTPL Towers she has helped produce a number of documents and flyers using her Graphic Design skills and has made a real impact here, not only for her skills but her great character and sense of humour - we will all miss her and wish her well for the future. Thank you for all you have done for us Tanja

Here is Tanja with the TTPL team.


Moving on to the happy face... we have the lovely Morgane in our office.. she has spent part of this morning taking control of our Chrismas decorations ensuring we are all feeling very jolly!
Here she is getting ready to attack the tree and then a nice pic of her with the results... Ho ho ho :0)

Her infectious cheer and enthusiasm and ready smile has caught the whole office ... So as it is nearly December can we be one of the first to wish you all

'Merry Christmas'

 

During the past week we have also begun to get out to visit as many of our Work Placements as we possibly can... we spent the day in Plymouth visiting our friends there and also found time to visit some more local placements with a visiting German teacher. Kathrin was here to see her group of trainees and we went out vist some of them. Thank you to her for travelling all the way to sunny Torbay and to all the companies that helped to make her vist so enjoyable.

 

To close this weeks blog it is only right that I take a few lines to praise the entire TTPL team...we have all been busy arranging a visit from some of our partner organisations from across Europe with all the logistic difficulties that this entails - there will, I am certain be more about our event in the next blog so I will save the details for then.

 

Thanks for reading, please follow us and share with your friends...stay warm and have a good week.

What can a European student bring to your workplace?

I am a very lucky person... (Not, as you might think, because of my youthful good looks or sparkling wit!!!!) But because of my job; my job can be frustrating, infuriating and sometimes almost impossible BUT it is always rewarding...the ability to help change someone’s life is amazing. As Work Placement Manager here at TTPL towers I am responsible for the work placements that our trainees carry out at the excellent companies around Torbay and South Devon that we work with; this means that every time one of our young people arrives in Torbay and begin their placement the team here have the opportunity to actually change that young person’s life - a big responsibility that we all embrace.
So how do we change lives?

During the last couple of weeks I have been able to attend a few events where young people have spoken about their experience, one was a young lady who became the youngest person to conquer Mount Everest and the other, another young lady, who used her graduate placement to carve a job for herself at a local travel company. Others have spoken about how their experiences motivated them to start their own business. Stories of how, in the midst of a global recession young people sieze the opportunities available and shape their lives. Inspirational stuff.

It got me thinking about past TTPL students and the companies they worked with...and how the 'life change' also happens for the placements.

I know of companies here in Torbay that have expanded into Europe, as a direct result of taking one of our students and having the courage to embrace an opportunity abroad. This means that we, TTPL, have helped a young person take their first career steps and also helped a business expand - what a result - but it doesn’t end there. Our students are often taking their first 'solo' steps away from home, away from family and friends, and away from all that is familiar. Consider that for a moment - you travel to a new country where you are unlikely to hear your mother tongue. Everything is written in the wrong language, traffic attacks you from the wrong side of the road, the food is different...in fact, everything is different. This is where the magic happens...when families wave goodbye to their young offspring they are often just that, young offspring - what they get back are young adults, people who have grown in themselves, become independent and appreciative of what 'work' and ‘life’ can mean. For the individual the 'germinating shoot' has begun to flower!

We have companies that, having offered placements,  have gone on to offer employment to students once their studies have been completed. Marketing projects that would never have been done. Translations that have made the difference between getting an export contract or not. I cannot leave out those companies that, quite simply, take great pleasure from having a student in their workplace to provide a fresh way of thinking that can revitalise their working environment.

Back to the question; what do student placement bring to the work place?

From an employer’s perspective the benefits are many and various; Motivated young people with a burning desire to learn; Enthusiasm; New skills; Language; Opportunity and good old fashioned Altruism. Never underestimate the motivation that people gain from helping someone.

For the student...Knowledge; Skills; a fantastic CV; Independence; the freedom to 'grow up' and so much more. Travel, contacts, stretching their minds and their confidence…taking the first step to being all that they can be.

Being part of that is a real privilege, one that should be embraced by everyone.

 

A wise man, (Frank Sobey actually), once told me that the students he has hosted bring 'Vibrancy' to the workplace, and that is a fantastic way to describe it. I have tried on many occasions to describe what happens when a student arrives at a new placement. tried to explain the difference it can make, the subtle change in the way your team interacts. The way that their young eyes view what you do every day and see the 'wow' in it all. It is very hard to explain but I think Frank did it.

The problem I have is that I could rattle on for hours about student placement - it has been part of my life for so long, part of what I do. I clearly need to condense my rambling to a single word of benefit to cover what a European student can bring to a workplace. So, what is the benefit of graduate/student placement...in a single word

VIBRANCY

A word we should all learn, appreciate and most certainly celebrate.

 

 

Romanian University Event

Well I am going to hijack this weeks blog for my recent vist to Bucharest...what a great city.

The event, British Universities Fair, was organised by The British Embassy Bucharest and UKTI and attracted Universities from all over the UK - sadly not from the South West which was a little disapointing. However, the event attracted a great many Romanian students all looking to study at British Universities and was, in my opinion, a great success. An excellent job from Adriana and Iliana organising this their first University event. Thank you ladies. In addition to the students, I met with a number of agents who offer help in applying for University places and are very interested in offering our Work Experience programmes to Romanian students... as we have found that our usual Romanian students from the RAU are among the best we recieve we are really looking forward to potentially more of these high calibre candidates.

Not wanting to travel all the way to Romania and see only the inside of an hotel I decided to travel a day early and visit the Romanian American University who we have worked with for many years. In fact, four years ago I first met Mihai Sebea from RAU and promised then I would visit...so it has taken me four and a half years to make a three hour flight to get this picture!

I was lucky enough to be given a full tour of the campus and discussed some exciting future plans with Mihai and the University Rector, Professor Ovidiu Folcut, PhD. We can look forward to more students and possible training programmes using our Cultural Awareness course delivered in both the UK and Romania. In addition to all this Mihai, along with Flavius Streianu the Erasmus Co-ordinator and Aiste, took me to lunch in a restaurant called 18 (its on the 18th floor) and offers an amazing view of Bucharest. I was also treated to an evening out with them at the incredible Caru' ca bere - what an experience!

I was also able to meet with Manuela Epure (and her husband Marius), a long time friend of Jayne (our MD) and Prorector at Spiru Haret University, I was again treated to a fantastic meal out and perfect hospitality...and once again we are looking forward to hosting students from Manuela's University, The University Spiru Haret in Bucharest.

All in all, we were the only non university attending the event and as such attracted a great deal of attention, it is amazing the high esteem that the British education system is held in, particularly in Romania. It can only be good for Torbay to promote our area like this - once again our video (thanks MGVP) was of great interest with people hardly able to believe that the area is in England! While I am offering thanks Quentin at Q-Ball Media and Jim at South West Colour Labs managed to design, print and deliver a new banner (only 600mm wide so it fits in a suitcase) in 3 days - can't ask more than that!

On a personal note, it was refreshing to find such a high level of customer service...it really is amazing how nothing is too much trouble - even at the airport the level of service was far beyond the standard we have come to expect here in the UK and you really feel valued in every establishment you visit. It's also quite nice to be able to have a smoke and a drink in smoking areas found in every establishment but its probably not politically correct to say that.

Cercul Militar, was built in 1911 and is the cultural headquarters of the Romanian Army. Cercul Militar is situated in the Center of Bucharest, in the university zone, on Calea Victoriei.

The amazing view looking down from '18' - a great restaurant giving panoramic views across Bucharest and a view over the central park area of the city

So, a really good event, an opportunity to visit partner organisations and my first, and I hope not last, visit to Bucharest. I was proud to be there to represent The Training Partnership Ltd, Torbay (and the South West), our Work Placements and of course our host families. I hope I have achieved some extra groups who will visit, work in and enjoy our area and in doing so help to aid the business growth in Torbay.

 

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)