A big change for us at the office this week - Suad our Office Administrator will sadly be leaving us on Friday to return to the Netherlands. Suad joined us as a work experience student in January 2012 and then became a much valued member of the TTPL team in July of the same year. Jayne Stroud our Managing Director kindly arranged a celebration lunch for Suad and all the staff at a venue in Babbacombe last Friday.  We will all miss Suad greatly and wish her every success and best wishes for the future. Stay in touch, Suad!

 

The Spanish Graduate Teachers finished their programme at the end of last week and most have now flown back to Spain – thanks to all our wonderful schools in South Devon for hosting our students – we really appreciate it.

Our French students from the Lycee Louis Bleriot also departed the Bay last weekend, hope you had a great time!

Lastly, we say goodbye to the Solter-Linck Group for Germany who will leave us on 23^rd February. We have really enjoyed hosting them and they seem to have had a great experience!

This week we’re at the Pierpoint Restaurant down on the seafront for our student meeting – fingers crossed this dry weather continues!

 

An interesting week in Bucharest... last week I travelled to Romania to be part of a 'Best Performer' networking training event at the Romanian American University. Organised by the University and delivered by Filipe Carrera it was four and a half days of looking at how we communicate - either while we are networking or when communicating with friends and colleagues. Really interesting, and at times challenging

Outside of this excellent training session the Romanian American University had arranged a great programme including an amazing day out to visit Peles Castle http://visit.peles.ro/ This is the Royal Palace and is stunning inside and out...although it was quite chilly up in the mountains and the snow was still lying thick on the ground the views were breathtaking!

We also managed to visit a winery, an interesting tour that gave a great insight into the production of a very pleaseant Romanian sparkling wine - with tasting of course! We also had a traditional Romanian lunch which was lovely - really tasty.

I do hope you like the few photographs that follow...



Of course, no trip into the mountains of Romania would be complete without a trip to see Draculas castle - or at least one of them. This was a great finale to our very memorable day out.

Friday was back to the airport and flying back to the UK...full of ideas to put into practice.

Almost back to normal next week as I will be off updating my Health and Safety knowledge - very important as we constantly strive to keep all of our trainees safe and sound while they are here in our care.

Oh, I nearly forgot...today, 15th February is the 7th day I have been 'smoke free'...not easy but determined to give up smoking this time :0)

See you all soon
Ciao for now!

g.

Well we are approaching the end of another week – so early in the year and yet we seem to be very much in full flow!

A big TTPL welcome to the newly arrived Solter-Linck Groups from Germany, Safarijob trainees from Italy as well as the other students newly arrived from Spain.

Pictured here our Hanke and Angret, our German ladies on the VETPRO Educators programme. Their tailored programme has included specialist educational sessions in colleges schools and nurseries and a tour of Dame Hannah’s, to see the brilliant work that is being carried out there. The ladies completed their trip by each spending a week at our work placements, South Dartmoor College and Coombe Pafford school, many thanks to these Work Placement Providers for making this such a great trip for Hanke and Angret.

 We have two French students from Antoine Lomet group working with us in our office (pictured here) Johanna Marquez and Traicy Regnier. I caught up with them to ask them how they were finding it!  Johanna said, “We have had a great time working in the Training Partnership Office, we really like the people and the work”. We have the girls with us until the beginning of March. 

The student meeting this week is at the cinema – we’re off to see “Impossible” – at the Central Cinema, Torquay.  We say goodbye this week to our Boa Lingua group, Victor from Travel Work and our Fairbund Vetpro Ladies. Don’t forget to pre book your tickets for your coaches or trains anyone who needs to!

A month already!

Wow...can hardly believe it is February already, only eleven months to Christmas ;0) Where does the time go?

To begin with I am getting quite excited about spending a week networking in one of the most amazing cities I have ever visited - Bucharest. We (TTPL) were invited to attend an event at The Romanian American University called 'The Art of Networking' - I was lucky enough to be able to go. Off on Sunday and back next Friday so expect loads of stuff relating to that on my return - if you follow us on Twitter (@TTPLuk) then I am sure there will be some pictures and tweets during the week.


We have had a celebrity in our midst today - Katy Wright who was in The Apprentice in 2012 - has been speaking at one of our Network meetings here at the Torbay Innovation Centre...what an interesting young lady, very entertaining with some very funny stories about her time with Lord Sugar.

As I sit here using about as much 'tech' as I can cope with I have been reminded of a small gift my Father gave me last week...an Amstrad Notepad NC100, from 1990!!! - it is hard to believe that at the time this was (almost) state of the art - and is a nice link from Katies visit as we are back with Lord Sugar, the founder of Amstrad. It was very strange trying to use something that has virtually no memory and is stuck 20 years ago - Mmmm, that could be a description of me too!



Here at TTPL towers we are bracing ourselves for some larger than average groups - so once again if you would like to find out more about what one of our amazing young people could do to help your business please get in touch with us.

Student meeting this week was another busy and exciting event... this week we were at Applebys (Heritage Hotel) on Sheddon Hill, Torquay - a great time was had by all. We had to say goodbye to a German group who collected their certificates and said an enthusiastic "auf wiedersehen" to all the friends they have made during their time with us in Torbay. They were, as is usual, placed at various business around the bay and all had an amazing time. So yet another big Thank You to the businesses involved.
That is all from me for this week...look out for updates during the week from Romania.
have a great week everyone
Ciao for now :0)

Caves, waves and travel plans

We are all full back in the swing of work and 2013 is shaping up well...plenty of bookings and a steady flow of trainees arriving here in South Devon for their Work/Travel experience. There are currently about 50 students here and one of the highlights of this week was our student meeting down in the caves at Kents Cavern - enjoyable not only because it is always a popular venue but because we were able to present the first certificates of 2013. Three French students, Floriane, Angele and Betty are returning home after their experience here in Torbay.

Debbie, our Programme Manager went to Kents Cavern to wave a fond farewell (or should that be au revoir) to the girls who spent their time here with Rossetti Brides, BijouxB and Puddleducks - thanks to all of them for helping make their time here unforgettable.

 

I am busy preparing my travel plans for another trip to Romania... I will be participating in an International Networking programme called The Art of Networking at the Romanian American University led by Filipe Carrera, an Internationl Trainer, Speaker and Networking Coach - I'm really looking forward to the experience - what an opportunity. Huge thanks to the Directors (Jayne, Nadine and Wendy) here at TTPL towers for their support in making this trip possible.

 

The office remains a buzzing and active place - Earlier this week we had a group of French boys here to have some Conversational English lessons and they also spent a couple of afternoons exploring Work Preparation. A really great group who all have a good level of English and fantastic enthusiasm. This group are all doing placements in IT with computer shops around Torbay & Totnes and were taken out to their employers by the TTPL team on Monday. We also have a group of German girls working in China Blue and Wild Fig in Totnes and at Braeside Nursery in Paignton who began their placements on Tuesday. This job is so rewarding and it is amazing to see the excitement in the faces of the trainees as they begin their work experience.

 

That is all for this week so enjoy the weekend - I know I will as my Dad is down to visit...

 

Take care and have fun :0)

Snow!

Here we are half way through January and the snow has arrived...well, sort of! Here in Torbay we have a little rain but otherwise we seem to be snow free - not sure if that is good or bad though. I'm sure all the young (and young at heart) in Torbay are wanting to go and sledge or throw snowballs. For the drivers among us the lack of snow is a blessing! However, the moors have a good covering and I am certain that there will be much fun and laughter there this weekend....

                                                                                                                                                                                                              

No snow in Torbay but it is a bit windy and the high tide was 'interesting' !

The year has started the same way it ended for us...BUSY! which is great.

Student meeting this week was at AMF Bowling and all our trainees had a great time - we even had two French teachers who are here with their group join in with us.

Next week the student meeting will be at Kents Cavern - keep a lookout for Cavog the Caveman! This is always a popular venue and I'm sure all our trainees will have a great time. Thank you to Nick, James and the Kents Cavern team, not only for the student meetings but for being such a fantastic work placement. 

That's all for now...have a great weekend, enjoy the sledging (try not to break anything) and see you all on Monday

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!