A tour around our students...Two German teachers experience South Devon

For the second year running we have welcomed two teachers from Germany, Rainer and Frank from the 'Kattge' group near Hamburg. We had a fabulous two days visiting each of their students at their placements and getting feedback from them...it is so good to hear such positive reports direct from the students and their placements.

The weather was great, the placements were perfect and the students were absolutely amazing!

We took loads of pictures and even captured some of the students on video - 

But our favorite clip was from the two teachers, Rainer and Frank, sitting on a dinosaur at Dinosaur World in Torquay, what a great couple of days - looking forward to your group next year!

5 Point Security from the Czech Republic

Here at The Training Partnership we are all really proud to say that we have hosted our first delegate group from the Czech Republic - The 5-Point Security Group, 9 members of a security company, called '5 Point', based in Ostrava in the Czech Republic, arrived here in Torbay late on 24th April and joined us at TTPL towers on the Friday for lunch and a welcome meeting - this enabled us all to meet and for us to run through the programme that had been arranged. It was also an opportunity to practice our pronunciation of our visitors names!...then had a fantastic South Devon weekend to enjoy! What a great start to their first visit to Torbay.

Once that was over we were straight back with an involving and interesting programme of speakers and visits beginning with a talk from Rob Osborne and a visit to the Torbay CCTV Centre - fascinating, and a real privilege to be allowed in to the centre.

Tuesday began with 3 members of our local Police talking about policing in the bay and the night time economy. This was supported by Trevor Staveley from the Torbay Street Pastors and Sean from Emerald Security - one of the premier security companies looking after the clubs and bars around Torbay.

                                                                     The following day we were at South Devon College - starting with a really interesting talk from Matt Dart from the Paignton BID (Business Improvement District) about how the various agencies work together for the good of the town. This was followed by a tour of the College and a talk from Kev Lawrence, lecturer in Security from the Uniformed Public Services department at the college.

It was really nice that the group could relax on Thursday and join the rest of our students at Torre Abbey for a cultural visit (and a cream tea!)

Jon and Kelly Harper from Pole Position Training, one of the leading 'Door Security' trainers in the area came to our offices and explained, in great detail, the qualification structure behind the UK security industry. A bit of fun and an interesting talk at Paignton Zoo - always a great place to visit! What could be better on a sunny day than a walk around the zoo followed by an insight into how a site like that is kept safe and secure.

The finale for the 10 day programme was a fascinating visit to the Devon & Somerset Fire and Rescue Service in Exeter - what an amazing place.

On behalf of TTPL and our 5-Point group a huge and heartfelt 'Thank You' to all those who helped make this an exciting and engaging visit  - hopefully the first of many.

Hello World - It’s me again – Sam the Student Support Officer

Hello World!!!!

It’s me again – Sam the Student Support Officer!! It’s been a few weeks since my last update so I thought I’d spend the afternoon writing about the weird and wonderful activities that have been happening as of late!

Where shall I start? Well the last few weeks have been very interesting and diverse here at TTPL. We had a VETPRO German group consisting of four lovely German teachers/social workers here to learn about social inclusion and how we in the UK integrate special educational needs learning into our mainstream education systems. The 2 week’s ‘inclusion programme’ consisted of a variety of school visits, industry workshops and seminars and real hand’s on work experience.  I had the pleasure of taking the teachers to Embercombe farm, South Devon College and my old employers in the SEN department at KEVICC in Totnes. 

“Embercombe is a charity and social enterprise established to champion a way of living” whilst inspiring people to contribute energetically towards an environmentally sustainable and spiritually fulfilling human presence on earth” - http://www.embercombe.co.uk/ . I know that sounds like a mouthful, but trust me they are doing some fantastic work there, with a committed ethos to people, community and our world! South Devon College took the time out to give our ladies a friendly and welcoming tour of all their facilities and explained in depth how they integrate learners and abilities. Whilst KEVICC threw the teachers in the deep end, putting them in class room environments to shadow SEN teaching assistants (a role I used to do there). For me the experience was amazing, as I got the chance to meet students who I had worked with when they were in Year 8 and 9……they were now 15 and 16 studying for their GCSE’s and getting ready to enter the BIG BAD WORLD!!

Tell me more…I hear you say! Well, we have also had some brilliant social activities the past two weeks. As you may know, we meet the students every Thursday afternoon to see how they are, what they have been doing and of course to have a bit of fun! It can’t all be work can it? We had a good ole British Pub Quiz last week in local pub DT’s, written by a student - for the students, it is a great way to get the students speaking and listening and communicating with each other in English! We also went to Cockington Court for a traditional Devon cream tea! That’s cream first, then jam; for those of you who are uneducated in cream tea law! It was a lovely afternoon, truly British…one might say - Heaven in Devon! And this week we are off to Jungle Journey for a bit of crazy golf! Like I said it can’t all be work can it!!!  Oh I nearly forgot I did baton twirling for Sport Relief – this was not fun, it is a serious sport that I took very seriously and was fully committed to (cough cough)  

More?

Go on then. We have also had group of French students arrive looking to gain sales and retail experience, a group of 17 young Italians hoping to improve their English and we are ready to welcome a group of 34 nurses arriving this weekend! We currently have 65 students working in and around Torbay at the moment, so there is a very good chance you’ll encounter one of our lovely students working hard when you are next in town. But it’s not all just people coming to the UK we currently have 6 UK graduates undertaking work experience in Europe too. Lorenzo (our marketing/admin guru) got the chance to go to Toulouse, France last week to visit a couple of them, LUCKY g*t, and Nadine our Business Development Director is off to Leipzig Germany this week then Barcelona.  This is proof we here at The Training partnership are very much International!!!

Ps I have heard/imagined that we are sending students to the Caribbean soon and obviously it’s my turn to go. Thank you TTPL – I can’t wait! hahah

          

                                                                                     THANK YOU!

Vicky Cresser - An exciting challenge as our new European Programme Manager

We are delighted to announce that Vicky is moving from the Training Partnership accounts department to take over as the European Programme Manager - this is a complex role and involves dealing with our partner organisations across Europe and organising all the incoming student programmes. Half way through her first week in her new role Vicky said "For the last 3 years I have been working in the Accounts Department within TTPL as the Finance Officer and have enjoyed every moment. It’s such a fun but professional company to work for and is ever evolving. Hence my role has now changed as I have been given a great opportunity of being the new European Programme Manager here at TTPL. I am very excited and look forward to developing further within the company."

We would all like to say a massive 'well done Vicky' and offer the support of the whole TTPL team - we know you will do a great job. 

This is an exciting time for all of us as we are aiming for in excess of 1000 students this year and it will be great to have Vicky with us, her knowledge and skills will be a real asset.

Western Morning News article about TTPL - Brilliant!

Training firm aims for major milestone

By Western Morning News  |  Posted: March 11, 2014

By Liz Parks

A Torquay company is set to provide 1,000 work placements for overseas students this year.

The Training Partnership Limited, based at theTorquay Innovation Centre, places students with employers in Exeter, Plymouth and Torbay.

The business, which was set up in 1996 by Jayne Stroud, works in partnership with 60 schools, colleges and businesses in Europe and hosts students from countries including Austria, Belgium, Spain, Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, the Canary Islands, Australia, Brazil, Peru and Ghana.

Next week, the business is attending the Work Experience Travel Market and International Au Pair Association Annual Conference which is being held in London, where it will talk about its experiences of hosting students in Devon.

“It’s a fantastic opportunity to tell organisations from around the world about why their young people should be coming to Devon,” said business development director Nadine Stroud.

In the last 17 years, the business has placed more than 8,000 students on work placements ranging from marketing to pharmaceutical.

Finance director Wendy Williams said: “Our biggest competitors are in London but we’re taking them on and doing really well. Part of that is the quality of support, along with the high standard of work placements and social programmes we run. But it’s also about Devon being such a beautiful place that can offer a bit of everything – city life, countryside and beaches, all within such easy reach.”

As well as offering placements to overseas students, the company has now launched a programme for UK-based students seeking placements abroad.

  more: http://www.westernmorningnews.co.uk/Training-firm-aims-major-milestone/story-20793340-detail/story.html#ixzz2vkHPSQ3Y

Exciting times and lots of change here at TTPL…

Monday the 10^th March… we are ready to welcome Debra Nixon, our newest recruit who will be joining us as Work Placement officer, working alongside Jo and Ian – Welcome Debra, from all the team here at TTPL Towers!

Some of you may know that Debbie, our European Programme Manager has been planning  an exciting new phase in her life and is moving away to join her partner in West Sussex. For our office this has led to a fantastic opportunity for one of our colleagues. Vicky Cresser, who has been working with Wendy in the Finance team, is taking over the European Programme Manager role; with her vast experience within TTPL and great knowledge of the budgets that we work with, this will be a great move for her and for us.

Hello World, it’s Sam - Student Support Officer here

Hello World, it’s Sam - Student Support Officer here, how have you been?

I haven’t been on here since my first week at TTPL so thought I’d write a little hello to tell you about what’s been happening this week. As all of you must know the Winter Olympics’ have just got under way in Sochi, Russia. Being an avid snowboarder myself I’ve been watching the slope style and thrilled to see Jamie Nicholls already book his place in the final on his Olympic debut! However I haven’t been able to practice my skills this year as we seem to be getting only rain and as far as I Know rain boarding isn’t a sport…..YET!!! 

While I’m on the subject of sport, let’s not forget the Six Nations is currently in full swing, with the second round of matches taking place this weekend! Having an Italian in our office and a large group of French students here in the bay definitely makes this year a lot more exciting and competitive for me. I usually prefer the more skilled game of Football however there is some strange animalistic pleasure in watching 30 blokes crush each other and I have to admit even I was gutted and subsequently taken the mick out of for France’s win! There goes the chance of a Grand Slam in the first game but hey ho we can still beat the Scot’s tomorrow!

On other news we spent Friday and Saturday reorganising the office and general working layout. We have created a more student friendly atmosphere where students are now greeted by my cheeky chops when they walk in….LUCKY THEM!!! It’s amazing how a little shuffle of desks can create a different office atmosphere give the feeling of space and look even more tidy and cleaner! Changing rooms eat your heart out! Well done guys for the hard work…and the MacDonald’s was a nice reward/treat! 

Also new this week is Cyrille, our new trainee from Belgium here on work placement. So from all of the TTPL team here in Torquay…WELCOME!!! Cyrille will be working with us here in our new reorganise office. Luckily rugby isn’t popular in Belgium, so he can’t take the mick out of England’s performance, although I will be avoiding him if England plays Belgium in this year World Cup!

I would like to leave you with a feel good thought…Ian Smith our UK Business Development Manager quit smoking a year ago today (it can be done people)! I think you will all agree a year without smoke is a fantastic achievement and I liked to say a big well done to Ian……although I think he may have replaced his cravings with coffee ;)

 

Cheers all Sam