Last Minute Blog Time...

Agggh... where has the week gone?

This has been a very busy week for us all...in a good way :0)

We have had Alex, our work experience student with us from South Devon College - what a credit to herself and her tutors...a great girl with, I am sure, a great future. Thank you Alex for all you have done for us.

Our group participating in the Graduate Teachers Programme accompanied Bill Callaghan, our Education Specialist, on visits to the Torquay Job Centre for a“customer journey” as well as Connections and the Town Hall. The visits were part of the 6 week training course the Teachers are undertaking to learn about the UK Education system and application process.Thank you to Torquay Job Centre, Connections and the Town Hall for allowing us the opportunity to visit!

The week started with a vist to St Loyes in Exeter - a really great place with some fantastic people and opportunities. we are very pleased to be working with them and feel sure that the students who are going to ejoy their placements there will have a marvelous time.

Tuesday saw another really good network meeting at the Grand Hotel - such a good group of people and a lovely view of the bay to enjoy with a hearty breakfast.

Wednesday brought a Lupton House in Brixham... what a great place. Met Janet and Francis, placed a student with them and discovered an exciting new venue for our student meetings - and all thanks to 'Brixham' Bill Callaghan from Palletopia - Thank you Bill.

Thusday was student meeting day and all our students enjoyed a bit of Torbay culture at the Torquay Museum - thanks once again to the museum staff for a very enjoyable afternoon

And now its Friday... 3rd Friday at Ivybridge, huge thanks to Michael Clark from Clark Jennings Solicitors. He gave a very informative talk on the perils of Social Media and steps we could all take to protect ourselves and our businesses.

New couour printer arrived today so chaos in the office as we had to install and find the thing - not sure why we couldnt 'find' it as we could all see it! :0) However, thanks ti Kornel from 1-zero-1 and Nick our 'copier' guy... everything works - woo hoo!

Have a wonderful weekend...Radio 1 visiting Paignton and the Olympic Torch making it's way accross the Bay... in addition to the usuall fun stuff available to everyone lucky enough to be in Tornay this weekend.

See you next week :0)

Manic May....

What a great start to the month of May...we have just finished installing our new server and computers for all of the office - excellent! However this did cause a little stress as we were nearly two days without e-mail, then a Bank Holiday which was 5 days in total...when my Blackberry finally got its act together it just sat there pinging for about 20 minutes as it caught up with all the mail!!! If I missed anyone or you sent me something and got no reply please re send and we will get back to you.

However, it's now all done and working well, huge thanks for all the work done by 1-zero-1 in Torquay - thanks Chris, Mark and the guys! Even in the midst of all the chaos of the upgrade we still found an amazing coincidence...Kornel, one of the 1-zero-1 team was one of our students!... in 2005 he came here for his work placement experience and then last year applied for a job with 1-zero-1 ... and 7 years after his placement he arrived at our offices to upgrade our computer system...brilliant news! Well done Kornel, proof indeed that the Leonardo mobility projects really work...

Meanwhile....

I have been out and about calling at several businesses and shops in Paignton looking for, and finding, some new opportunities for a group of students coming over to enjoy 3 weeks working in shops and offices...thank you to all those businesses who welcomed the idea and have given so many young people the opportunity to visit Torbay... so big thanks to, in no particular order... Scoops, Sugazone, Riviera Gifts, Mainline, Bijou B, Bay Fashions and many many more.

Thursday saw our weekly student meeting at the lovely Dots Pantry...cream tea and coffee, absolutely brilliant - the shop was completely full with our students and all had a fantastic time, and to cap it off it was a year to the day that Dots Pantry first opened - Happy first birthday, may you have many many more. Thank you to Dot, John, all your staff and a special thank you to the two lovely ladies who were sitting having a quiet coffee in Dots when about 50 young European students arrived in a way that only young Europeans can...noisily! Thank you both for your understanding.

Went to another great 2nd Friday network meeting at Cockington Court this morning...very interesting discussion re Foxy Lingerie by Nicola Fox. Sad and very enlightening story of how the global financial problems impact on small business. Hope to see you all at the next meeting. On that subject the next Breafast Networking Club meeting is next Tuesday 15th May at the Grand Hotel (07.15 am). Hope to see you there :0)

Well there we are...another busy week and the start of what will become a manic month...we have a great many students arriving and loads to do to ensure they enjoy their time here in Torbay. So from a week that started with torrential rain I am sat here getting ready for the weekend with sun shining throughj the window...it will be a good weekend in Torbay - get out there and enjoy it, perhaps even grab an ice-cream from one of Paigntons newest businesses, Scoops! Have a great week-end all...Ciao !

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.

Students, Placements, Petrol and Pasties

Well what a week at The Training Partnership…

We have seen fantastic sunshine and a great ‘feel good’ factor across beautiful Torbay. So much going on here…  the main thing being I have finally got around to sort out a TTPL blog… look out for more ramblings and good news stories from the TTPL team!

We have seen one of our students, Marc, having a great time with Ben, Jo and Jenny from Palm FM taking a mobile bed to sites around the area for a Bed Month promotion, Culminating in a pillow fight with Ben and Jo! What a great experience for him!

Ben and Jo Pillow Fight

We have also welcomed Ramon, an Italian group leader here to meet his students and to discuss future placements… If you have been to an event at the Riviera International Conference Centre you may well have met Giovanna who has been carrying out her placement there with Jenny Thompson and Kirsty Evans. It seems we will be receiving another 50 Italian students from the same group over the coming 12 months, good news indeed.

We are saying goodbye to a great group of German students who have been at businesses around the Bay, did you see Jacob and Philip doing some repairs with Simon Read on The Golden Hind in Brixham, or have you sampled the marvellous Bays beer that may well have been brewed by Oliver our visiting German brewer who did his unpaid placement with Bays Brewery in Paignton. They and the rest of their group are travelling home this weekend. At the same time we are looking forward to the arrival of 12 German students from the WMF group, they will be undertaking some Engineering and admin placements around the bay...I'm sure they will have a great time in Torbay.

Newsthat another 21 Admin students are arriving in July…anybody need a bit of unpaid admin support for four weeks? Just get in touch and we will see what we can do! It’s great that we are so busy and able to help so many businesses in the area.

On Wednesday I went to the Newton Abbot Chamber breakfast meeting, really good breakfast and met some great new people… will definitely be going there again. Even managed to place one of our Italians with Mid-Devon Advertiser, thank you Sandra :0) We also had our article published in This Is Business magazine, a great publication from The Business Hub in Paignton and put together by Kevin Reynolds… who are also hosting Frank, a German student helping out in their office. The magazine is available electronically now and will be distributed next week. You can read it here... This Is Business Magazine

We have confirmed a couple of delegate visits… one group of nurses who will be visiting the hospital and a number of local care homes, as well as some talks from local health professionals. We are also going to be welcoming a group of teachers from Germany who specialise in the integration of students with special educational needs into mainstream education…again, lots of seminar talks and a visit to South Dartmoor Community College are planned during their stay.

Thursday saw a great student meeting at Macaris on Torquay harbour side… our students all enjoyed coffee and cake in the wonderful Devon sunshine. A big Thank You to Macaris for looking after us so well.

With the power of Twitter and Social Media I have just seen the video produced by MGVP (another of our great Work Placements) of the Riviera Centre annual Tourism and Business Exhibition… yours truly captured on film yet again! See it here  

RICC Tourism & Business Video from MGVP

And… a fantastic Press Release from The Riviera Centre praising Giovanna and the work she has done…   RICC Press Release  Thank you for your kind words.

Another noteworthy event this week….Mia is now a non-smoker, well, certainly doing her best to become one…we all wish her well with challenge.

The Paignton Geo Play Park has opened on Paignton Green… looks far better than the blue hoardings that have been there during the works, let’s hope it is looked after and used as it deserves to be and attracts people to the Paignton area.

We have also endured the fuel non strike chaos, increased stamp charges and of course the evil spectre of a Pastie Tax… don’t panic! So a final visual thought here... courtesy of Dot at Dots Pantry

Well that’s it for now… speak again in April, and don’t believe all you hear on the 1^st.

It is a fantastic sunny day here in Torbay. Very busy in the office as always with plenty of student groups booking to come to South Devon for their work experience and even a couple of delegate visits. One group of Teachers from Germany who will be visiting South Dartmoor Community College and Torquay Boys Grammar and another group of 3rd year Nurses from France who will be here in July.

Closer to home we have one of our students, Marc, who is enjoying a great placement at MGVP in Torquay has been out with our local radio station Palm FM on their 'Bed Month' promotion, Ben, Jo and Jenny from Palm have been touring the area with a Bed... great fun for all concerned. Will get Marc to write a nice Blog for us to put up here.
We have also started to distribute and promote our great new video... I'm going to try and get a link to it on here... if not this time then certainly next time!!!

Still got to get my head around the whole 'Blog' thing so please bear with me... anyone who has anything to contribute please get in touch...

Have a great day :0)