A Fizzy 'Well Done', a Bank Holiday and a Fully Funded Work Experience - What Could be Better?

This week we had some very good news....we are having yet another record year! We currently have booked 886 students - a real achievement for our team. To mark this milestone the Directors got us all a little pressie :0) This is, I know, very much appreciated by all the team who have worked so hard to make this happen - also huge thanks must go to our wonderful Host Families and Work Placements - without whom we would not be able to do what we do!

It is also an ideal time to have a little glass of fizz to celebrate the Bank Holiday!  Happy Days!

Included in this amazing number are a group of students from Italy - this group are here for Language Training and to experience our local area, both culturally and from a business perspective; so far we have visited, the brilliant Paignton Zoo, The Golden Hind in Brixham, Torquay Museum and many other places planned for the coming week. We also spent an afternoon at MGVP, using recording equipment and generally learning about the media/film industry...the outcome of this experience was a collection of individual videos which you can see on our TTPL YouTube Channel and this 5 second clip.... We are so pleased that you 'Love Torquay' - we think it is a special place too!

To end this weeks blog I would like to draw your attention to a fantastic opportunity for any UK based recent Graduates...we have been successful in obtaining funding to send a group of students to France or Germany for a fully Funded 13 week program that will change lives - so if you are, or you know, a recent Graduate who has a basic understanding of French or German ask them to get in touch with us...don't wait too long as spaces are limited....Have a great weekend and stay safe - see you next time.

A day in the Life - Mia Carus

Where to begin... It usually only takes me 10 minutes to get to the Training Partnership offices and once there it is straight to work.   If I’m not doing Work Placement Starts for students, then I start the day off by checking my emails, usually it is confirmation from one of our companies offering a placement to a student or requests for a specific skill or project, which is always exciting.  Then it’s a case of checking through  files and finding a work placement that matches the trainees requirements - which quite often is a challenge, but always rewarding!  Once the students are placed there is paperwork to do sending out Work Placement Agreements and making sure they all have the necessary Health and Safety Details before they are placed.  Then of course there is the Itinerary to arrange so all the students know how and when they are going to get to their Companies on their first day! So important when you are in a new country!  

We have Welcome Meetings most weeks, normally in the afternoons but when there are a lot of students it could be mornings too!  Some students like to have a UK bank account and need to be taken to the Bank to obtain English Bank Accounts. 

There are also Team Meetings to attend to catch up on the week’s events, which are always interesting and give us the opportunity to check on every one of our trainees.  Occasionally there are problems to deal with, so listening to the students and trying to resolve, to the best of my ability, their worries regarding work is an important part of my role!  These are the main tasks that fill my days at work – believe me, life here is never dull – challenging and hectic are the main adjectives I would use; however, as busy as we are I wouldn't change a thing.

Students meet at meetings!

We love our Student Meetings, an opportunity for a bit of fun, to relax with all of our visitors and a chance for them to talk to us about anything they need to know about...for our students, well, in their own words...

"our weekly student meetings are great because you can see all of your friends and maybe make some new ones. The activities we do are great too, as we visited the beautiful Cockington Court and went on a boat trip around Torbay"
Sandra

"An ideal place to have fun, exchanging views & thoughts for the upcoming meetings and mentored by the dedicated Staff."
Martens



"There is nothing better than Thursday students meetings. Not only you can take a break from your work, but also enjoy the afternoon with friends, meet new people and have fun every week with a new interesting social activity."       Lorenzo
 So... enjoy the sun, stay safe and remember - Wear Sunscreen!

We are still in England?

Some of us (admitedly not many) were teenagers in 1976...so this current heatwave is something of a surprise to the younger members of our team - we could only imagine what our students thought the weather would be like - certainly not the glorious sunshine we have been enjoying...

"It is such a great trip with this sunny weather! When I got here, everybody told me that it will rain a lot because it’s England but by now we haven’t had one rainy day!"

"Can't believe it's England! Almost 30 degrees, cloudless, a lightbulb sun turned on all day long. Why nobody told me that on April? I would have avoided to bring only winter clothes! ;)"

"When you think about England one of the first things pop in your mind is RAIN!"

"Sun has invaded this country 2 months ago and seems to won't go away! Not a big deal afterall! Beach and sunbaths everyday! Who would could even imagine!?"

"My weather app on my smartphone should be broken! It shows only SUN in Torquay from a month and doesn't want to change! What a pity!"

"Surprisingly my visit to England has been very hot, not like the ‘Typical British summer’ I have heard of. It has made my time very enjoyable, although I did pack for rain so it has cost me a lot in new clothes. But hey, I guess every cloud has a silver lining."

 

 Have a great weekend and enjoy the weather...stay safe and dont forget to wear Sun Screen!

Italian Summer Camp experience!

We have recently been involved in an exciting project to send English speaking volunteers to work in Italy, Nadine Stroud, our Business Development Director commented “we are very happy to be involved in this rewarding project.  Our participants have been great ambassadors for the UK, have had a great time whilst receiving valuable experience and life skills.  We will be offering further exciting and career building opportunities with our outbound programmes.”

One of the volunteers, Timothy Nicolle sent us the following - what an amazing experience!

The WEP (World Education Programme) is a company providing children with experiences, either at home or abroad. In this case, the company was offering 17 lucky Italian children, between the ages of 8 and 13, the chance to learn English for a week in the Italian Piedmont mountains, an environment of outstanding beauty.

The structure of the week, was combining three hours of English lessons in the morning, with an interesting and exciting selection of activities in the evenings- ranging from climbs and walks with Italian mountain guides to learning the fundamentals of circus skills, such as juggling or riding a unicycle. In the evenings, the children played outdoor games and watched films in English, as well as having some free time in their busy schedules. The food was both exceptional quality and quantity, with the children being treated to a variety of pasta, pizza, local meat and vegetable dishes, all made from scratch by highly talented chefs- this made being in the mountains far from a slimming experience!

From the perspective of one of the two English tutors involved, the process of teaching was very pleasurable. The children were both receptive and well behaved and seemed to enjoy a different format of learning English through games and spoken activities, compared to the usual language lessons many of us can remember from school! Covering a wide variety of topics they quickly began using English to one another and also coming to the English speaking staff and trying to communicate directly and with increasing skill.

Being in the mountains meant teaching certain topics was very easy. Themes such as nature or holidays and travel were able to be taught by simply going outside and showing them the area they were living in. Similarly, being in such a beautiful environment with mountain vistas outside the window, made teaching a pleasure. Also, being on a mountain and not in the wind, rain or cold, made for an unusual experience!

For me, personally, the week was most enjoyable. Whilst giving me the opportunity to teach children with little or no English and see a remarkable progress within one week and the pleasure this gave them; being in such a beautiful area made the experience all the more engaging and showed me the advantages and possibilities of combining work and travel into one trip.

Timothy Nicolle

Our Busiest and Hotest week of the year!

The sun has been shining here in Torbay...what a week it has been!

Mediterranean weather helping to make our students feel even more at home.

We have also been in the midst of our busiest week of the year so far - we welcomed 70 German students (59 from  Sanofi & 11 Business Management trainees from Provadis); had a huge Welcome Meeting at the RICC and then took them to begin their Work Placements on Tuesday, along with over 30 other students from around Europe. We were also pleased to be hosting two teachers Silke and Diane who were accompanying the Provadis / Sanofi group - we worked out that Silke has been coming here for 15 years with various groups visiting TTPL -amazing. We even managed to fit in a spot of lunch in the sun at Shoreline Paignton.

The weather was very kind to us and all of our students got out to their placements without a hitch!

Fantastic!

 

We also enjoyed a beautiful afternoon at Cockington Court with an ice-cream or a drink provided by the excellent Cafe and Tea Rooms there - thank you to Lianne and Simon, it was great and all the students enjoyed the ice creams! We also had a lot of fun with footballs, tennis rackets and frisbees! Lovely to see so many of our students enjoying a sunny afternoon. It was also an opportunity for Sandra and Martins, our latest office students (and all the arrivals from last weekend!) to enjoy their first student meeting. Thank you for all the help you have given so far - we really appreciate the skills you bring to our workplace!

As a closing picture or two, here is Martins on his first visit to the UK - posing in the sun!

and of course the obligatory ice cream picture.....

 

Have a great weekend and don't forget the sun screen!!!

A day in the life...Debbie Campell

My name is Debbie and I am the Programme Manager here at The Training Partnership – I work with our European Partners ensuring all our students have a fantastic experience here in Devon. 
No day is the same at The Training Partnership!  Today we have our weekly student meeting at Living Coasts, sea life centre, where not only do the students get to meet the Penguins but they have a great opportunity to make new friends.
We also have departure meetings for a number of our students leaving this weekend to return home to Germany, Spain and Italy.  Students are presented with Certificates and lots of photos are taken! Preparations are also under way for our next groups arriving in August.  I am arranging a programme of language training, cultural, technical  and social activities for a group from Italy, as well as ensuring work placements and host accommodation are in place for our next students arriving from Romania, Germany, France, Spain as well as Italy.


Our German group having just recieved their certificates

I can’t believe we are also preparing for groups arriving in September – it will be Christmas before we know it!