Bournville College have been working in partnership with The Hippodrome in Birmingham to offer apprenticeships to help younger people.
Birmingham Hippodrome Theatre Trust Ltd is an independent, not-for-profit registered charity, established in 1979. They have been offering the apprenticeship scheme in partnership with Bournville College for the last three years, enabling young people to develop their skills whilst supporting the running of this well-known theatre. Glen Ivison, HR Manager at The Hippodrome has found that beyond the benefit of investing in their own workforce, there were a number of added benefits that apprenticeships offered to the theatre. ‘We believed that offering apprenticeships were a way of helping individuals with an entry route into employment and business whilst helping our own corporate social responsibility agenda.’
Having Bournville College on their side, Glen also believes that other employers may not realise how simple the process can be with the right support. ‘Some employers may think that the apprenticeship programme is complicated but if you use the right provider like Bournville College then it can be very successful. We have found that apprentices do need coaching and support but our current employees were happy to give guidance and in fact when other areas saw how well the apprentice fitted into the original team, they wanted to support the programme too. We would be happy to work together with Bournville College in the future, to offer more apprentice vacancies’, added Glen.
Grace Morgan, 17, from Bartley Green is just one of many people that benefited from becoming an apprentice at the theatre. After her success on the Level 2 Apprenticeship in Customer Service she is currently completing the Level 3. She reflected: ‘I have really enjoyed the apprenticeship scheme – it has given me the chance to learn, earn a salary as well as progress within a large company where I am constantly able to develop my skills’.
‘I love working at Birmingham Hippodrome; everyone is really nice and supportive. I also received excellent support from Bournville College and am encouraged to put my new skills into practice. I would definitely do it again’, revealed Grace.
Glen is pleased to see Grace flourish her skills, just as many other apprentices did previously. He reflected: ‘Our partnership with Bournville College has been successful. We started 3 years ago and since then all of our apprentices have progressed into different areas of employment with the theatre. We find that apprentices are keen to learn new skills and have the potential to grow and develop; therefore we made a conscious decision to help them. We offer different roles through our apprenticeship programme including; the box office, stage area, customer service and catering and hospitality’, reflected Glen.
If you would like to discuss the implementation of the apprenticeship scheme within your business, Bournville College is the right choice. To find out more, please contact the Apprenticeship Team on 0121 477 1400 or email apprentice@bournville.ac.uk.
We reserve the right not to publish content which is deemed unsuitable