West Berkshire Skills and Enterprise Partnership invites local businesses and organisations to take part in this year's West Berkshire Work and Careers Fair taking place on Wednesday 11 October, from 1-6pm, at Newbury College's Monks Lane Campus.
Following the success of the event in 2016, which attracted over 55 exhibitors from different industry sectors and 500 visitors, it is now regarded as one of the largest of its kind staged locally. This year's event is supported by Elevate West Berkshire, helping 16-24 year olds gain the skills they need for employment.
The event is a great way for businesses looking to recruit locally to attract the talent they need, explains Dawn Ray, the event organiser. Additional activities such as advice on CV content and writing job applications, ensures that the event receives a wide variety of visitors, many of whom are looking for work, evaluating options for alternative careers in the local area, or are young people gathering inspiration about future career paths, continues Dawn.
Exhibitors have space for a table top and pop-up stand, many of which are free depending on the space required, with larger stands attracting a nominal fee.
Anyone interested in either exhibiting or supporting the event in any way should email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or visit the event website for more information.
Avoid the queues on the day, register your attendance here.
Acceptance of those with BTECs and a combination of BTECs and A levels is increasing rapidly and the proportion has almost doubled in the last eight years.
The article praises the qualifications, saying "The BTEC curriculum is considerably freer and more flexible than the tight syllabus and marking schemes of A-levels. In the University of Bedfordshire's experience, BTec students show great strength in idea generation, independent learning and creativity, in ways that are atypical among A-level students."
Newbury College offers a wide range of BTEC qualifications for school leavers in subjects including Animale Care, Art and Design, Business, Computing, Engineering, Health and Social Care, Media Production, Music Technology, Public Services, Sport and more.
An increasing number of students on BTEC programmes at Newbury College also have the opportunity to progress to HNC and HND qualifications as an excellent alternative to university.
Free drop-in Advice Clinics are being held at our Monks Lane campus today (17 August 2017) and on GCSE Results Day (24 August 2017) to support young people make the right choices about further education, higher education, apprenticeships or finding employment.
Back in May, over 400 of our students took part in a country-wide satisfaction survey. The results from the survey showed that the enrichment activities we offer here at Newbury College scored 5% above the benchmark, with 84% of our students agreeing that we offer a good enrichment programme.
Students on full and part-time courses can enjoy a wide range of enrichment activities throughout the year. Some of the highlights include Freshers' Day, Duke of Edinburgh Scheme, Road Safety Week, 'New Year, New You' campaign and Mental Health Awareness Week.
From a wellbeing perspective, students have a dedicated Counsellor and Chaplain they can access, as well as clinics promoting healthy lifestyle choices. In addition to this, the college Sport Maker offers a different sporting activity every lunchtime in the sports hall. This year the Sport Maker has also organised a basketball and football team, who regularly play against other local schools and colleges.
If you'd like to know more about what Newbury College can offer, come along to our Open Enrolment morning on Saturday 02 September, 10am-1pm or drop in during the holidays.
Happy Kids, an independent pre-school based in the grounds of Winchcombe School in the heart of Newbury, prides itself on providing a safe and friendly childcare environment tailored to the individual needs of children. As children learn through play, exploration and first-hand experiences, Happy Kids provides an environment that allows them to use their senses, imagination and previous experiences to support their learning.
Ofsted requires all staff working in pre-schools to be trained in paediatric first aid. Happy Kids ensures all of its staff are up to date with their training, but it can be a time consuming process. Kim Whelehan, Happy Kids Pre-school Manager, explains: When staff attend courses on an individual basis, we have to change rotas and arrange cover; it can be very disruptive for the other staff and children. It's far more valuable for us as an employer if the whole team can attend a course together at the same time.
Happy Kids uses Newbury College's in-house training service, where courses are delivered at a time convenient to the employer, such as evenings, weekends or during the school holidays. Deputy Manager, Sharon Dumelow, is very positive about this method of delivery: Having the trainer deliver at our premises is much easier and, because we've been using this service for a while, the trainer has got to know our staff and ethos well.
The familiarity means we are all relaxed and this helps us feel comfortable enough to ask the questions we perhaps would be afraid to if we were on our own. I've been on courses where it's just me attending from here, and I feel we benefit much more from a group approach.
We also offer parents the opportunity to join us on our courses. This is great for them because they can increase their skills and it makes the training more cost effective for us too.
Emily Chandler, Business Development Executive at Newbury College, recommends this approach to other settings: Training providers need to meet the needs of busy employers. Offering nationally-recognised qualifications delivered at individual premises is a good example of how the College is adapting its work with employers.
We see that once a setting has benefited from this approach, they continue to come back to us for more of the same. The quality of the courses remains unchanged, we use the same trainers and materials from our open courses but, without a doubt, there is a benefit to all parties when our trainers get to deliver with teams this way.
For more information about Newbury College's bespoke training and in-house delivery, contact the Business Team on 01635 845229 or email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.