Apprentices take Hatherleigh

20th October 2015

On Friday 16 October saw all of the Business Services apprentices head to our training centre in Hatherleigh for an action-packed day of activities.

The company has recently welcomed another 21 apprentices to its award-winning programme bringing the total number of apprentices to 85. As well as winning 'Large Apprenticeship Employer' category in the South West at the National Apprenticeships Awards 2015. You could say it's been a busy few months or us at HQ. 

Working within such a large organisation it can be difficult, almost impossible, to know everyone, let alone remember where different people sit... I still struggle with this even after being with the company for almost a year.

Last week saw all of the Business Services apprentices head to our training centre in Hatherleigh for an action-packed day of activities.

As the majority of us working various departments and roles, sometimes it can be difficult to find time to interact and get to know one another so myself and a few other apprentices, with the help of Fiona Parsons, decided to organise a day where both intakes of apprentices could get to know each other through a variety of team-building exercises and presentations.

The day started off with way too much sugar and additives as we sat through presentations from each apprentice explaining what they do, their role, why they chose an apprenticeship and various opportunities and experiences that they'd had. It was interesting to hear peoples' reasoning on choosing an apprenticeship and why they chose South West Water. The main reason that cropped up was that we as a company are highly recognised as being a model apprenticeship employer, as highlighted by recent awards.

As the day progressed we heard from a guest speaker who previously worked for The National Apprenticeship Service who informed us that without apprenticeships our economy wouldn't have come out of recession as well as it did in 2008! She made us all aware that what we are currently doing is an amazing thing and that we should be proud to be an apprentice. This was personally really nice to hear as a lot of us had previously felt as if unless we went to University after finishing college we wouldn't succeed.

After the biggest spread of lunch I had ever seen it was time to embark on the afternoon's activities, ranging from scrambling around in the confined space unit to driving a remote controlled forklift truck blindfolded! 

 The main aim of it all, however, was to get to know people we may never have otherwise met or spent much time with so being in mixed teams meant we could do this.

Overall the day was filled with laughter and smiles which made me think that I'm really lucky to work/make friends with such a big group of apprentices who all support each other to be the best they can be while making our apprenticeship journey that little bit more special.