Autism Together and Progress to Excellence have been working together for the past 20 years and have helped support over 500 employees with apprenticeships, resulting in qualifications from Health and Social care to Business Administration.

Progress to Excellence and Autism Together joined forces to celebrate the 10th annual National Apprenticeship Week (NAW2017) on Tuesday, 7th March at Giles Shirley Hall in Bromborough Pool Village. The event showcased the achievements and outstanding stories from students that have previously undertaken an apprenticeship in the work place and those still working towards their qualifications.

During the event, guests heard some great stories including;

Raheese Temptest-Mitchell who was just 17 years old when he joined Progress to Excellence in 2014 for a Business Administration Level 3 apprenticeship. He was expecting to be carrying out mundane jobs, but was pleasantly surprised to be working alongside long serving staff and getting involved with different projects. This will be Raheese’s 3rd year with Progress to Excellence and in that time he has been promoted to Quality Coordinator and is now working towards his Level 2 Team Leading Apprenticeship and helping others also on their person journeys.

Pip Lamb, support worker at Autism Together, completed her level 3 apprenticeship in Health and Social Care last year. Pip spoke about how this experience helped to gain confidence to put forward new ideas in her team, giving her to skills to develop further and use her experience to apply for further positions in the organisation.

Dean Ravera, activity manager for Performing Arts at Autism Together, has worked within the organisation for the past 4 years where he started as a Support Worker and now has completed his level 3 apprenticeship in Health and Social Care. This helped Dean to understand better how he fitted into the organisation and how Autism Together fits into the care sector. Since then Dean has grown in confidence and further developed his career where he is now working towards his level 3 Apprenticeship in Management.

Other local organisations also attended the event to learn about the introduction of the new Apprenticeship Levy starting in April 2017 and the changes that this might bring including more funding being invested into the apprenticeship scheme and how this will help young people to achieve qualifications whilst working.

Autism Together and Progress to excellence have been working together for the past 20 years and have helped support over 500 of our employees with apprenticeships resulting in qualifications from Health and Social care to Business Administration.

The event then ended with a networking lunch in the Bromborough Pool Garden Centre and a chance to mix with other organisations and talk directly to employers and apprentice’s alike.