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National Apprenticeship Week, held in February 2009 and championed by Sir Alan Sugar – “apprentices make things happen” – successfully highlighted the fact that apprenticeships offer a real opportunity for those already in the workplace to develop their skills, or for those new to industry or looking to retrain, the necessary technical skills alongside key transferable skills.

Central Sussex College is currently working with more than 500 companies to support 700 apprentices and provide on the job training. As the largest college provider in the South East, the College marked Apprenticeship Week with a visit from Skills and Apprenticeship Minister Lord Tony Young - who officially opened the College’s new Ford engineering workshop - Tim Campbell, winner of the first series of BBC One’s The Apprentice, and Simon Waugh, CEO of the National Apprenticeship Service.

Notably, the group also took time to visit some of the College’s apprentices in the workplace, at the local headquarters of two global organisations - Thales and Elekta.

Human care company Elekta provides innovations and clinical solutions for treating cancer and brain disorders. Its Crawley site 500 employs people, with 10 of these currently following Advanced Apprenticeships in Electrical/Electronic Engineering, delivered by Central Sussex College. As a company, Elekta can closely match the apprentices’ development plan to the skills it requires for the future, while seeing increased motivation and enthusiasm in its workforce.

Peter Randall, Director of Human Resources at Elekta, says: “Our apprentices play a major role in our business, being responsible for a range of vital aspects such as designing, developing, testing and manufacturing as well as providing comprehensive servicing and support for products that have a 20-year lifespan. As our products and services become more and more complex, the apprentices will each have a bespoke set of skills to support Elekta’s future growth. Without the scheme it would be difficult to achieve this.

“Apprenticeships have a far reaching effect on our organisation – they also provide a great opportunity for other employees to develop their own skills as they train, coach and mentor our apprentices.”