February 2023

Staff, students and apprentices are celebrating after receiving our fourth ‘Good’ report from Ofsted.

Inspectors, who visited our Cheltenham, Gloucester and Forest of Dean Campuses during November 2022, looked at eight key areas, including the quality of education, apprenticeships, behaviour and attitudes, leadership and management, and adult learning programmes, under a new enhanced inspection framework that launched in September.

Our Chancel Close facilities cater for Level 2 and Level 3 in carpentry and plumbing, and final end point assessments for brick and property maintenance.

The short answer: yes!

Apprenticeships have come a long way in recent years and are no longer just associated with trades like plumbing or carpentry. They’re available in a huge range of sectors, including accountancy, computing, IT and engineering, to name a few!

Congratulations to Izabela who graduated from GC in November 2022 with a Level 4 Professional Diploma in Accounting. In celebration of National Apprenticeship Week 2023, we asked Izabela about her journey as an AAT apprentice with Advanced Innergy Solutions, and this is what she told us.

Alan Mulrooney, our Senior Business and Apprenticeships Sales Executive shares his thoughts on some of the challenges in the Hospitality sector and ways to address staff turnover and increase productivity and engagement.

In the lead up to National Apprenticeship week we met up with Mark Misztal, a Cyber Security Graduate apprentice at CDS Defence and Security to get his insights into the industry and learn how the apprenticeship programme has been supporting his professional ambitions.

The apprenticeship levy was initiated by the UK government for all employers paying a wage bill of more than £3 million per year. The levy tax of 0.5% of your payroll is automatically collected by HMRC at the end of each month through your PAYE system.

The great news is that you can reinvest this levy back into your workforce in the form of apprenticeship training.