THE Worcester News 100 in 100 apprentices campaign is attracting businesses from across the county.

With central government continuing to place the recruitment of new apprentices high on its agenda, North East Worcestershire College is forging partnerships with local companies to create new opporunities.

One such partnership is with Redditch-based company Oakland International, where four of its employees have been signed up to apprenticeships with the college’s dedicated training arm Unique Skills People.

This provides training for team leading and management.

Oakland’s HR and purchasing director David Hoey spoke on the importance of the additional training for its employees: He said: “We want to link performance and learning development, so the training we are offering is almost like a reward and something to aspire to.

“As a company we are committed to the ongoing investment in our staff and their training; it’s more than just about filling vacancies at Oakland International, it’s about retention and matching the right people with the right values and skills to the right job.” In addition to apprentices the college will also be providing training for a number of other Oakland staff including NVQs in business admin and customer service.

Mr Hoey said Oakland is committed to providing people with the right training opportunities, He said: “We have ambitious growth plans and the key to this is for us to ensure we lead, challenge, train, develop and motivate our teams to continue to learn and grow in ways that benefit both the business and their own personal development objectives.

“It’s the collective capability of all our people that will deliver results.

“By launching the Oakland Academy in July we aim to provide the foundation for people to develop the core competencies, management and leadership skills required to make Oakland International the leading provider in our marketplace along with a clearly- defined personal development pathway.”