Staff from Redcar & Cleveland College were celebrating this week after receiving national recognition for the quality of one of their training schemes developed in partnership with The Working Knowledge Group.
 
The Working Knowledge Group picked up National Training Awards in both the North East Regional and UK Categories at a prestigious awards ceremony at the Hilton Hotel in Gateshead earlier this week for their work in developing an innovative enterprise training programme in conjunction with the college.
 
Initially funded through ASPIRE and One North East, Redcar & Cleveland College were able to partner up with The Working Knowledge Group to put together a range of activities for students that aimed at giving them experience of setting up a business – right from the initial idea through to taking their product or service to market.
 
The programme, known as ‘Ride the Wave’ has three events called The Plunge, The Splash and Dive In that are applicable for students at all levels in Further Education.
 
Students engage in a number of hands-on activities to develop a business plan which local business people help them refine in a series of real business meetings in such areas as Sales and Finance. Organisations involved include Barclaycard, Renew Tees Valley, PD Ports, Corus, University of Sunderland, Pulse Creative Marketing, North East Business and Innovation Centre, Calm Asylum Communications Ltd, ARC, Johnson Matthey Catalysts and Imex Grafix Ltd, who were thoroughly impressed by the quality of the students that they saw.
 
David Wilson from PD Ports, who has been involved in the event on the panel of business experts said:
 
“I have been involved with Ride the Wave for the last four years and the experience is always rewarding. Importantly it provides an opportunity for business to engage with colleges and their students with an outcome which proves beneficial for all parties.”
 
As well as helping students develop commercial awareness, business language skills, negotiation and presentation skills and improving their self-confidence, which all boost their employability, everyone who goes through the programme can receive a formal recognition by achieving either a Level 1 or Level 2 qualification such as ‘Working With Others’ Wider Key Skill or the Communication Key Skill.
 
Having successfully developed the courses at Redcar & Cleveland College, The Working Knowledge Group in partnership with Redcar & Cleveland College is now rolling out the courses nationally with Redcar & Cleveland College being used as the primary model of good practice for delivering training of this kind.
 
Andrew Hatcher, Managing Director of The Working Knowledge Group said:
 
“We are thrilled to be recognised for our work with the staff and students at Redcar & Cleveland College. The award confirms our belief that by bringing employers together with young people in a professional and business-like way, rapidly bridges the skills gap as cultural and inter-generational barriers fall away. Programmes like Ride the Wave have a huge part to play in raising the aspirations and skills of our young people, while simultaneously highlighting the fantastic talent available to employers that exists in our colleges.”
 
Gary Groom, Principal of Redcar & Cleveland College said:
 
“This is fantastic! These awards recognise the hard work that the staff at the college and partner organisations have put into developing the programme and demonstrates Redcar & Cleveland College’s commitment to a developing enterprise culture which is critical to energise innovation and economic regeneration.
 
“Every full-time student at Redcar & Cleveland College goes through Ride the Wave and students who went through the programme last year are already seeing the benefits of it when they enter the world of work. It is absolutely brilliant, employers have been seeking out some of the more innovative students and have been offering sponsorships for business ideas as well as mentoring opportunities leading to full-time employment.
 
“Feedback from students shows that they have thoroughly enjoyed the experience and have developed a real focus on employability and business start up issues.
 
“The Ride the Wave programme at Redcar & Cleveland College is making a real difference to enterprise culture in our local area and with the now award winning programme being offered nationally, this will have an impact across the UK.”