Aged 67, Keith is the Engineering Work-Based Assessor at Tresham College, (now part of The Bedford College Group). He has worked in further education for over 43 years both in the UK and abroad. Keith is so genuinely passionate about engineering that he continues to work part-time managing the engineering assessors’ team, with over 100 apprentices and 70 employers, and has been instrumental in reigniting the Weetabix Food Company apprenticeship programme with great success.
In April 2016, Keith began working with Weetabix to help design the maintenance engineering and manufacturing apprenticeship programmes. Keith ensured the manufacturing apprentices successfully achieved their Level 2 apprenticeships and they are now progressing on to their Level 3 qualifications. The maintenance engineering apprentices are on schedule to complete their Level 3 apprenticeships by July 2018.
Weetabix will take on a new batch of apprenticeships this year and there are plans to further grow the programme over the next few years.
Weetabix also awarded Keith and the Tresham College Apprenticeship team with their ‘Winning With Weetabix’ accolade in 2017. They have been nominated again in 2018.
Emma Swinscoe, Head of Performance Through People, Weetabix Food Company UK & Ireland said: “Tresham College has worked really hard to make our apprenticeship scheme a success. The team are proactive and have quickly become trusted partners.”
Weetabix have been so convinced about the success of their apprenticeship programme that they encourage their apprentices to promote apprenticeships to the wider community at careers events and in schools.
Keith has also pioneered the introduction of the first Level 4 Higher Apprenticeship in Engineering for Tresham College. The College had not previously offered this qualification but Keith saw that it would meet the needs of local employer Prosaw much more than the existing NVQ and proactively set about developing the new qualification. What’s more, the higher apprenticeship was actually more cost effective for the employer and the College now has a more attractive Level 4 qualification to offer employers.
Julie Hoult, Head of Business Development at Tresham College, said: “Keith is an exceptional assessor, he is great to work with and, even though he’s been in the engineering industry for over 40 years he is always open to learning more and improving.”
The Bedford College Group was also shortlisted in the TES awards for
*Professional Services Team: Marketing Team, Bedford College
*Best Teaching & Learning Initiative: The Bedford College Research Network led by Sam Jones and Catherine Lloyd, Bedford College & Shuttleworth College
The Bedford College Group Ian Pryce CBE said: “The significance of these categories demonstrates our success in reaching out to everyone in the community to ensure they understand they have the choice to come to us, our international reputation for raising standards in education and our work with some of the biggest names in business for training. To be shortlisted amid such a field of competition is almost praise enough.”
