December 2020

At Gloucestershire College, we are training the future the cyber and IT industry. Proudly working with CyNam and Hub 8, we are connecting local businesses with the brightest talent and working with employers to fill technical skill gaps within their organisations.

Discover our range of specialist IT and Cyber apprenticeships available at Gloucestershire College and find out why our programmes are at the cutting edge for IT and cyber training…

Gloucestershire College is proud to work with Iress to deliver training for their Software, IT Infrastructure and Cyber apprentices. Many of our apprentices with Iress have gone on to achieve distinctions in their programmes and progress to more senior roles within the company. We love sharing the success stories of our apprentices here at Gloucestershire College so we caught up with Ben Carter, Apprentice Software Engineer at Iress, to share his experience of what life is like as an apprentice and why he decided to choose the apprenticeship route.

Taking on five new apprentices in October this year, Iress has successfully onboarded new Software Development Apprentices with Gloucestershire College despite the difficulties caused by the pandemic. The team at Iress have been working remotely since the start of March, which means their new apprentices are too. We caught up with Darcy Hibberd, People Partner for Talent Acquisition at Iress to share their experience of recruiting apprentices, how they have managed to work remotely and the impact apprenticeships have had on their business.

Around this time of year, we celebrate the achievements of our higher education graduates with a Higher Awards Ceremony in the grand setting of Gloucester Cathedral.

The anticipated event would have been our 30th annual celebration in 2020, however, due to the current pandemic, we are unable to celebrate in person. We are hopeful, COVID restrictions permitting, that we will be able to invite all of our 180 graduates to a ceremony in 2021.

We have all had to adapt rapidly this year. We now know that we can work from home or online from wherever we choose. Many professionals have reaped the rewards of this new flexible way of working, leaving hour-long commutes behind and enjoying a ‘new normal’ work-life balance. While working from home comes with many positives, the real question is can we do it safely and securely?

The new edition of the Gloucestershire College Professional Training Guide is available to download now! It contains information on the professional services training and apprenticeship courses offered at the College for local businesses and their employees

The latest cohort of trainees at Gloucestershire College have successfully completed their eight-week training programme at the College and will be heading out on their employment placements in the new year. Find out more here.

Back in July, the government announced new incentive payments for employers to encourage the recruitment of new apprentices. Originally planned to end on 31 January 2021, the incentive payments have now been extended to 31 March 2021. Find out more here.