Looking forward to becoming a TPL Team Member

Anthony Vickers from St Thomas More is looking forward to becoming a part of the TPL hairdressing team after being offered an apprenticeship with the company to start in July 2010.

Anthony has been on an Extended Work Experience placement with TPL since September 2009, he has been attending the Crewe salon every Tuesday during his year 11 at school.  Anthony was referred for a placement at the end of his year 10 as he was unsure whether to further his interest in music or hairdressing. After guidance and support from the Connexions Personal Advisor, Claire Peters, Anthony decided to try a placement in Hairdressing and attend a taster session at College in Music.

Anthony felt very nervous on his first day on placement and felt a bit lost but was soon made to feel welcome and after a few sessions he felt part of the team.  Anthony progressed well and decided that he enjoyed doing a practical job and enjoyed working with people.  Anthony’s communication and conversational skills improved as he began to understand the companies practices and ethos.

Robert Myles from TPL feels that taking students on the Extended programme gives him the chance to get to know the young person, it also gives him the chance to assess the students capability over a period of time he finds this is more effective than just relying on the interview process to recruit staff. The extended placement also gives young people like Anthony the chance to try out a career in their last year at school before starting a college course.

TPL are committed to helping young people by offering work experience either through the schools work experience or the Extended programme to local schools though out the year. As part of this commitment Rob participated in the “Big Conversation” event organised by Education Business Plus that was held at Bentley in March 2010.  This event enabled employers, students and school staff to get together to discuss the future of work experience in the local area. Rob listened to the students in his group and valued their opinions and has now set up a programme for students on work experience within the company and gives each student individual tasks to achieve during their time at TPL.

After working with Anthony from Sept 2009 until April 2010, Rob has decided to offer him a place on the company apprenticeship programme to start in July. This programme will include training to achieve his TPL hairdressing diploma at the TPL training centre in Nantwich and working with Total People training providers to complete his NVQ level 2 in Hairdressing.