Aycliffe Today Business #9 | Page 28

28 | Aycliffe Today Business Traineeships are about helping get young people work ready with the correct attitudes and behaviours needed in the workplace. Baltic Training Services, an Ofsted Grade 2 training provider based in Newton Aycliffe has been commissioned by the Skills Funding Agency to deliver the programme. This is Jacob’s story, a trainee on the scheme, in his words so far… Through my life I’ve never stayed long enough in a school to succeed. My attitude to learning and school was that it wasn’t important, and I didn’t really think about my future. I’M JACOB, 17, AND NOW WORK READY… I was out all the time, never listened in school and messed around. When I left school I was offered what I thought was an apprenticeship at £100 a week so I took it. I worked as a plasterer and dry liner. It wasn’t something that I thought about doing but at the time it seemed good. A few months in I realised that it wasn’t an apprenticeship, as I was doing no training and when I left the job, I had nothing to show for it. My One Point advisor told me about a traineeship programme with Baltic Training Services. At first, I didn’t want to go, I thought it would be like school. There was a group of people I didn’t know and I was nervous. We are a customer-focused business, with a wealth of experience in the transport, distribution and warehousing sectors. Stiller in brief: • Family owned business, established in 1954 • Cost-effective regional and national distribution • Diverse fleet of collection and delivery vehicles • On–line tracking and tracing of freight deliveries • High-bay racked warehouses for up to 20,000 pallets • On-line stock tracking • Over 200,000 square feet of food grade warehousing • ISO 9001 (Quality) accredited • ISO 14001 (Environmental) accredited • Broad range of commercial and industrial properties to let Ridgeway, Aycliffe Business Park Newton Aycliffe, County Durham DL5 6SP Lee, my course tutor started us off on some team activities to help us bond. A few days past, and we became a team. We made friends, we helped each other and it was a relaxed environment. The final Friday we presented what we had learnt and what the course was about as a group. When we were first told about it none of us believed we could do it, including myself. But as a team, we successfully presented a presentation that we had made from scratch, in front of parents, guardians and the companies we will complete work experience with. To find out more information about traineeships, apprenticeships and training and how to get involved please contact Baltic Training on 01325 731056.