Cardiff and Vale College presented with UK apprenticeship award at Senedd event

Cardiff and Vale College has been presented with a national award for being the top apprenticeship provider in the UK.

CAVC beat off competition from the rest of the UK’s Further Education (FE) providers to win the Association of Colleges Beacon Award for Promotion and Delivery of Apprenticeships, sponsored by Pearson.

The Beacon Awards celebrate the best and most innovative practice among UK FE institutions, rewarding colleges that go above and beyond in providing technical and professional education. Award winners must also offer something exceptional to students and the wider community.

Dr John Graystone, the Welsh representative on the AoC’s Beacon Steering Group, and Minister for Skills and Science Julie James presented the award to Cardiff and Vale College Group Chief Executive Mike James and Cardiff and Vale College Principal Kay Martin, who is also Chair of the Quality Skills Alliance (QSA).

Cardiff and Vale College Group is the leading apprenticeship provider in the Capital Region and leads the QSA, a unique consortium of 22 training providers working to deliver excellence in apprenticeships. The QSA engages with more than 1,000 employers from small firms to global businesses, offering around 40 career routes to nearly 2,000 apprentices each year.

This academic year also saw the region’s other leading apprenticeship provider, ACT, join forces with the CAVC family. This created the Cardiff and Vale College Group, the largest college in Wales and in the UK’s top five with a £75m turnover and more than 30,000 learner enrolments annually.

CAVC Group Chief Executive Mike James said: “We are absolutely thrilled to receive the Beacon Award for Promotion and Delivery of Apprenticeships today. It is testament to the hard work and determination shown by our apprenticeship team, subcontractors and staff right across the College and the QSA and I am hugely proud of their achievement.

“Cardiff and Vale College Group – with both Cardiff and Vale College and ACT – is the largest provider of apprenticeships in the country. We are already working with thousands of employers across the region, Wales and beyond to provide high quality apprenticeships and demand from employers across the region continues to grow.

“we believe in the strategic importance of apprenticeships and the vital role they can have in developing a new talent pipeline as well as upskilling existing workforces all to support business growth. That is why I am so delighted that the Cardiff and Vale College Group has been crowned top apprenticeship provider in the UK.”

Minister for Skills and Science Julie James said: “It gives me great pleasure in congratulating Cardiff and Vale College and its consortium members in winning this prestigious Beacon Award for ‘the Promotion and Delivery of Successful Apprenticeships’.

“The overall completion rate of apprenticeships in Wales is consistently over eighty percent and this award recognises all your hard work in helping to achieve this and confirms your high completion rate of apprenticeships.

“This Award also recognises the promotion of apprenticeships. The Welsh Government is committed to creating over one hundred thousand high quality apprenticeships during this Assembly term and I know that all of you will be at the forefront to help us to achieve this ambitious target.”

AoC Beacon Steering Group Welsh Representative John Graystone said: “So many colleges offer apprenticeships so for Cardiff and Vale College to win this award is extremely impressive. Apprenticeships is a hugely competitive category shows what massive contribution the College has made to building the skills base in Wales.”

About Cardiff and Vale College:

• In 2016 CAVC won the prestigious UK-wide Association of Colleges Beacon Award for its innovative and sector leading apprenticeship provision
• Cardiff and Vale College is one of the top companies for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion in the National Centre for Diversity’s 2016 Top 100 Index. It has also been awarded the National Centre for Diversity’s Award for Welsh FE College of the Year 2016
• CAVC was shortlisted for the TES College of the Year Award 2017
• Cardiff and Vale College was awarded College of the Year at the 2015 and 2016 Insider Business and Education Partnership Awards