Youngsters have designs on apprenticeship places (From The Oxford Times)

Youngsters have designs on apprenticeship places

11:50am Wednesday 20th March 2013 in Business

A CRACK team of retail apprentices has been signed up, ready to take a step up the career ladder.

Fifteen shop assistants at Bicester Village are the latest to join the apprenticeship scheme to work towards a nationally recognised qualification.

The designer outlet centre teamed up with Oxford and Cherwell Valley College in 2010 to offer shop workers the chance to get two City and Guilds qualifications – equivalent to four A-C GCSEs.

Since the scheme was launched it has been a big success and has been tailored to match the staff and stores at the village. Training also includes master classes in tourism, hospitality and visual merchandising.

Training is work-based, which means a college tutor visits staff on-site for assessment and workshops, and apprentices earn as they learn.

Agatha Martins, 23, of Ardley Road, Bicester, who works in Versace, has just finished a degree in hospitality and party management and hopes the scheme will add another skill to her CV. She said: “I’m always keen to learn and having just finished university I’m in that educational mode.”