College celebrates local apprenticeships

Sussex Downs College has been celebrating the vital role that apprentices play in businesses in their local area.

The college offers a number of apprenticeships from bricklaying to hairdressing, which supplies apprentices to employers in and around Eastbourne.

The mayor of Eastbourne Carolyn Heaps visited the college during National Apprenticeship Week to meet apprentices and also tried her hand at bricklaying, hairdressing and plumbing.

Hairdressing apprentice Evangeline Faunch, who is on a level 2 NVQ apprentice programme with Zoe Stapp from Classics Hair Salon said, "I first came to college from school and did day release and I really enjoyed it. After I finished school I got a job in a hairdressers.

"The reason I went for this was that I get the best of both worlds working in a real salon and coming to college to learn the theory and the practical which gives me a better learning chance.

"It is really good coming to college and meeting other students my age and also it is a change from going into work as the day is different as we do practical in the morning and theory in the afternoon.

"Sometimes we work in the salon all day doing hair which is great and I can create the styles that I have been practising over the past few weeks, or learn something new that I need to practice.My ambition is to work hard and hopefully become a successful hairdresser and I would really like to get into theatrical hair and see where this takes me."

The college aims to help employers create apprenticeship opportunities and encourage new students to start on the apprenticeship journey.