COMMS GROUP

"We chose Baltic because they provide further development and vendor qualifications to existing staff as well as apprenticeship programmes."

Why did you choose Baltic Training?
We chose Baltic simply because of their extended reach ‘afterapprenticeship’,
this meant that we could use Baltic for further
development and vendor qualifications. We are just in the
process of putting an engineer onto a Cisco CCNA course, often
you don’t have the opportunity to work with ‘one-vendor’ for inhouse
personal development.

What contributions has your apprentice/s
made to your company on a day-to-day basis?
Both our apprentices have been tasked with our refurbished phone
testing and have taken the bull by the horns. Adam has excelled
and moved into our support desk on a part-time basis while still
managing the phone testing area. George is learning from Adam and
increasing his skillset on a daily basis.

Please give example (s) of how your apprentice/s
has benefitted from their apprenticeship?
I believe it has given Adam the confidence and the right frame
of mind to question processes as well as focus on tasks. He
has learnt a lot from the other technical staff and continues to
absorb information. He has made the testing process his own
and shows his commitment by continuing to be enthusiastic to
learn and develop himself.

Would you consider taking on another
apprentice in the future?
Yes, definitely, the experience we have had, and the experience
our apprentices have gained is a key requirement for all businesses.
A lot of technical knowledge can be absorbed in the
classroom, but the ability to apply that knowledge on a daily
basis is key for retention and enabling a personality to shine

How was the contact you have had with your
allocated members of staff at Baltic Training
throughout the apprenticeship?
We have been very fortunate in the team that have been looking
after our account. They have resolved any issues quickly and
efficiently and always accept feedback on items that we think
would work in a slightly different way. For example, the itinerary
for our new apprentice and his vendor qualifications. The order
needed rejigging and they were happy to accommodate.

YELLOW BOX MARKETING

"Harry (our apprentice) has allowed us to work on more projects and increase our workload. Without him, we would not have been able to do this."

What are your views on the quality of service/
training programmes by Baltic Training?
The training provided has been very good, Harry has been able to
complete the courses on his home computer, which has helped
him as there are less distractions than being in the office.
What contributions has your apprentice/s

made to your company on a day-to-day basis?
Harry has allowed us to work on more projects and increase our
workload. Without him, we would not have been able to do this. He
has began developing an app for our company which is a service
that we had discussed offering our clients but could not do so as we
did not have the spare time available to develop the service.

Please give example (s) of how your apprentice/s
has benefited from their apprenticeship?
Harry has been able to develop his PHP and CSS skills as well
as benefiting from working on projects for real businesses,
which is something he had not done before. He understands the
standard of work that needs to be completed in order for it to be
commercially acceptable and his work continues to improve on
a weekly basis.

Would you consider taking on another
apprentice in the future?
Definitely, we would be happy to take on another apprentice
through Baltic should we have the opportunity to.

How was the contact you have had with your
allocated members of staff at Baltic Training
throughout the apprenticeship?
Baltic have continued to keep in contact with us throughout
the interviewing and placement of our apprentice. They also
continue to keep us up to date with Harry’s training courses and
schedule.

Would you recommend taking on an
apprentice to other employers and why?
Yes, I have recently referred Baltic to a business associate
who is looking for a Social Media apprentice so hopefully this
progresses well and a candidate can be found.

CAPGEMINI

"Baltic’s knowledgeable staff have actively engaged with contacts in the local community, enabling
them to select candidates appropriate to our business needs."

Capgemini have been working with Baltic Training to deliver the
Advanced Apprenticeship programme. Their knowledgeable staff
have actively engaged with contacts in the local community,
enabling them to select candidates appropriate to our business
needs.

We are currently inducting the sixteenth group, our approach is
evolving and we require a company that is able to change with us.
I have been impressed by the flexibility of the Baltic Training team
to adapt and meet our needs.

Delivering outstanding service to our clients is vital and the
training we provide to our people underpins this. Baltic Training
has met our expectations, delivering a wide variety of IT and
customer service training that has ensured our Apprentices are
equipped to progress through what is a challenging programme.

The training is tailored to suit our requirements, with up front and
ongoing sessions built in to work alongside the SCQF modules and
the Capgemini client specific programme.

Future groups are currently being planned in for 2016, and that
says everything about our experience with Baltic Training to date.

North Tyneside Council

"Our meeting here on site was informative and inspired us with confidence that we were dealing with a highly professional and experienced company."

I would just like to thank you both for the professional and
efficient way you have both dealt with our request for support
in recruiting an apprentice. Our initial contact with you was
on the recommendation of our Chair of Governors, who has
recruited several apprentices with you, for the local authority at
North Tyneside. We have certainly not been disappointed. The
communication from the outset was first class. Our meeting
here on site was informative and inspired us with confidence
that we were dealing with a highly professional and experienced
company. We have worked with other training providers in the
past around apprenticeship programmes, but this has not always
worked out as we have hoped. Our initial contact with Baltic
Training has inspired us with confidence that you can deliver!

We are particularly delighted that we now seem to have found
a young man who on first meeting, seems to be of an extremely
high calibre. In particular, we were impressed by how very
well-prepared he was - in fact some of his answers were more
thorough than candidates much more experienced than he
is. Jack came across as articulate, confident and extremely
personable, as well as having a high standard of skill and
knowledge. He gave us the impression that he is very keen
to learn; hard-working, willing to be flexible, a self-starter and
highly motivated.

As we are an educational establishment ourselves, we know
how difficult it can be to impress upon young people the
importance of being prepared for interview - and the difference
this can make to a future employer.

Jack is an outstanding example of someone who had clearly done
his homework. He had researched some facts about our
organisation and had clearly given thought to possible
questions he might be asked. He showed a genuine
interest in wanting to be part of our organisation and hopefully
contributing to our continued success.

Computacenter

Computacenter began working with Baltic Training three years ago. We launched our first apprenticeship programme for our Global Service Desk in January 2013. Year on year the programme has increased in scale, profitability & completion success rate which results in the young person being offered a full-time role with Computacenter.

We recognise the need to invest in young people and the value of apprenticeships... we wanted to invest in young bright people who are the modern IT generation. Youngsters who can handle multiple chat support windows at one time, quickly get to grips with the latest in service centre technology & are genuinely enthusiastic about IT because they live and breathe it.

This is where Baltic Training comes in:

Baltic was recommended to me by the Global Service Desk Director, Paul Anderson... I was immediately impressed by two things from Baltic, which I consider their key differentiator in the marketplace.

Firstly they are driven to understand the needs of your business; they understand that a one solution approach to recruitment, training and support of apprenticeships can be different for every company. Baltic fully understands our business and the needs of our multiple customers.

They have immersed themselves in our service to ensure that when recruiting they can entice young talent that is the right fit for our business. They understand our company values, internal policies and have built a strong working relationship with the line managers of the apprentices resulting in unified approach and support.

Secondly, they are adaptable and enterprising. Value-add activities include building a two-week pre-apprenticeship programme prior to selection. This enables our leadership team to spend more time with these young adults observing them completing technical training, during group working activities, workshops and Q&A sessions about our business. They also complete work experience within our Service Desk during this phase.

The benefit outcome of the pre-apprenticeship includes increased ownership of apprentices from Team Leaders in our organisation who saw their potential prior to recruitment, an increase in quality of the candidate, better selection and pass rate overall. Through Baltic’s support and guidance, we have increased from close to the national average pass rate of 65% to our current 81%...

In summary, I highly recommend Baltic Training as an apprenticeship training supplier. Everyone who we have worked within their organisation has been a complete professional. This is why we choose Baltic over other competitors to work with us on other initiatives such as our Adult Apprenticeship programmes for IT and Customer Service, ITIL V3 training & other IT courses that benefit our organisation.

RICOH

"Baltic have provided Ricoh with some outstanding candidates that have gone on to create great careers for themselves whilst also improving the skillset of the teams they have been placed in."

Having worked with Louise and her team at Baltic training
over the last few years I have found them professional in
their approach and made it easy for Ricoh to develop its
apprenticeship offering into more areas of our business.

Baltic are now more of a Ricoh partner than a training provider,
they get to know our business via Louise directly or her team of
account managers, so they are in a better position to provide
the best candidates for the available roles. They will always find
solutions to our challenges so they have minimal impact of the
day to day role of our staff especially when fitting the training
programmes around departmental workload.

Baltic have provided Ricoh with some outstanding candidates
that have gone on to create great careers for themselves whilst
also having the additional benefit of improving the skillset of the
teams they have been placed in. whether that be by traditional
apprenticeships for new starters, adult apprenticeships or
bespoke development programmes for existing employees.

It goes without saying that apprenticeships are the way forward
for all businesses and at Ricoh we have found that Baltic are the
perfect partner for us to drive this agenda forward.