Last weekend, the inaugural British Young Riders Dressage Scheme (BYRDS) Symposium was held at Reaseheath College Equestrian Centre.
The schedule for the BYRDS Symposium, which was titled ‘Two Athletes – One Performance’, was packed-full of interactive presentations from a host of industry experts with topics ranging from sports science, rider psychology and training methods.
A trainee groundsman at one of the country’s top golf courses and a trainee food development technologist who helps to bring new ready meals to the supermarket shelf took the top titles at Reaseheath College’s Apprenticeship Awards.
Advanced Apprentice of the Year James Tickner of Hitchen Foods
Peter Lewis, an apprentice groundsman at the Royal Liverpool Golf Club, Hoylake, was crowned ‘Level 2 Apprentice of the Year’ while James Tickner, a development apprentice with Bakkavor Hitchen Foods, Wigan, was awarded ‘Advanced Apprentice of the Year’.
The event marked the achievements of 150 apprentices who had gained their qualifications at the Nantwich, Cheshire, specialist college in the past year. It was held during National Apprenticeships Week, a celebration of the benefits which apprentices bring to businesses and to the national economy by increasing productivity and providing workforce succession.
Also selected for special awards were Best Horticulture Apprentice Rebecca Dawson, who works at Cholmondeley Castle Gardens, Malpas, Best Construction Apprentice (Brickwork) Adam Platt, who is employed by Greg Lambert Ltd., building contractors in Northwich and Best Construction Apprentice (Joinery) Ewan Collins of Magno Property Maintenance in Whitchurch.
Best Agricultural Apprentice was Jordan Brandrick, who works for his family’s arable farm in Burton-on-Trent and Best Food Apprentice was William Hill, an apprentice butcher with Woolliscroft Butchers, Stoke-on-Trent
Best Agricultural Engineering Apprentice (Parts, Sales and Marketing) was Mary Wallbank, a customer care trainee with Guy Machinery Ltd, Gisburn, Lancashire. Mary, 21, joined guest speaker Lee Webster, Managing Director of Hultons Landscapes, on stage to make a presentation to a packed audience of employers and families.
Best Agricultural Engineering apprentice (Parts, Sales and Marketing) Mary Wallbank addresses guests
Opening the ceremony, Reaseheath Principal Meredydd David emphasised that apprenticeships were recognised by the government as the preferred training route for employers and that demands for places from young people were currently at an all time high.
The apprenticeship training programme delivered meaningful and highly valued qualifications along with skills and knowledge which were of vital importance to the country’s economy. Continuous upskilling was essential if the UK’s workforce was to be able to compete in European and world markets.
Describing the apprentices as the future leaders of local businesses and communities, he said: “You will be the influencers and the drivers for change. Through the skills and knowledge you have gained, and through your resilience and adaptability, you will prosper.”
Meredydd also pointed out that Reaseheath’s apprenticeship provision had earned praise from Ofsted inspectors last November, with the college’s outstanding work with employers and the industries it serves being particularly commended.
The college’s apprenticeship frameworks and success rates were well above the national average and apprentice satisfaction rates were also very high.
Speaking from the employers’ point of view, Lee Webster confirmed: “A Reaseheath apprenticeship is a qualification that horticultural employers value highly. Having a Reaseheath ticket on their CV helps to make young people more employable.”
Reaseheath currently has 355 apprentices studying agriculture, agricultural engineering, animal care, construction, construction plant, food industry skills, horse care, horticulture, motor vehicle and sports turf.
Other apprentices to be commended during the evening were:
For further details of apprenticeships visit www.reaseheath.ac.uk/apprenticeships or call Reaseheath Training on 01270 613221
Reaseheath student Paige Jepson and her border collie Poppy beat off strong competition to take an obedience title at Crufts, the world’s most prestigious dog show, last weekend.
The 18 year-old, who lives near Congleton, took the top award in the Young Kennel Club’s (YKC) Pre-Beginners Good Citizen Stakes after she and Poppy completed a flawless round. The pair also made the final of the YKC Handler of the year class. And it wasn’t just Poppy who came under the spotlight, as Paige and another of her dogs, a bearded collie called Puzzle, qualified for the final of the YKC pastoral stakes.
Paige shows off Puzzle in the pastoral showing class
“I was very pleased with both of the dogs,” said Paige. “This was the first time I had competed in an obedience class at Crufts so I was quite nervous to start with, but we had an almost perfect round which made me feel confident that I’d done well.
“While Poppy is eight and quite steady, Puzzle is only two years old but he did everything I asked of him too. Crufts is my favourite show and this year it was really special.”
It is not the first time Paige and Poppy have been under the spotlight at Crufts – last year they won the YKC’s ‘Over 12 groom through’, and were then awarded Runner Up in the YKC’s ‘Groomer of the Year’. They have competed at Crufts in grooming competitions for the past five years but this is the first year they have challenged the obedience category.
Paige has another three border collies at home and spends much of her free time training her dogs. She’s a member of the Danesford Obedience Dog Training Club in Congleton and the Dig It Dog Training in Sandbach, where she practices dog agility and competitive obedience. She also helps to teach dog training at club level.
Paige has almost completed her Level 3 Extended Diploma in Agriculture with us and originally thought of entering dairy herd management. But now we’ve launched a Foundation Degree in Canine Training and Behaviour she is considering widening her canine skills and possibly turning her hobby into a career.
Header image caption: Paige and Poppy celebrate their obedience win at Crufts
Local MP Antoinette Sandbach watched horticulture trainees grow their skills during a visit to Reaseheath College on Monday.
MP Antoinette Sandbach joins Latisha Woolley and Simon Daynes in Reaseheath’s high tech glasshouses.
The MP for Eddisbury was at the Nantwich college to help launch activities for National Apprenticeships Week, a celebration of the benefits that skilled apprentices bring to businesses and to the national economy by increasing productivity and ensuring workforce succession.
Antoinette joined the trainees, who are being prepared for entry into an apprenticeship programme, at Reaseheath’s new Centre for Horticulture, the Environment and Sustainable Technology.
After chatting to Latisha Woolley, 21, and Simon Daynes, 20, as they worked in the college’s high tech trial facilities, Antoinette said: “Apprenticeships offer a great option for both students and employers as they deliver the qualifications and skills that our growing industries require. Young people can earn while learning and also be confident that they have started on an excellent route into employment.
“It is good to see that Reaseheath puts apprenticeships at the heart of its education and training programme and that it works so closely with regional and national employers to make sure that its training programmes deliver appropriate skills.
“I am also delighted that the college, through its traineeships, is supporting the government’s agenda to ensure that young people who have left school remain on a training programme until they are at least 18 years old.”
Traineeship programmes provide progression into apprenticeships by giving trainees the chance to improve their English and maths, learn interview techniques, become more confident and receive support in their search for a suitable apprenticeship.
Latisha, of Crewe, completed Level 1 and Level 2 Diplomas in Horticulture at Reaseheath before moving onto her traineeship with Malkins Bank Golf Club, Sandbach. She enjoys helping to maintain the golf course so much that she is hoping to secure an apprenticeship in sports turf.
Simon, also from Crewe, has a Level1 Diploma in Horticulture and is actively looking for an apprenticeship in that field. He is currently gaining valuable experience at a Christmas tree plantation.
Reaseheath College is a leading trainer of apprentices and trainees throughout Cheshire and surrounding counties and also provides a valuable recruitment service for employers.
The college and its sister company DART Training currently trains around 1,000 apprentices and trainees. Reaseheath Training works with over 300 employers, from national blue chip companies to small, local enterprises, and is looking for more employers to take on apprentices.
Typically, apprentices receive academic and practical training at Reaseheath on one day a week and spend the rest of their week in their workplace. Training programmes can start at any time of the year, and there are vacancies in a number of trades currently available.
For further details see www.reaseheath.ac.uk/apprenticeships
Reaseheath College’s action packed exhibition was awarded ‘Best Interactive Stand’ at last week’s Skills North West event.
Reaseheath florists share their skills with visitors on the Spotlight Stage at Skills North West
The college took top honours after judges gave it full marks for the enthusiasm of its staff and students and the diversity of ‘have a go’ activities it offered visitors. School groups from across the region enjoyed activities including riding the college’s mechanical horse, making jewellery from flowers, dissecting a rat (plastic!) and talking to stick insects.
Food students demonstrate chocolate making at Skills North West
Visitors also had the chance to taste chocolate prepared by our patisserie and bakery students and take part in interactive construction related games.
Throughout the two day showcase event staff and students from our food, floristry and animal management departments made several appearances on the ‘Spotlight Stage’, where they wowed visitors with live demonstrations and specialist talks.
Marketing Team Leader Stephanie Owen said: “This was a fantastic showcase for the college, particularly as for many of the schools who attended, this was the first time they had heard of Reaseheath.
“It was brilliant to see the enthusiasm from our staff and students who worked so hard to ensure the success of the event. Organisers were so impressed they have offered us extra exhibition space next year!”
Reaseheath students have celebrated success in the prestigious Chartered Institute of Horticulture’s ‘Young Horticulturist of the Year’ competition.
Two Reaseheath trained students were among eight contestants to qualify for the North West and North Wales regional final, held in our new Centre for Horticulture, the Environment and Sustainable Technology last weekend.
The demanding competition, in front of an audience of supporters, tested the breadth of the contestants’ knowledge over ten hard fought rounds with the quickest off the buzzer gaining valuable points.
Former Reaseheath horticulture student Matt Wood, who was in the open category, took the runner-up position while Finin Talbot, representing Reaseheath, was narrowly beaten into fifth place.
Matt, 26, joined us from school and progressed to a Level 3 Diploma in Plant Production. He now runs The Tiny Plant Company in Northwich with partner Susi Boxall. Finin, 25, a current Level 3 Extended Diploma in Horticulture student, qualified for the regional final after winning an inter college heat contested by over 30 students. He wants to be a collections manager in a tropical house
Winner of the regional final was Joshua Stevens from South Staffordshire College, while Jamie Leslie, a student gardener at Chatsworth House, was third. Other contestants were Mike Wilkinson (Myerscough College), Jacob Watts (Derby College), Jen Hyatt (Nottingham Trent University) and Sion Williams (Coleg Cambria).
The top three celebrate – Jamie Leslie, Joshua Stevens and Matt Wood
Joshua, 18, now goes through to the grand finals to be held at the National Botanical Gardens in Dublin in May. The national winner will receive a £2,500 travel bursary sponsored by the Shropshire Horticulture Society through The Percy Thrower Trust.
Reaseheath has strongly supported the competition, which is open to horticulturists aged between 16 and 30, for many years. We encourage as many students as possible to take part and have had national finalists in previous years. We also hosted the national finals last year.
Sue Nicholas, Young Horticulturist of the Year Action Group Chair, said: “We were delighted to bring this competition back to Reaseheath and have been very impressed with the new facilities here.
“Over 2,500 young people are eligible for this competition. Those who have qualified for the regional final here have done really well and should be congratulated.”
Image caption: Regional finalists l-r Finin Talbot, Jamie Leslie, Joshua Stevens, Sion Williams, Matt Wood, Jen Hyatt, Mike Wilkinson and Jacob Watts
Reaseheath College’s Food Centre in Cheshire has gained a globally recognised Grade A certification for food safety from the British Retail Consortium (BRC) for the third successive year. The college remains the first and only educational institution in Britain to achieve the accreditation for BRC issue 7, the latest benchmark for best practice in food manufacture.
The quality mark was approved after an exacting repeat audit showed that Reaseheath’s food manufacturing systems continue to operate under highly controlled conditions and to the highest industry standards. Areas inspected included food safety procedures, cleanliness of the facility, knowledge of staff and students and the traceability of food ingredients.
The successful bid was led by Reaseheath’s newly appointed Quality Assurance Manager Shaun Whitlock, who said: “Any changes to the BRC standards are a difficult time for industry, however the college has taken this head on and achieved the results we wanted. Changes to the standard include stricter supplier management, labelling control and prevention of food fraud.
“The team has worked extremely hard to ensure we can deliver the best possible service to our students and local businesses and should be congratulated on their success. Thanks to their hard work, we can ensure the ever changing standards followed within industry are replicated in a controlled learning environment.”
As well as Shaun’s appointment, the Food Centre’s team has been reinvigorated with the promotion of Nick Blakemore to Food Centre Manager from Curriculum Manager, and the recruitment of Emily Fisher as the new commercial development manager. Emily, who has previously been employed by several blue chip companies, is working closely with national and international businesses on food trials and training. Julie Bent has been promoted to Commercial Development Co-Ordinator.
There have also been some major renovations to the bakery to allow the introduction of a Bakery and Patisserie foundation degree.
Reaseheath’s £7 million Food Centre was opened in 2011 and remains one of the best equipped food processing teaching and practical facilities in Europe.
Built to exacting standards and staffed by a team of specialist food technologists recruited directly from the food industry, the centre has dairy processing halls and production areas for butchery, bakery, cake design and confectionery. Many local, national and international food and drink manufacturers use the facilities for new product development, technical advice or staff training. These partnerships lead to work experience and job opportunities for the college’s food technology students. The college also offers training sessions to members of the public which include cake decoration, HACCP and food safety.
For further details see www.reaseheathfoodcentre.com
Caption: Shaun Whitlock and other members of the processing halls team celebrate gaining BRC7
Talented Reaseheath trained florist Anna Eite is putting her entrepreneurial skills into action as her new business develops.
Anna Eite
After completing her Level 3 Diploma in Floristry at Reaseheath in 2014, Anna went straight on to launch her own home-based business, Anna Flora. Offering a range of services including bespoke floral packages, wedding flowers, workshops, masterclasses and her specialist ‘floral experience’, business is continuing to flourish.
Anna prides herself in using only the freshest, best quality, seasonal flowers designed and tailored to her clients’ needs, offering a bespoke design service. Her floral masterclasses run throughout the year, the most popular being Christmas Wreath Making, with the next masterclass running at Easter. Her business is now partnered with Red Letter Days offering floral masterclasses with an accompanying champagne afternoon tea service. With a strong interest in specific flower varieties, colours and detailed work Anna is developing her business to specialise in weddings.
Anna Eite prepares floral bouquets
During her time at Reaseheath Anna was crowned most talented floristry student in Britain after winning gold at the WorldSkills UK national finals in 2014.
Anna, 21, who lives in Acton, Nantwich, took the top title in the advanced section against strong competition from the best students from colleges and training providers nationwide. The taxing competition was held over three days in front of thousands of visitors at The Skills Show in Birmingham, the country’s biggest showcase of vocational skills and careers. Tasks included designing a floral hat, belt and chair, making up a planted container and taking part in a team project.
Supported and trained for the competition by Programme Leader for Floristry Sue Poole. Said Sue: “This was a fantastic result and we are all so proud of Anna. She was a wonderful representative for Reaseheath and for the floristry department.”
Anna was also member of the 2014 student team who won Reaseheath the title of RHS Tatton Park Floristry College of the Year, which enabled the team to compete at RHS Chelsea seeing them win an Silver medal.
Said Anna: “Competing in front of so many people was a great experience. It was good to see how well I could work under pressure and how hard I could push myself, fantastic preparation for starting up my own business.”
Find out more about Anna’s business at www.annafloraflorist.co.uk
Hundreds of local families flocked to Reaseheath College over the weekend for the first of two lambing and zoo events.
Spring has sprung in the Nantwich college’s lambing sheds with the arrival of the first newborns of the season. The lambing weekends have been a major draw to the college over the past 20 years, with many visitors returning each season to meet the lambs and hopefully experience a live birth. 500 expectant ewes are due to produce 1,000 lambs, including three sets of quads and 59 sets of triplets. The college’s agriculture students have been staying up through the night to make sure the lambs and their mothers get the best care.
The campus zoo is also open to the public. The zoo houses over 1,000 animals including meerkats, lemurs, tapirs, otters, companion animals such as rabbits and guinea pigs, reptiles and amphibians. Families can get involved in handling and flying birds of prey, thanks to student members of Reaseheath’s Birds of Prey Society who are running special sessions with some of the college’s owls.
Reaseheath’s lambing and zoo event is on again next weekend, March 12 and 13 (10am – 4pm)
A family ticket for both attractions is £25.
Find out more at www.reaseheath.ac.uk/lambing
Watch a group of children who had the opportunity to see triplets being born at our Lambing event on Sunday:
A pioneering Skipton farmer Sam Moorhouse is Britain’s first to make and sell a healthy Icelandic style super-yogurt.
Dairy engineer
Thorarinn Sveinsson with Sam Moorhouse
After completing his National Diploma in Agriculture at Reaseheath and spending time travelling Australia Sam knew he wanted to focus on the future of his family farm.
Sam of Hesper Farm at Bell Busk, initially launched Hesper Farm Skyr at the 2015 Harrogate Fine Food Show after researching ideas on how the family dairy farm could diversify.
Inspired by his research into the Icelandic cow and trips to Iceland to train in the art of making the naturally fat-free skyr, Sam recognised the potential of the product.
After extensive market research to confirm the demand for skyr in the UK, he took the product to Reaseheath Food Centre for initial trials to achieve his perfect formula.
Sam, 22, whose family has farmed locally for generations, is proud to be the first farmer to launch skyr in Britain and the first to bring skyr to the market with British milk. The skyr is produced onsite using milk from the farm’s award winning Airburn herd.
It’s currently available to buy from a host of farm shops and delis across the Yorkshire as well as being stocked by chefs and businesses via Wellocks wholesalers and plans in place for further expansion later this year.
He explains: “I started to read up on skyr when I was looking at ways we might be able to diversify. It really caught my attention because of its massive across Scandinavia and Iceland, and has really taken off in America too.
“It’s a really interesting product with great health benefits and I realised no-one was making it here. We are the first farm to make it onsite with our own specially-trained expertise, using our own British milk.
Baby the cow
“The cow on our pots and logo epitomises what we are trying to do. It’s a drawing of a cow called Baby that I bought at auction a long time ago. I liked the look of her unusual markings. Her temperament means she always stands out from the crowd too.
She does exactly as she pleases and there is no persuading her otherwise! She’s been with us all these years and really represents our aim in doing something different and making skyr – we don’t follow the herd.”
Sam realised he would need expert tuition to learn how to make it, so set off for Reykjavik and asked around delis until he was put in touch with dairy engineer Thorarinn Sveinsson, who works for the Icelandic Farmers Union. Thorarinn taught him the labour-intensive process behind making skyr and then visited Hesper Farm once the new purpose-built dairy was finished to make sure the skyr Sam was producing was perfect.
Hesper Farm Skyr range
Thorarinn said: “I had been getting increasing numbers of phone calls from people interested in skyr but I was so impressed with Sam, I knew I wanted to work with him. He has taken the whole process so seriously and has paid attention to every last detail. In fact he is using a heritage culture which originally dates back to 874,meaning his skyr is genuine Icelandic skyr – the real thing made in the Yorkshire Dales.
“Skyr is part of everyday life in Iceland. I am sure that with its delicious taste and the health benefits you’ll see it becoming part of life here too. I have loved my visit to the Yorkshire Dales. It is a truly beautiful part of England.”
With business going from strength to strength, most recently Sam featured on James Martin’s Home Comforts where he demonstrated his approach to skyr production.
For more information about Hesper Farm Skyr please visit www.hesperfarmskyr.co.uk