Last Friday saw the return of one of the highlights of my year.
My sixth annual Maidstone Apprenticeship Fair kicked off at 9.30am at Maidstone Leisure Centre, and over the course of the day we saw 1,800 local students come and meet nearly 70 local and national employers to talk about their futures.
6 of my Kent MP colleagues and I host this Fair every year to open local students’ eyes to some of the brilliant opportunities out there, and increasingly we meet apprentices who started their journey at a previous Fair.
University can be a good option but it’s far from the only one, and we're working hard to put technical and vocational education on an equal footing with traditional academic routes. Apprenticeships are a fast-track to develop skills while working and earning, and they're available across all kinds of sectors.
We had employers from Amazon to the NHS at the fair, as well as local companies like Shepherd Neame and Gallagher Group. We even had some smaller Faversham and Mid Kent businesses like MEP Ltd and Bedfont Scientific.
Leaving school and entering the world of work is a big step in all of our lives. The more students know about what’s out there, the better they can plan their future.
