Hopwood Hall College and local training provider team up to help school leavers

Hopwood Hall College is working with local training provider MANTRA to help ensure school leavers to have a clear pathway into employment.

MANTRA is a logistics specialist who trains hundreds of local people to work on the many industrial estates within Rochdale, Middleton and Heywood. In addition to providing training for adults who are already in employment, they also train young people - straight from school - on apprenticeships and traineeships.

Their ‘Logistics Academy’ provides young people aged 16-24 with a pathway to careers in logistics; often they help 16-year-olds to get onto an apprenticeship, but then find that many are just not work-ready at that age. So, the Principal of Hopwood Hall College Derek O’Toole and their CEO Mark Currie got together to work out a solution to the problem.

Their solution is that those learners who may not be ready to start an apprenticeship yet are to be directed to the College first; over the course of a year, Hopwood Hall College will focus on giving them employability skills and building their confidence. Once they have these vital skills, they’ll go back to MANTRA to do a traineeship over the summer. Then, after they have done this, MANTRA will try to secure them an apprenticeship in the logistics field.

Principal and CEO of Hopwood Hall College, Derek O’Toole explained: “It’s a win-win situation for everyone including, most importantly, the young people that we will be helping into employment.”

CEO of Mantra Learning, Mark Currie added: “Logistics offers a great career path for young people. It is fast-growing, dynamic and increasingly utilises the very latest technology. We have some fantastic household-name employers in Rochdale, Heywood and Middleton who are keen to recruit bright, enthusiastic young people. Our collaboration with the College will ensure that potential apprentices acquire the skills, knowledge and maturity that these employers are looking for.”