Thanks to our winning relationship with Southampton City College, we have picked up a prestigious award of “Employer of the Year”.

The Princess Royal presented us, along with two other Hampshire employers, with awards recognising commitment to training their staff at the college’s employer recognition awards on April 20 at St Mary’s Stadium. The awards are part of the business skills department City Training’s annual Apprenticeship Presentation Ceremony.

Bluestar was declared a winner not only for its support to its employees, but also for its work setting up City Training’s transport engineering course. The college had wanted to run the course but was deterred by the set-up costs until Bluestar donated engines, pistons and ticket machine for students to work on.

Last year, an entire vehicle was donated to the College. Steve Prewett is seen here handing the keys over and guiding through the vehicles’ records with City College’s Stephanie Wallis.

Now City College is the only college in the south and outside London to run the course and offer such fantastic hands-on learning opportunities to its learners.

This year, a further vehicle is being donated to the College to help students – this time as a mobile learning resource to take to schools and youth clubs. This is currently being prepared and will be launched during 2009.

Bluestar, which has been working with City Training for two years, has encouraged other members of Go Ahead Group, such as Wilts & Dorset and Tourist Coaches, to send its learners to City Training. Across the three companies, we send around 20 apprentices per year to train at the College. Last year, Bluestar’s Robbie Wakefield picked up the award for Apprentice of the Year amongst all of Go Ahead Group’s apprentices in the South Coast.

David Murley, Director of Employer Engagement and Managing Director of City Training, said: “We work with more than 500 companies in the south, all of whom are worthy winners in their own rights, but Bluestar stood out because of their outstanding dedication to the training of their staff.”