Chesterfield College student creates Apprentice Town logo

Chesterfield’s Apprentice Town initiative has been given its own identity thanks to Chesterfield College student Jade Bright (18) from Killamarsh.

Jade’s winning design was selected from 28 entries submitted by students on the Extended Diploma in Graphic and Interactive Design course at Chesterfield College. Her design will now appear on a new website and literature for the Apprentice Town initiative which was recently launched to the town’s business community by Destination Chesterfield at the annual Celebrate Chesterfield event.

Already, there are more than 4,000 people currently participating in apprenticeships in Chesterfield. The town is the first in the UK to declare itself an ‘Apprentice Town’, demonstrating its commitment to growing the future and careers of young people alongside business and the economy.

The project was established by Chesterfield Borough Council and Chesterfield College in order to raise awareness of apprenticeships and promote co-operative working across the education, business and learning community. As part of winning the design competition, Jade also won £100 of equipment from Turners Art Supplies and work experience with Chesterfield Borough Council’s graphic designers.

Leading employment, training and investment organisations from Chesterfield are involved in the initiative and sit on the Apprentice Town steering group, including Destination Chesterfield, Chesterfield College, NLT Training Services, University of Derby, East Midlands Chamber, Jobcentre Plus, Enterprise Adviser Network and Derbyshire County Council.

Emily Williams, Senior Economic Development Officer at Chesterfield Borough Council who is leading the Apprentice Town initiative, said: “Already, Chesterfield is a town where young people, parents and our businesses think ‘Apprenticeship First’. We want to grow individuals’ careers and futures alongside our businesses and the logo design competition played a critical role in doing that as it enabled students to gain real life work experience.

“All the students involved stepped up to the challenge and conducted themselves brilliantly. We had some superb entries and choosing a final winning design was not an easy task for the Apprentice Town steering group.”

Julie Richards, Principal and Chief Executive of the Chesterfield College Group added: “Congratulations to Jade and all the shortlisted students who came up with some fantastic designs for the competition. Part of the Apprenticeship Town initiative is about preparing young people for work so it is wonderful that students have been given the opportunity to design the logo which will be at the forefront of the campaign. Taking part has allowed them to develop skills they will need in their future careers as designers. We are looking forward to giving more young people and businesses opportunities to get the skills they need by working with Chesterfield Borough Council to help increase apprenticeship participation in the town.”

Dominic Stevens, Manager of Destination Chesterfield added: “With more than 4,000 new jobs set to be created over the next five years in and around Chesterfield, it is important that we retain and develop young talent in the town in order to attract more employers to invest here. The Apprentice Town initiative will play a key role in showing our commitment and collaborative approach to helping companies recruit and develop their workforce both now and in the future.”

For further details of Apprentice Town, please visit http://www.chesterfield.co.uk/about-chesterfield/working/apprenticeships/