Careers Collaboration with Ishida

Solihull Sixth Form College are collaborating with local manufacturing company Ishida to give learners apprenticeship opportunities.

A small group of students visited the Head Office of Ishida Europe in May to learn about their apprenticeship opportunities. The company manufactures machinery for factory production lines and the students got an opportunity to see the sort of careers available with the firm on the visit.

Careers Co-ordinator Mary Cunningham commented:

"The trip to Ishida was a fantastic opportunity for the students to see one possible employment and training route open to them and we are grateful to the staff at Ishida for making us so welcome."

The link up between Ishida and the College has come in part through the College's work with the Greater Birmingham Chamber of Commerce. Assistant Principal Trevor Irving explained:

"The College's Careers department works closely with the Chamber to make sure that our young people can benefit from business links in the region. While a lot of our learners are progressing onto university, a significant minority do consider employment and training as their preferred choice. Collaborating with Ishida is the latest employability venture we have given those learners and we have lots more planned."

The College was recently awarded the Career Mark Platinum Award, which marks careers provision out as exemplary. The College first achieved the Career Mark Bronze Award in 2015 and has had five re-evaluations since then, moving up the ranks to the Silver and Gold awards, before achieving the top Platinum award this year. The award is a national Quality in Careers standard using the Career Mark approach provided by Complete Careers and demonstrates adherence to the Gatsby Benchmarks.

7 July 2025