National Apprenticeship Week

Stagecoach South Celebrates Bus Driving Apprentices 

Stagecoach South are marking National Apprenticeship Week by celebrating its bus driving apprenticeships. Stagecoach work with training provider Realise on delivering their bus driving apprenticeships. Realise deliver apprenticeships, adult learning courses and development programmes across the country.

The bus driving apprenticeship programme is conducted over 14 months and covers driving license training, national driver training programme and mentoring. Bus driving apprentices have 10 workshops to attend with their Training and Development Officer to help develop knowledge, skills and behaviours required for their future role as a bus driver. The workshops range from accident prevention, having good safety conversations, technical problem solving, legal compliance and driving and decision making.

Three additional workshops are provided to prepare apprentices for their end point assessment where they are observed in service and had a professional review.

Anyone can apply for a bus driving apprenticeship. Ralph Turtle (pictured right) who completed his apprenticeship in 2021 in Worthing, swapped a 30 year career as a pilot for driving buses after the pandemic hit.

Speaking as part of National Apprenticeship Week, Ralph said: “I love any mode of transport and meeting different people so driving buses is the perfect job for me.

“To some people, it may seem a little strange starting an apprenticeship and a new career at the age of 65 but I’ve always been someone who loves to learn around my job.

“The apprenticeship has been a really enjoyable experience and the team at Realise have been fantastic in delivering the different elements.

“There’s so much more to the apprenticeship than simply driving the bus, such as customer service, route planning and much more.

“All of the trainers have been bus drivers themselves in the past so they are able to deliver the sessions through their real life experiences, which are invaluable.”

We’re also celebrating Ryan Goodridge who has recently completed his bus driving apprenticeship in Andover.

Operations Director for Stagecoach South Gordon Frost said:

 “The Stagecoach bus driving apprenticeship is a great programme, and a direction that many may not have thought of pursuing when thinking about their career choices.

“The programme covers every aspect of the driving role, from customer service to understanding legal compliance, route planning and of course putting apprentices through their CPC licence training.”

“As you can see with our current apprentices, the programme is open to everyone and we encourage people to take a look at our current opportunities and join us, it’s a great way of getting into the industry and there are plenty of chances on progressing throughout the business.”

More information on Stagecoach apprenticeships can be found online at https://www.stagecoachbus.com/careers.