Letters

College apprentices treated shabbily

MY grandson, along with all other apprentices at Kingston Maurward College, were recently informed, midacademic year, that the college was no longer going to be running apprenticeships.

All, including my grandson – who is on an Arboriculture apprenticeship – were emailed out of the blue and given just two weeks’ notice that the college would no longer be providing any provision for apprenticeships, and they were being relocated to Sparsholt College 64 miles away.

The college said: “The current operating climate, funding rates and inflationary pressures are making it financially unviable for us to continue to deliver apprenticeships.”

As a retired teacher, I find it appalling that Kingston Maurward took on apprentices just over three months ago, at the beginning academic year, when its funding for the year should have been in place, and yet now must cease all provision because it has run out of money!

How, before September, was it not aware of its overall financial situation?

It is incomprehensible that an educational establishment with a duty of care has treated its apprentices, some as young as 16, in such an off-hand, thoughtless manner. Particularly when so many of these young people will already have suffered a particularly difficult few years due to the pandemic.

The only help Kingston Maurward has given to some apprentices is to forward their details to Sparsholt College in the hope there will be enough spaces to accommodate them, and a bus timetable!

It could be argued that my grandson is lucky. He, fortunately, has a very supportive employer, which is doing its best to find a way to support its apprentices to complete their course. It recognises the importance of college tuition.

Kingston Maurward will argue that Sparsholt has agreed to fund a free bus for the students. The reality is this bus leaves Bournemouth – the starting point and 28 miles from Kingston Maurward – at 7am and takes over two hours to reach Sparsholt.

I am deeply concerned that many of the apprentices, particularly those living in the west of the county and those from low income families, will find it impossible to be in Bournemouth for 7am. How will they be supported?

Apart from the impact on the students’ lives, I don’t think this reflects well on the county! Hampshire, it seems, manages its funding to support an award-nominated college. Why isn’t this the case in Dorset? It’s heart-breaking to think that there will be no academic support in the county for future apprentices looking to go into agriculture and horticulturebased careers.

Also, where is Government support for apprenticeships? How on earth is this supposed to encourage economic growth and ‘levelling up’?

Mrs Bobbie Church via email

FOLLOWING on from David Prichard’s letter – New Blackmore Vale 23 December – about the Duke of Sussex, it is indeed bizarre that while spending much of their time publicly criticising the institution from which their titles derive – never, of course, the late Queen, whose last years they nevertheless didn’t scruple to blight – the Sussexes continue to use them, even whingeing that further titles haven’t been given to their children.

No doubt they are expecting an invitation to the Coronation, and will complain bitterly if they don’t get one.

Logic, consistency and

Cartoon by Lyndon Wall – justsocaricatures.co.uk

emotional intelligence are not the Sussexes forte.

At least we can be grateful they aren’t Duke and Duchess of Dorset!

Roger White Sherborne

MP Chris Loder – New Blackmore Vale, 9 December, meeting in Chideock – appears to have forgotten that it is his Government, with his support, which recently brought in increased legislation giving the police the authority to restrict/ prevent any demonstration or protest it does not approve of without reference to any judicial overview.

The visit by Dorset Police to the two innocent women is therefore no surprise.

It is also his Government which continues to delay and further delay legislation that might curb and control horrific and widespread online abuse, of which he too unfortunately has experience.

Roland Britain Gillingham

THE Dorset Committee of the Army Benevolent Fund, the Soldiers’ Charity, would like to thank all those generous shoppers who supported the fund during our tin collection at Shaftesbury Tesco on Friday 16 December.

We raised the impressive sum of £740.

The Army Benevolent Fund is the Army’s national charity founded in 1944 aimed at giving a lifetime of support to serving soldiers, former soldiers and their immediate families in time of need.