A former winner of The Apprentice - Lee McQueen - visited Otley College today to highlight the value of Apprenticeship qualifications to students and businesses in East Anglia.
McQueen hosted a question and answer session with Otley students from across the college before talking to an audience of around 100 guests from the local business community.
Lee worked for Lord Sugar for two years but has just set up his own 'Raw Talent Academy' that aims to give advice to businesses on recruitment.
McQueen, said, "I really enjoyed visiting Otley College and meeting both young apprentices and business people from this region. Clearly there are a lot of good things happening in East Anglia in relation to Apprenticeships and this is good to see."
"Apprenticeships are affordable and incredibly helpful for businesses. They create great employees who gain relevant skills for the workplace and I definitely recommend that people get involved and find out more about these qualifications."
College spokesperson, John Nice, added, "We were delighted to welcome Lee to the college."
"His talk about his experiences was both insightful and informative."
"It is important that as a college, we get the message out to employers and employees that apprenticeship qualifications are a fantastic way of gaining new skills and Lee definitely helped us do this."
Three young apprentices also talked briefly to the guests about their experiences.
Tom Parkhurst (21 year old landlord of the Four Horseshoes in Thornham Magna, Suffolk and former Otley Apprentice), Vicky Nicholson (currently works for e-skills UK and lives in Colchester) and Rhianna Wingar (works for the National Apprenticeship Service in Ipswich), all gained Apprenticeship qualifications whilst working in Suffolk and now represent a national organisation called the 'Young Apprentice Ambassadors Network': a group that was set up by former Apprentice contestant Claire Young who came second to Lee in the 2008 TV series.
