Meet the apprentices working their way to the top

This week is National Apprenticeship Week, a celebration designed to shine a light on the positive impact that apprenticeships make. The BBC has been talking to three young people in Devon and Cornwall who are loving life as an apprentice.

"I'm looking forward to seeing where it can take me."

Harley, 17, from Newton Abbot, Devon is one of six apprentices taken on this year by the global mining giant Sibelco at their south Devon operation.

He is helping to run the weighbridge at Kingsteignton while completing his on-the-job and classroom-based training.

He cheerfully admitted he would love to be operating some of the heavy machinery used across Sibelco's clay mining operations - but he needs a driving licence first.

"At the moment I'm focused on learning the job properly and passing my driving test," Harley said.

"Once that's done, I can start thinking about the bigger machines.

"It's great to be part of the team here and everyone has been really supportive since I started.

"It's good to be learning on site and getting proper experience while working towards my qualifications."

Graham Hole, Business Partner HR (UK) at Sibelco, said they had first met Harley at a school event when he was just 14.

"I'm really pleased for him and proud that as a company we have put the processes in place to spot talent locally and support young people to build long-term careers with us," he said.

Holly Dolan is another success story, collecting the title of Cornwall's Apprentice of the Year 2026 at an award ceremony organised by Truro & Penwith College.

The Horticulture apprentice was based at the Eden Project on a course supervised by Cornwall College.

To avoid a long commute Holly lived in her van and used the extra time to submit work months in advance of her deadlines. She also led a team that created a much-admired Cornwall Spring Flower Show exhibit.

Her advice to anyone thinking of doing an apprenticeship?

"100% do it because it give you the opportunity to be vulnerable and make mistakes without as much pressure," she said.

"It gives you the opportunities to grow more."

Dillon Newton, 23, from Ruthernbridge, Cornwall is in the final year of a four-year plumbing apprenticeship at The Cornwall College Group.

"I just wanted to basically go into a skilled trade, something that would be behind me for life, something there would be a lot of job security in," he recalled.

"I think it was quite daunting because you're faced with something you know absolutely nothing about at the start, I think that could put a lot of people off.

"No-one really likes doing things they're not good at - swimmers swim because they're good at it, people play rugby because they're good at it.

"When you're faced with something you know absolutely nothing about, it can be pretty challenging at the start but it can also be really rewarding."

Dillon Newton recently showed off his gas plumbing skills by winning a gold medal at the WorldSkills UK Finals 2025.

Competitors had to complete a two-and-a-half-day task installing a boiler, cylinder and shower as judges marked the work on accuracy, tidiness and craftsmanship.

"Every pipe centre, bend and appliance will have a set measurement that it has to be, in the rule book it says every measurement has a two millimetre tolerance so we're working to very small margins," said Newton.

Government data shows in 2024/25 a total of 353,500 apprenticeship began in England - up by 13,500 compared with 2023/24.

Over three-quarters of those were in one of four subject areas:

• Business, Administration and Law
• Health, Public Services and Care
• Engineering and Manufacturing Technologies
• Digital Technology

The government recently announced £725m of investment to help 50,000 more young people into apprenticeships matching skills training with local job opportunities.

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