BUSINESS LIFE When Craig Corneille started his apprenticeship nearly three years ago he was sent to HMS Sultan, the Royal Navy base on England’s south coast, to learn basic engineering skills. Today in his third and final year, the 19-year-old says being in a new environment with state-of-the-art facilities was a great place to learn.
Mr Corneille is a member of one of the largest apprenticeship schemes in the country but he is not a Royal Navy recruit. His employer is in fact Network Rail. He is among nearly 200 apprentices who each year benefit from Network Rail’s decision to outsource its training to VT Group, the shipbuilder and support services group and Britain’s largest training company. Its education and skills subsidiary runs an operation called Flagship which has a long-term training agreement with the Royal Navy that gives it access to HMS Sultan, the largest military training establishment in Europe.
