Great news for Middlesbrough resident Anthony, who has achieved huge success in his apprenticeship with Stockton Riverside College! At the age of 32, Anthony has completed his Team Leader NVQ and is now the Team Leader of Port Operations at AV Dawson!

Anthony’s current employer recognised his potential and offered him the opportunity to upskill with an apprenticeship, which he seized with both hands. After a few false starts in various fields, Anthony finally found his niche at AV Dawson, where he now works alongside his father.

When asked about his apprenticeship, Anthony was full of enthusiasm, saying “You only get out of apprenticeships, what you put into them, but I recommend an apprenticeship to everyone!”

The former Unity City Academy student spoke about how in his industry, sometimes experience can be worth more than theoretical knowledge, however, he said “I think apprenticeships are the way forward. You get paid whilst learning, they can be flexible, and you get the experience whilst still achieving the qualification to back your skills up.”

Phil Dorn, Logistics Team Leader at Stockton Riverside College told us how Anthony took on the apprenticeship whilst having a job role with high responsibilities, “he was managing his team through the pandemic and a lot of the stuff he was doing was time critical, but he still made the time to come into college. We were able to sit down and organise when he was able to attend college and fit this around his work schedule, and he had full support from his manager.” Phil added “Out of all the learners, Anthony was really well organised considering the job he was doing.”

Anthony commented on how Phil was instrumental in his success and someone who he described as brilliant. Anthony told us how Phil pushed him forward, enhanced skills he already had and even offered him future courses to help him progress even further. Anthony said, “without Phil, I wouldn’t have got as far as I did.”

Anthony thoroughly enjoyed his apprenticeship, as he learned a great deal and was able to grow in ways he never thought possible. "I'm more hands-on than anything else in my current role," he said, "and the apprenticeship allowed me to take a step back and grow more than I thought I would have." Anthony benefited from both the theoretical and practical elements of the course, which helped him to learn new skills and progress in his current job role. "Learning new skills to progress my current job role was my favourite part of the apprenticeship," Anthony explained. "It allowed me to access new techniques in order to progress my team and myself in our working environment."

Thanks to the knowledge and experience gained through his apprenticeship, Anthony was able to achieve his biggest career goal to date – getting promoted from being a Charge Hand to becoming the Team Leader of Port Operations at AV Dawson.

Congratulations to Anthony on this fantastic achievement. The 32-year-old is now awaiting the start of another apprenticeship in lifting and hopes to move on to manage the port in a few more months and eventually to take on the role, currently held by his father, of Head of Operations!

We wish you all the best Anthony, as you continue to grow and excel in your career.