The team at The Bishop's Palace in Wells has been celebrating the success of its Community Engagement programme following the completion of its most recent apprenticeship opportunity.

Matt Groom began his digital marketing apprenticeship at the Palace in September of 2021. Run in conjunction with Strode College in Street, Matt received mentoring and training from the marketing team at the Palace in addition to his college studies.

Matt said "I had already completed a Marketing degree but saw this apprenticeship as an opportunity to get hands-on experience of working and learning practical skills with a local employer. The training from Strode College helped me to develop my theoretical skills further and I was delighted to recently learn that I'd been awarded a Distinction grade".

Community Engagement Manager at the Palace, Siobhan Goodwin, also said "We have always tried to provide opportunities for people in our local community to get the experience they need to progress in their chosen career, or perhaps to explore a different career.

We start early, by having year 10 students on work experience, older students on placement doing T levels, apprenticeships and the Kickstart Scheme. Some people may be looking for a change of career and the Palace has a proud record of more than 10% of our staff team starting out here as volunteers."

And the work continues at the Palace with one member of staff, who has worked there for over 10 years, currently undertaking an apprenticeship as part of their professional development.