Do Businesses in Southampton Need More Apprenticeships?

Official figures show that youth unemployment has now risen to 1 million people. The government is doing much to encourage apprenticeships once more, but do businesses in Southampton need them?

Three decades ago apprenticeships were all the rage, training up a generation of people for work with relevant practical training in important industries such as construction, engineering, electronics and manufacturing.

In more recent years vocational style training has been replaced with more of a focus on academic study, something many businesses – not just along the south coast – but across the UK, have complained about when it comes to finding qualified employees.

Local Winchester MP Steve Brine is an advocate of promoting apprenticeships. He told the Southampton Daily Echo in April that he believed British manufacturing would be one of the main stimulus points for economic recovery and that in order to succeed it was important to “intensify our efforts to re-establish apprenticeships as the primary form of practical training.”

Plans are not only place to offer Apprenticeship Schemes in traditional industries, but also in expanding industry sectors such as IT and more creative industries.

The Apprentices for Business program claims that 80% of those employers who employ apprentices agree they make their workplace more productive.

Taking on an apprentice may even help boost sales for your company, too, as 81% of consumers favour using a company which takes on apprentices.

So, the question remains: would you take on an apprentice for your business in Southampton and do you think apprenticeship schemes are a good way forward in general for the economy?

Easter Bunny visits Portsmouth and Southampton

What a fantastic day we had on Friday! The sun was shining and after zooming down the motorway to Access Self Storage in Portsmouth, we arrived at the store to stock up on donated gifts before visiting the Willows Nursery where the children flocked around the Easter Bunny asking him questions and playing with his shades. Even the Easter bunny needs to chill out in the sun!

From Willows Nursery to Portsmouth Hospital where Portsmouth Live TV and The Portsmouth Journal were waiting for the hero team to turn up.

Armed with cuddly bunnies and a giant bear, the Easter Bunny took to the ward spreading his Easter sprit to all the poorly children. Even our very own Access Marketing Manager, Kevin Pratt was interviewed for TV!!

On to Southampton where we visited the Community Toy Library before we went to see the children on the ward at Southampton Hospital!

The smiles on all the children’s faces said it all....


Watch this space for our journey to Stevenage!

Access Self Storage Easter Charity Activity

This Easter, Access Self Storage are opening their hearts once more and travelling the UK with the Easter bunny!


Over five days, the Access hero team and bunny will be visiting over ten charities and hospitals with Easter baskets full of donated toys and gifts!

Throughout March, special drop off points have been allocated in ten stores including Reading, Manchester, Twickenham, Portsmouth, Southampton, Fulham, Hammersmith, Stevenage, King’s Cross and Mitcham and the local papers and even TV (wow!) have been helping us let the public know where they can donate their unopened or unused gifts.


The Easter tour starts 5th April so follow us on our journey here on the blog!

And our winner is…

…after much deliberation over which of our fantastic store teams should get the Access Self Storage Blue Peter badge, a decision has been made.


Did we go for Access Harrow, where a donation of 180 gowns from local Stag Lane Primary School was covered in the local Harrow Observer newspaper? Or Access Self Storage Southampton, who had 367 gowns dropped off by a school who we desperately tried to trace so we could let Blue Peter know who they were? Was it Access Kingston where 400 gowns from Grand Avenue Primary were donated?

Whilst all of these stores accepted some impressively large donations from local schools, and all of our stores entered into the Send-a-Smile appeal with gusto, we have decided that the Blue Peter badge should live at our Wandsworth store, where all of the appeal gowns have been stored. Manager Alison Clark and her team have supported the appeal enthusiastically throughout the campaign, from being a drop off point, acting as the central storage location, hosting Blue Peter presenters and children from local schools during filming, to stepping in with cardboard boxes to pack-up gowns when Operation Smile were let down by their suppler – nothing has been too much trouble for Al and her team.

And don’t the team look chuffed with Al wearing the badge in the picture above?

Enjoy guys – you deserve it!

Santa launches Southampton store

The official launch of our Southampton store took place on Sunday 6th December with a Christmas grotto event. As the store is based in the residential area of Millbrook we wanted to host an event which would appeal to our neighbouring families, so we asked Santa to come along and meet our local little ones.

As well as children from the immediate area we also had attendees from Maybush and central Southampton. All of the children had a wonderful day, getting to spend some time with Santa and a free early Christmas present. Santa also had a wonderful day, in no small way helped by the attendance of one Southampton boy who arrived in full elf costume and with chocolate and some jokes for Santa!

A representative from Southampton Hospital’s Red and White Appeal attended on the day to raise funds for this worthwhile cause. The charity were delighted to be invited along by Access as every penny raised at events makes a difference to achieving their fundraising target of £2.2 million.

Thanks to the Access Self Storage Southampton team and Martin from our Guildford store for assisting Santa on the day!