A COLLEGE helping to shape the futures of almost 10,000 learners is in line for awards at two apprenticeship ceremonies.

Abingdon & Witney College has been shortlisted for both the Annual Apprenticeship Conference (AAC) Awards and Oxfordshire Apprenticeship Awards.

The further education college has campuses in Witney, Abingdon and Common Leys, and - according to its Ofsted report last year - taught 9,857 students in the 2015-16 academic year.

The same Ofsted report, released in March, rated its apprenticeship programme 'outstanding'.

In the AAC Awards, which will be handed out at a dinner on March 22, it is shortlisted for 'outstanding contribution to the development of apprenticeships at a national level', as well as both the regional and national categories of 'apprenticeship provider of the year'.

The college and its students are also in with the chance of winning at the Oxfordshire Apprenticeship Awards, organised by the Oxfordshire Local Enterprise Partnership.

It is shortlisted as training provider of the year, which it won last year, and three of its students are in the running for individual awards.

Up for the higher apprenticeship award is Wheatley resident Lauren Livingstone, a care manager for Home Instead Senior Care, and Headington resident Trina White, a senior carer at Abbeyfield.

Alanta Hissey-Powell, who is an apprentice healthcare assistant at Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre, has been shortlisted for the special recognition award.

The Headington resident said her apprenticeship had 'changed her life', adding: "Before I started the apprenticeship, I was in and out of college and didn’t know what to do and where I was going in life."

College principal Di Batchelor congratulated the 'inspiring' apprentices, adding: "They are proving that choosing this route into a career can be a positive and life-changing experience."

Winners of the Oxfordshire Apprenticeship Awards will be announced at a ceremony at Blenheim Palace, on Thursday, March 1.