Celebration of success for local apprenticeship schemes

College ceremony honours outstanding achievements over past year

The success of local apprentices and the support of their employers were celebrated at Newbury College’s Apprenticeship Awards.

The annual event, held on Monday, March 14, began with a welcome from principal Dr Anne Murdoch before Joe Pringle, a business administration apprentice at Hitachi, gave a speech about why he choose to study an apprenticeship instead of going to university, and his experience of the programme.

The ceremony concluded with an inspirational talk from guest speaker, Newbury Weekly News editor Andy Murrill, on his career in the press industry and the importance of achieving job satisfaction.

The event at the college’s Monks Lane campus was attended by nominees, employers, award sponsors and guests including West Berkshire Council chairman Peter Argyle, Newbury mayor Howard Bairstow, Thatcham mayor Sheila Ellison and West Berkshire Council corporate director Rachael Wardell.

Dr Murdoch said: “The Apprenticeship Awards ceremony is a wonderful occasion for apprentices, employers, friends and family to celebrate the outstanding achievements of all those involved in the programme.

“Newbury College is committed to working with local employers, and we are very grateful to all our sponsors for their generosity in sponsoring each of the awards presented. Our thanks also go to Andy Murrill for his inspirational talk to the audience.”

Newbury College offers a wide range of business-to-business training, as well as providing apprenticeship programmes for all organisations, small or large.

For more information visit www.newbury-college.ac.uk

Results

Best Apprentice in a large business (sponsored by Intersurgical): Ross Wildman, IT apprentice at Gamma Telecommunications

Best Apprentice in a medium business (sponsored by Thatcham Automotive Academy): Nathan Long, engineering apprentice at Schleifring Systems

Best Apprentice in a small business (sponsored by Apple Print & Creative): Gareth Street, IT apprentice at Lemon Sherbert Technologies

Best Engineering Apprentice (sponsored by AWE): Christopher Prozzo, engineering apprentice at Blatchford

Bronze Award for Outstanding Achievement (sponsored by FutureSense): Charlee Foster, childcare apprentice at Orchard Day Nursery

Silver Award for Outstanding Achievement (sponsored by Xtrac Ltd): Joe Pringle, business administration apprentice at Hitachi

The Peter Atkinson Gold Award for Outstanding Achievement (sponsored by Thames Valley Chamber of Commerce): Jamie Rusbridge, engineering apprentice at Xtrac Ltd

Assessor/Teaching Award (sponsored by Newbury College): Yvonne Pomeroy, assessor at Newbury College

Workplace Mentor Award (sponsored by PC Cox): Scott Pinnell from Williams and Richard James from Blatchfords

Outstanding Contribution Award (sponsored by Hitachi): Warren Page from Xtrac Ltd and Richard Willis, Newbury College assessor