At the Training Journal Awards, held on December 3, Ibstock Brick beat off competition from major brands to win the Gold Award in the Best Apprenticeship Programme category.
The award recognises organisations who embrace new and innovative ways of offering training opportunities to people of all ages. In winning, Ibstock Brick demonstrated that it had a clear understanding of best practice in learning and development and provided clear evidence of the success its apprenticeship programme had achieved.
The awards were attended by Paula Wardle (Group Learning and Development Manager), Andrew Craddock (Engineering and Manufacturing Development Director) and Ben Lumsden, an Apprentice at Ibstock Brick’s Throckley factory. Ben was a previous winner of Ibstock’s Apprentice of the Year Award, and in September he was presented with the Royal Navy Award for Advanced Apprentice of the Year at the National Apprenticeship Service Awards for the North East.
Paula Wardle, Group Learning and Development Manager, commented: “Winning the Gold Award for Best Apprenticeship Programme is a great achievement. It recognises the commitment we have made as a business to developing a comprehensive programme that delivers world-class engineering skills and knowledge.
“Our challenge is to build on our skills base for the future by nurturing a new generation of highly qualified employees. By creating a pool of engineering and technical specialists, they can drive forward innovation and manufacturing excellence. Over the years, the scheme has gone from strength to strength. But for us, our apprenticeship programme is not just about training; it is about bringing a new generation into the Ibstock family at the start of their careers, and helping them reach their full potential.”
Ibstock has been widely recognised for its apprenticeship programme. The company was a finalist at the Personnel Today Awards (Apprenticeship Employer of the Year) and the Inspire Awards (Most Inspiring Apprenticeship Programme). Zac Payne - who is based at Ibstock Brick’s Chailey Factory was also named the winner of the Engineering Apprentice of the Year (Final Year) for the Southern Region at the Make UK Manufacturing Awards.
