Apprenticeships

Thomas' Training Co-ordinator, Sonja made the following nomination having received the following feedback from his line manager “Since joining the team in April 2023, he’s excelled in helping staff and students with immigration queries, advising on visa impacts, and keeping records up-to-date … Thomas has consistently shown a high level of professionalism, scoring ‘excellent’ for punctuality, reliability, and attendance from the very first review. He’s taken on extra tasks, supported colleagues, and impressed everyone with his proactive approach. We're proud to have him on our team!”

Further to this, he has shown real growth within his role by putting forward his own ideas and suggestions for responding to tricky email queries, and the Head of the Student Immigration team has been particularly pleased with his progress:

“I am exceptionally pleased with how Thomas has grown into the role and is now asking lots of thoughtful and insightful questions about his role and duties. He has been a positive role model for other apprentices in the building and also staff within our team. It is great to see him taking on new responsibility and being proactive in deciding when he can manage a task, or email response on his own or suggesting ideas and solutions."

Ryan has shown remarkable growth and confidence since joining. According to his manager, David, "Ryan takes enormous pride in his responsibilities and consistently seeks opportunities to learn and improve."

Ryan's regular presentations to over 150 colleagues have enhanced his public speaking skills significantly. David further notes, "Ryan regularly presents to the whole business on behalf of the department, which further enhances his personal speaking skills." He also receives positive feedback from various business areas for his support during company events.

His Training Coordinator, Chelsea, adds, "The confidence growth I have seen in Ryan has been amazing. He really deserves to be recognised for the hard work he continues to put into his apprenticeship."

He was nominated by our Apprenticeship Training Coordinator, Adrian, who kindly shared the following:

"Raj has the most positive attitude of any apprentice I look after. He “never says no” to work, devouring his way through work at a breakneck pace - but never compromising on quality.

Raj inherited a backlog of 1000+ invoices and while his manager ensured he was exposed to a wide variety of workplace tasks Raj made it a matter of personal pride to tackle this backlog. He worked through it tirelessly, without errors, once achieving a record 140 invoices processed in a single day."

She was nominated by her Apprenticeship Training Coordinator, Adrian, and Line Manager, Jason, who shared the following:

"I am nominating one of our own apprentices, which may seem unfair, but I truly believe that Ruby deserves it.

Ruby received the short end of the stick early in her apprenticeship; she was made redundant by her original employer after only 3 months. We were fortunate to be able to employ Ruby as she had already made a dramatic start in HR at her original employer, working diligently in all areas of HR.

Even when dealing with very senior colleagues in tense conversations Ruby is confident and professional. Jason has every confidence in Ruby and feel they make a very effective double team. 'Ruby has worked immensely well and immensely hard. We're really grateful for that effort.'"

Bardha was nominated by her Training Assessor Adrian who shared the following:

"Bardha works tirelessly to achieve in her apprenticeship. She spoke to me early on about what a great opportunity it was to take on this role and how grateful she is to have received it. This is reflected in her academic achievement and in her workplace achievement. Academically she has achieved 94% in both exams so far taken, a distinction grade performance.

In the workplace she has quickly settled in and become an asset to her department. Her manager Laura "could not ask for better" in any feedback areas. Bardha is "reliable, eager to use her own initiative, really polite, friendly to everyone, good at asking questions, a great independent thinker."

She has the kind of attention to detail “that can't be taught”, and an excellent adherence to policy and doing the best for the university. Laura admires how active and invested Bardha is with all the opportunities there are at the university."

Ella was nominated by her Assessor, Melissa Round, for her growth in confidence, ability to manage behaviour, and to lead activities for groups of children.

"This week I observed Ella plan and lead an activity to promote healthy eating with six children. Ella read a story to the whole group, paused to let the children comment on the book, and then refocused the children's attention to continue reading.

She used descriptive commentary and open questions to support children's learning and thinking and calmly and effectively dealt with incidents of inappropriate behaviour.

Ella has made a significant amount of progress with her apprenticeship in the last six months which deserves to be recognised.”