Budding Black Country engineer wins major prize at the In-Comm Training Awards

18 Jul 2023

Published in: Member News

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A young Black Country apprentice that is helping to make products that keep people safe has been named as the Most Improved Learner of the Year for the West Midlands.

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A young Black Country apprentice that is helping to make products that keep people safe has been named as the Most Improved Learner of the Year for the West Midlands.

PcP Gratings’ Katie Mayo beat off the challenge of more than 100 peers to secure the prestigious honour in front of 300 people at the In-Comm Training Awards in Birmingham last week.

Judges praised the Four Ashes engineer’s all-round performance and the massive strides she has taken in her career over the last twelve months.

The high-profile ceremony, which was backed by main sponsor the Engineering Technology Group (ETG), saw the Black Country win the most honours again, with Bruno Trezeguet (Rotometrics), Steve Giles (Metsec) and Britney Biju (Collins Aerospace) winning the Quality & Continuous Improvement, Ambassador and Engineering & Manufacturing Advanced Telford titles respectively.

In addition to the young apprentices and mature learners, companies were also in the spotlight for the way they back the next generation of talent and invest in their workforce.

Wolverhampton’s Assa Abloy won the Large Company Award for the way it has developed innovative ways to engage with schools to promote apprenticeships, including a new resource called ‘Welcome to the World of Work’.

Bekki Phillips, Chief Operating Officer at In-Comm Training, was delighted with the quality of entrants: “It is fantastic to be able to shine the brightest possible spotlight on the vocational stars we have in our region, who are all doing amazing things on the shopfloor and across our offices.

“The standard of the finalists was the best yet and underlines what can be achieved when you get the mix right of companies, training providers and young people.”

She continued: “We are finally seeing the perceptions of apprenticeships change since Covid-19 and events like these are crucial to achieving that level of equality…encouraging the next generation of Black Country youngsters to choose engineering and manufacturing.”

This was the twelfth year the In-Comm Training Awards have been held and gave over 55 finalists the opportunity to celebrate their achievements in front of their peers, mentors, and employers.

Other winners included:

• Joshua Peace (Precision Technologies International) – Outstanding Learner of the Year and Engineering & Manufacturing Foundation Aldridge

• Kirsty Locking (Cross & Morse) – Most Improved Learner and Engineering & Manufacturing Advanced Aldridge

• Brandauer – SME Employer of the Year

• Isabelle Rowley (Churchill Integrated Services) – Business Support Learner of the Year

• Gemma Osbourne (Leonardo) – Quality & Continuous Improvement Learner of the Year

• William Thompson (Torus) – Engineering & Manufacturing Foundation Telford

• Sam Marston (Aico) – Engineering & Manufacturing Higher Telford

Gareth Jones, Managing Director In-Comm Training, concluded: “We are doing everything in our power to support the increased appetite for apprenticeship and skills by making sure we are offering companies and learners access to the best possible support, advice, courses, and training facilities.

“Events over the last twelve months have underlined this commitment. We have centralised our Shropshire facilities into a £3m state-of-the-art Technical Academy in Telford, providing 20,000 sq ft of manufacturing training space that is fitted out with new equipment and industry-leading technology.

“This will cater for 350 apprentices and upskill 2500 existing workers and we’re already edging towards those figures after an unbelievably strong response from the local business community.”

He concluded: “Importantly, we have also delivered on our promise to launch the UK’s first Precision Tooling Academy. The In-Comm Training Awards were made possible by headline sponsor the Engineering Technology Group (ETG) and other sponsors, including Black Country Chamber of Commerce, the Black Country Institute of Technology, Collins Aerospace, Crowe LLP, EAL Awards, FBC Manby Bowdler, Gestamp and In-Comm TMG.

For further information, please visit www.in-comm.co.uk or follow @incomm_training on twitter