Yorkshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust has been named as one of the Yorkshire and the Humber’s best employers in the regional final of the National Apprenticeship Awards and National Training Awards 2012.
The finalists and winners were announced at a high profile joint awards ceremony organised by the National Apprenticeship Service which was held at Leeds College of Music on Thursday 4 October 2012.
Yorkshire Ambulance Service was successful in winning the BAE Systems Large Employer of the Year Award in recognition of the success of its apprenticeship schemes which they operate mainly within their non-emergency Patient Transport Service which takes patients to and from their hospital and treatment centre appointments.
Diane Williams, Locality Director for the Patient Transport Service at the Trust, said:
We are absolutely thrilled to have received this award. The commitment and enthusiasm of our apprentices have energised an entire workforce and by establishing this scheme we have been rewarded with some great staff who otherwise may not have had the opportunity to join the ambulance service.
We are committed to the training and development of our workforce and our apprenticeship schemes are another important step in ensuring a future generation of ambulance staff.
The National Training Awards recognise organisations that have delivered outstanding training programmes and the National Apprenticeship Awards celebrate the achievements of the country’s most outstanding Apprenticeship employers and their apprentices. Both awards are organised by the National Apprenticeship Service, who received in excess of 1,500 high quality entrants this year.
Sue Price, Divisional Area Director for the North, from the National Apprenticeship Service, said:
This year’s awards were a terrific showcase of the outstanding wealth of talent that we have across Yorkshire and the Humber. Given the volume and high calibre of entries we received, I’d like to take this opportunity to congratulate Yorkshire Ambulance Service for this superb achievement. They are a testament to the many benefits apprenticeships bring to businesses, allowing employers to tap into new raw talent, up-skill their staff and grow.
All Yorkshire and the Humber winners will proceed through to a final national judging stage and the highest scoring Apprenticeship employer entries nationally will have the additional honour of featuring in the acclaimed England’s Top 100 Apprenticeship Employers list, which will be produced by the National Apprenticeship Service in partnership with City & Guilds. The Top 100 Apprenticeship Employers and the national award winners will be revealed during the opening ceremony of the UK’s largest national skills and careers event, WorldSkills UK – The Skills Show, at the NEC in Birmingham on 14 November 2012.
The National Apprenticeship Awards are sponsored by City & Guilds, Pearson, EAL, Nuclear Decommissioning SLC and BAE Systems. The National Training Awards have City & Guilds as their premier sponsor and are also sponsored by Rolls Royce.
The Yorkshire and the Humber awards ceremony was supported by Leeds City College, Leeds College of Music, Genix Healthcare, YH Training Services, Matthews Brand Solutions, West Yorkshire Learning Providers and The Employment and Skills Group.
Visit www.apprenticeships.org.uk or call 08000 150 600 to find out more about Apprenticeships. For more information about The Skills Show visit www.theskillsshow.com
