Bradford College signs up as headline partner for West Yorkshire Apprenticeship Awards 2024

The Yorkshire Post’s parent company National World is organising its annual Apprenticeship Awards and for the first time this year, there will be an East Yorkshire event in addition to the pre-existing North, West and South Yorkshire ceremonies that are also returning in 2024.

It has now been confirmed that Bradford College will be the headline partner for the West Yorkshire event, which is taking place on May 9 at the Cedar Court Hotel in Bradford.

Kelly McAllister, Head of Apprenticeships and Business Development at the college, said: “Bradford College is proud to be the headline sponsor of the West Yorkshire Apprenticeship Awards 2024.

"Apprenticeships play an integral role in providing opportunities for people of all ages in developing skills and expertise to support them into work or to progress through their career.

"We know that our region is full of amazing examples of apprenticeships being transformative for both individual apprentices and the businesses employing such talent. We can’t wait to celebrate these successes at the awards taking place in our city later this year.”

In common with the other regional awards events, there are 14 categories to enter with the intention of celebrating the work of apprentices in different sectors, as well as their mentors, companies and training providers.

Nominations for the West Yorkshire awards close on March 21 at 6pm. Visit www.wyapprenticeshipawards.co.uk for more information.

A spokesperson for FDM, winners of the D iversity and Inclusion Award in 2023, said: “Since winning the best in diversity programme award two years in a row, our apprentice community has grown to 35. Our first four apprentices have graduated and have all been retained by the business progressing into graduate-level roles.

"In October 2023 we were awarded flexi job apprenticeship status from the Department of Education and four apprentices have now been placed with clients in the South. Gaining entry to the flexi register will allow us to significantly scale-up the number of opportunities available and we are working in partnership with our clients to provide additional placements in the North.

"Our mentoring programme is something we are immensely proud of, and it continues to deliver exceptional support to the apprentices internally and on client site. Recent discussions with clients interested in providing placements have indicated that our approach to mentoring and training is fast becoming our unique selling point and something we are proud to be leading the way in.”

A spokesperson for EN:Able Futures, which won SME Employer of the Year in 2023, said: “Having won the award, EN:Able Futures has gone from strength to strength.

"The team has celebrated a key milestone of delivering apprenticeships for ten years, with 98 per cent of apprentices who complete their training going straight into full-time employment or higher education - exactly what we hope for them.

"Another exciting step in our development has been marking the 500th apprentice to be supported by our services, which we achieved in early 2024. As we continue to expand our reach across the North of England, we will bring on board even more apprentices and host businesses in a variety of sectors, championing apprenticeships as a viable and valuable career route.”​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

​In addition to the West Yorkshire event on May 9, the South Yorkshire version of the awards will be held in the same month.

The South Yorkshire event will take place on May 23 at Magna in Rotherham and has Sheffield Forgemasters as its headline sponsor.

The North Yorkshire event will take place on June 13 and has Occupational Awards as the headline sponsor.

The inaugural East Yorkshire event will be held at the MKM Stadium in Hull on September 19.

Hudsons Contracts has signed up as headline sponsor for the latter event.

David Jackson, Founder and Chairman of Hudson Contract, said: “We feel it is important to recognise the commitment made by everyone involved in delivering apprenticeships and this event is a great opportunity to champion and celebrate the achievements of apprentices, employers and training providers in our local region.”