I would like to give my congratulations to all the finalists and winners at last night’s Worcestershire Apprenticeships Awards 2018. The finalists were the perfect representation of the success of apprenticeships in Worcestershire and they can all be immensely proud of their achievements.

25 finalists were recognised at the awards ceremony and well done to Buzz Electrical who were named as the Worcestershire Apprenticeship Employer of the Year, sponsored by Yamazaki Mazak, and Bethany Clayton from Morgan Advanced Materials who won the Worcestershire Apprentice of the Year award, sponsored by Worcester Bosch.

It was another fantastic celebration of apprenticeships and a pleasure to have the BAFTA-nominated TV presenter, Angellica Bell, welcome a large audience of 340 people to the event at the Tree Tops Pavilion in West Midlands Safari Park.

Winners of the Worcestershire Apprenticeship Awards 2018 categories

I believe that Apprenticeships are a big enabler for businesses to train the skilled workforce that they need and, with workforce skills being a key challenge for businesses, we will be focusing on this key theme at our Worcestershire LEP Annual Conference on Friday 30 November.

The skills agenda will be discussed in a panel which includes the CEO of the Careers and Enterprise Company, Claudia Harris, and the Founder of Timewise Foundation, Emma Stewart MBE. The expert panel will be able to tackle the issues that business owners face and what is being done to solve these problems.

The event will be ideal for businesses that want to learn more about how they can recruit the staff they need for their business, with a large variety of education groups and training providers set to attend. If you would like to find out more and register for the Worcestershire LEP Annual Conference, please visit the conference website www.wlep18.eventreference.com