Apprentices and employers came together from across the North West to celebrate the 28th Annual Alliance Learning Awards Evening on Thursday 16 June 2022.

The Awards Ceremony, which recognises and rewards the hard work and commitment of learners and the businesses that support them, was held at The University of Bolton.

The Awards Evening was attended by local businesses, apprentices and their families, as well as members of the Alliance Learning Board of Trustees, the Mayor of Bolton, the Mayor of Horwich, representatives from the Lancashare, The University of Bolton, GTA England and the event sponsors for the ninth year running, MBDA UK Ltd.

Alliance Learning Business Development Manager, Chloe Ramsden, hosted the ceremony this year and Chief Executive, Kelly Perkin, presented the awards for each of the 17 categories on the night. The evening also consisted of guest speaker, Gary Bradshaw of MBDA UK Ltd who shared his own experience surrounding Apprenticeships. 

The highlight of the awards evening is the much coveted overall 'Apprentice of the Year’ award. The prestigious Award aims to recognise the exceptional commitment to their training programme throughout the last year from the Apprentice of the Year winners.

This year the award was won by David Green from Transport for Greater Manchester.

During the ceremony David was described as eager but apprehensive, as he hadn’t studied for years, however, he embraced the learning and self-development from the apprenticeship in a holistic way.

David had the following comments…

“I was fortunate to be afforded the opportunity to undertake a comprehensive and in-depth course which was both challenging and rewarding. The development I gained professionally and personally was remarkable. I am grateful to TfGM and Alliance Learning as this would not have been possible without their support.”

David now also advocates to staff the benefits Apprenticeship can bring and how they can positively help them in their careers. 

Other winners on the night included:

Business Administration Apprentice of the Year 2021 – 2022

Michaela Devonport

Business Management Apprentice of the Year 2021 – 2022

David Green

Children & Young People’s Workforce Apprentice of the Year 2021 – 2022

Shannon Edge

Mechanical Engineering Apprentice of the Year 2021 – 2022

Arash Bayat

Technical Engineering Apprentice of the Year 2021 – 2022

Darius Woo

Technical Engineering Apprentice of the Year 2021 – 2022

Georgia D’Ath

Engineering Maintenance Apprentice of the Year 2021 – 2022

Sam Derby

Fabrication & Welding Apprentice of the Year 2021 – 2022

Nathan Hunt

Electrical and Electronic Engineering Apprentice of the Year 2021 – 2022

Benjamin Martin

Business Administration Rising Star Award 2021 – 2022

Millie Henderson

Business Management Rising Star Award 2021 – 2022

Lindsay Carr

Electrical Maintenance Rising Star Award 2021 – 2022

Hannah Ainsworth

Technical Engineering Rising Star Award 2021 – 2022

Natalie Shaw

Mechanical Engineering Rising Star Award 2021 – 2022

Billy Millward

Additional:

Outstanding Contribution in the Community Award 2021 – 2022

Georgia D’Ath 

Company Award for Training & Development 2021 – 2022

Alpha Solway Ltd

Employee of the Year 2021 – 2022

Caraline Jones

Alliance Learning

Apprentice of the Year 2021 – 2022

David Green

Chief Executive of Alliance Learning, Kelly Perkin, had the following comments:

“It was great to celebrate the success of our apprentices and employers at our recent awards evening. Our finalists were up against some tough competition from talented individuals and every one of them deserved to win. Since our last awards evening, Alliance Learning have achieved incredible things due to the amazing staff, employers and apprentices we have. 

In 2021-2022, all of our Customer Service and Business Admin apprentices achieved a distinction for their End Point Assessments, which is testimony to the dedication of our staff to encourage our apprentices to achieve the very best. 

We continue to deliver the new high quality Apprenticeship Standards in Engineering, Business and Business Management and have now started delivering The Level 7 Senior Leader Apprenticeship to our first cohort of apprentices. 

Our commercial offer continues to grow and I am pleased to say we are now delivering IEMA Sustainability Courses which demonstrates our commitment to ensuring we have a greener, cleaner planet for our future generations.

In March this year we were delighted to be awarded ‘Best Employer and Training Provider Partnership at the UK Nuclear Skills Awards for our collaborative work with William Hare to develop their staff. This was a very proud moment for the team. 

I would like to thank everyone who has supported us – our Board of Trustees, the businesses we work with and the learners we support through their training. I’d also like to thank all the award winner and nominees for their hard work. Without them the Awards Evening would not be possible.”