Ibstock Brick scoop Best Apprenticeship Programme Award

13 December, 2019

Ibstock Brick scoop Gold Award in Training Journal Awards 2019

Apprenticeship programme beats competition to win Gold at this year’s Training Journal Awards

IBSTOCK Brick, the leading manufacturers of clay bricks in the UK, have scooped a prestigious award in recognition of their world-class apprenticeship programme.

At the Training Journal Awards, held on 3 December, Ibstock Brick beat off competition from major brands to win the Gold Award in the Best Apprenticeship Programme category.

The award recognizes organizations who embrace new and innovative ways of offering training opportunities to people of all ages. In winning, Ibstock Brick demonstrated that they had a clear understanding of best practice in learning and development and provided clear evidence of the success their apprenticeship programme had achieved.

The awards were attended by Paula Wardle, group learning and development manager, Andrew Craddock, engineering and manufacturing development director, and Ben Lumsden, an apprentice at Ibstock Brick’s Throckley factory.

Mr Lumsden was a previous winner of Ibstock’s Apprentice of the Year Award, and in September he was presented with the Royal Navy Award for Advanced Apprentice of the Year at the National Apprenticeship Service Awards for the North East.

Paula Wardle commented: ‘Winning the Gold Award for Best Apprenticeship Programme is a great achievement. It recognizes the commitment we have made as a business to developing a comprehensive programme that delivers world-class engineering skills and knowledge.

‘Our challenge is to build on our skills base for the future by nurturing a new generation of highly qualified employees. By creating a pool of engineering and technical specialists, they can drive forward innovation and manufacturing excellence.

‘Over the years, the scheme has gone from strength to strength. But for us, our apprenticeship programme is not just about training; it is about bringing a new generation into the Ibstock family at the start of their careers, and helping them reach their full potential.’