Thomas Hughes wins NCC Apprentice of the Year

CPA ‘Stars of the Future’ award winner scoops overall Apprentice of the Year at the NCC (East) Awards

THOMAS Hughes, a Volvo Construction Equipment apprentice based at the company’s Warrington depot, has scooped two major awards at the recent NCC East (National Construction College) Apprentice Awards 2014, held at Bircham Newton. He beat hundreds of other candidates for the NCC Level 2 Apprentice of the Year and also secured the much-coveted overall Apprentice of the Year Award.

Thomas said: ‘Winning awards is a very gratifying feeling and recognition of the work and effort an individual puts in. I may have won awards but all the people nominated must be doing a top job as well, so they all won something. Just being nominated is something to be proud of. I think it will help a huge amount in my career with Volvo because it shows that I am prepared to put the work in and I always want to get better.’

The National Construction College is the largest training provider of its kind in Europe, supporting more than 26,000 individuals every year, including more than 700 apprentices, and enjoying achievement rates well above the national average.

Each year, at its annual Apprentice Awards ceremonies, the NCC celebrates the success of those apprentices who have made an outstanding contribution to their studies and have demonstrated a real commitment to kick-starting successful careers in the construction sector.

The CPA’s Stars of the Future competition is an annual award scheme, now in its third year, that recognizes talented youngsters on plant mechanic apprentice schemes in colleges across the UK.

Haydn Steele, the CPA’s training manager and organizer of the Stars of the Future Awards, said: ‘The CPA awards are in line with the NCC Apprentice Awards, recognizing and rewarding outstanding apprentices on plant mechanic apprenticeship schemes, who not only bring ability and commitment to their learning and their work, but who possess additional capabilities that mark them out as not only being the foundations of the future of our industry, but also potential leaders.

‘We are very much looking forward to seeing Thomas Hughes back next year competing at Level 3 – we wish him the very best of luck,’ said Mr Steele.

The 2015 Stars of the Future Awards will be held at the Plantworx 2015 construction equipment exhibition at Bruntingthorpe Aerodrome on 4 June. The awards will be presented by Richard Noble OBE, pioneer of the Bloodhound SSC 1,000 miles/h land speed record project.