Ewan Boland

Company: Cowal Building & Plumbing Supplies Ltd

Supporting Statement:

Since joining the Business , Ewan has flourished into an Excellent Trade Counter Sales Person , his confidence in dealing with both the Trade & General Public has increased Ten Fold & his appetite to learn from his colleagues is a breathe of fresh air in todays continually challenging staff recruitment sector where it has become extremely difficult to encourage the younger generation to engage with the industry & truly enjoy learning about new products & actively sharing this increased knowledge with the customers through face to face communication rather than simply pointing everyone towards the world wide web !!!

Supporting Documents:

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Leo Brigham

Company: City Plumbing

Supporting Statement:

Leo Brigham has completed a Level 2 Spares Specialist to the trade apprenticeship, not only was he part of the first-ever cohort to enrol on this apprenticeship within the business, Leo is the first learner in the cohort to complete the programme. In doing so Leo completed with a distinction, only dropping 3 marks across his portfolio and assessment.

Throughout his time on the apprenticeship, Leo has been outstanding in all that he has done and has led by example to the rest of the cohort. He has been mature beyond his age, dedicated, and committed to his own development.

When Leo started his apprenticeship he had been with the business a very short time and was looking at development and career opportunities. He started the spares apprenticeship to grow his knowledge with the ambition to become a spares manager in the future. The work he has completed has consistently been of the highest quality and he always shows clear knowledge and understanding.

The work that Leo has put in, not just on the apprenticeship but also in the workplace as a whole has received commendations from various people within the business, notably from the spares department senior leadership team who have earmarked Leo as an up-and-coming colleague with a bright future ahead of him. Within his branch, Leo has been promoted to the branch spares assistant and is well on his way to becoming the spares manager that he aspires to be.

Leo has drawn praise from other managers within the local area as well as from his own regional director due to his hard work, commitment, and how he has showcased himself already. This has led to Leo being part of a working group set up by the business to look at how improvements can be made moving forward and discuss what it means to progress to leadership within the business with other colleagues and the Managing Director, as well as being the subject for a spotlight story about his apprenticeship journey for the wider business to read.

Leo has been able to build strong and important relationships within his branch network and has continually driven the spares business forward. His hard work and determination has meant that he has created an increased customer base and revenue stream within the business.

City & Guilds livery prize awards – Builders Merchants – winner.
Leo was selected by the Worshipful Company of Builders’ Merchants to receive their City & Guilds Livery Company Prize for 2023. These are very prestigious awards and a fantastic achievement! Leo received his award on Monday 27 March 2023 from The Rt Hon The Lord Mayor, Alderman Nicholas Lyons and a representative of the relevant Livery Company.

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Holly Wheldon

Company: City Plumbing

Supporting Statement:

Holly has been with the business for around 6 years. She started at the Service Centre keying orders for our main contract customers, worked through the ranks and ended up being number 2 in charge. From there, Holly moved to Estimating, building relationships with some of the customers she is calling on today – she spent 3 years there and was the Estimating Manager’s number 2.

While in this role we put Holly forward for the ISP Level 4A Sales Executive Apprenticeship of which Holly completed in March 2023 with a Distinction.

In June 2023, Holly joined the sales team to cover Northampton, Milton Keynes, Peterborough and supported the Head of Sales with Aaron Services 15m account. During August, the Head of Sales lost a colleague in East Anglia and instead of replacing them, he asked Holly to support due to the relationships she held via her Estimating days and even though she was 2 hours away Holly agreed and to this day is still supporting with these customers. Holly hit bonus and profit against AOP 2023 – an unbelievable result!

Holly was put forward to support the company’s charity partner Teenage Cancer Trust and joined the 3 month Mission Unstoppable challenge against other organisations, where the group finished 2nd – a great team effort.

Holly is also supporting the new CRM system and also just put herself forward in being part of our new POS system rollout.

Whatever Holly does is 110% effort and works outside the hours to ensure she doesn’t let the business and especially our customers down.

Supporting Documents:

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Hannah Stronach

Company: Travis Perkins

Supporting Statement:

Hannah has excelled at her apprenticeship and progressing within the branch. Nothing has stopped her progressing and learning new things, she’s not afraid to ask questions and is really willing to learn. Within just 14 months she has been promoted from apprentice to Branch operations manager. This entails taking on a whole load of new tasks,taking control of the fleet/deliveries in branch. Ensuring the safety if the branch and colleagues and ensuring the customers visits are the best. In the short time she has worked here she has gained alot of relationships with customers and alot of them look for her now. She has taken on a wide knowledge of the plumbing side of things and often takes over the staff that have worked here for years.
All in all Hannah is a great person to work with, she is willing to help anyone and not afraid to get her hands dirty.

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Benjamin Delves

Company: Jewson

Supporting Statement:

Benjamin Delves joined the business in April 2022 after enquiring about joining the merchant industry whilst still at college. Our teams have supported Benjamin in a new apprenticeship within the company, Apprenticeship Standard – Trade Supplier which he is completing alongside his college course.

Ben is a clear self-learner and demonstrates a can-do attitude and willingness to learn. He is very keen to get involved and actively ask questions to broaden his knowledge. He is successfully managing many different activities, including:
• Customer service excellence – how to assist customers, knowledge/advice, selling skills.
• Customer journey, feedback, and multi-channel service – driving new account activations, project selling, customer feedback, utilising our multi-channel offer with online accounts where necessary.
• Merchandising, locations, and basic operations including planograms, branch, and customer standards.
• Stock take duties including accuracy of counting and investigating discrepancies.

Ben has demonstrated flexibility, and is an active member of the team, volunteering to support on any work where required, as well as proactively looking to further develop his knowledge by shadowing others to enhance his conversational sale techniques and behaviours.

Ben is moving forward into other areas of development, including knowledge-based training with BMF (Builders Merchant Federation) Building Blocks training course, selling skills, how to develop project selling conversations and proactive telephony activity including calling lapsed/dormant customers.

We believe Ben represents a part of our future – supporting talent through education to bring forward the next generation of merchant colleagues.

Here’s what others have to say about Ben:
“It is exciting to support the development and education of our future talent within the industry. Ben has the right mix of energy, enthusiasm, and a willingness to learn. It shows that if we invest in our younger generations at an earlier stage, we are helping to future proof our industry. I welcome the opportunity to support more colleagues, like Ben, to provide a diverse working environment that has a mixture of experience and inexperience and helps to represent the communities we serve better”
James Brewerton, Branch Manager.

“Nothing is too much trouble for Ben he asks the right questions, has a bit of banter with me about the football, but more importantly if he doesn’t know he finds the answer quickly… I’ve spent more with you recently as a result. Great lad.”
K Azam, customer

Supporting Documents:

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Saskia Blacklock

Company: Jewson

Supporting Statement:

Saskia Blacklock – Tool Hire Assistant

Having completed a two-year motor mechanic course at college, Saskia struggled to secure an opportunity within the motor trade. She joined our business in November 2021 having no product knowledge or experience within the hire sector, under the Scottish Government kickstart programme, a scheme designed to help young people in Scotland get into work. After six months she became a permanent member of the team, and has enrolled onto the Stihl Master Tech Programme which over time will qualify her to fix the full Stihl range, from Generators, through to Bumpa Hoists along with having the knowledge to service and repair lower lights. Since starting the programme Saskia can now completely strip a Stihl TS410, diagnose the fault and rebuild it back up with the use of specialist equipment that she has been trained on by Stihl. It was obvious that when we first met Saskia that she was always going to get stuck and thrive, so we took a chance on her, having no sector experience, and we have never looked back
Saskia started the role with little confidence, but she has totally embraced and taken initiative to understand the sector, and it is rewarding to see how much she has grown and developed as a person, but particularly how much her confidence has grown, where she now can apply her knowledge to a wide range of tools such as Petrol Disc cutters, Honda Engines, Bumpa Hoists, Turf cutters and Stihl Brush cutters.

Saskia has developed her learning further, being fully trained to use our trading platform Icon, where she is now proactively helping to control the transfers in and out of our branches within the Business Unit, as well as using her skill set to estimate machines that need maintenance. We’ve also been encouraging Saskia to push on with securing her driver’s licence, so we can get her an ATO, which will allow her to go to branches and uplift repairs and network with other Tool Hire Supervisor to enhance her knowledge further and get a deeper understanding of what they do daily.

Saskia’s standout quality is her willingness to learn and not being afraid to ask a question. She is confident with communicating with other colleagues and has really embraced a new industry. Looking back to when she first joined, she had no knowledge of plant or what products we had and now she is confident diagnosing and fixing the range and that credit is all down to Saskia for her willingness to learn and determination to not give up.

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Emily Wickham

Company: City Plumbing

Supporting Statement:

Emily started with the business back in 2018 as a warehouse driver. Three months later she begun her role as a sales assistant and then took on the Assistant Branch Manager (ABM) role for 9 months at our branch in Oban.

Emily then enrolled in the Level 3 apprenticeship scheme and came out of this with a Merit. She then moved to Fakenham branch as the ABM and progressed to the Level 5 leading business apprenticeship which she completed with a distinction back in May 2022.

Emily is a great inspiration to us all with ongoing commitment to the team and business – a real example of our future success.

Supporting Documents:

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Vicky Creedy

Company: LBS Builders Merchants Ltd

Supporting Statement:

Vicky Creedy was first introduced to LBS in February 2020as a Counter Sales Assistant in our LBS Llantrisant branch.
Vicky wasted no time in making her mark at the branch. From day one , she brought great attitude ,m enthusiasm , skill and energy.
This was quickly recognised by her branch Manager. It was clear to see that Vicky wanted to shape her career path with LBS.
Vicky’s eagerness to learn was infectious and she showed great responsibility towards her personal development. She clearly validated that she aspired and wanted to plan her career with LBS.
Her appetite to learn was insatiable and so doors were opened to Vicky to expose her to greater learning opportunities.
Vicky then progressed to the role of Branch Administrator/Counter Sales Asst. in June 2022. She was ready to embrace a training course that would enhance the skills she had and teach her new skills that would help her in her new role as Branch Administrator.
Vicky went on to successfully complete the LBS Women’s Career Development Programme, which was designed and developed as a direct response to a body of evidence showing there is a clear need for positive measures to be taken to support and empower the progression of women in the workplace in Wales.
Vicky was awarded an ILM Level 2 in Team Leading for her successful pass.
No sooner had Vicky completed one course , she was eager to accept an invitation to enrol in a brand new course, BIIAB Level 4 Diploma in Business Administration.
The 12-month course is designed top be more challenging at times, but as always Vicky has approached this course with the same vigour and enthusiasm as she did with all previous courses.
Having completed 50% of her course, Vicky is showing excellence standards of work and the feedback on her progress from her mentor has been exceptional.
Vicky Creedy deserves to be considered for the Best Trainee Awards 2023 as she is an exceptional learner with an outstanding commitment for her learning and personal development.
She always shows great determination, energy, and responsibility to her learning with great drive to everything she commits to.
Vicky is a truly talented individual, who is never afraid to take on the challenge of learning and development , she is a real credit to herself and to us here at LBS.
Brilliantly Brilliant.

Supporting Documents:

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Leah Clarke

Company: Howarth Timber & Building Supplies

Supporting Statement:

Leah Clarke, who began her apprenticeship at the age of seventeen, recently finished her Level 3 Business Administration apprenticeship at Rochdale Training College with a distinction, the highest overall mark that can be achieved via an apprenticeship. Leah also managed to achieve two full grades in two of the three sections of her apprenticeship, which is a testament to her overall commitment!

Supporting Documents:

Hannah Stronach

Company: Travis Perkins

Supporting Statement:

Hannah joined Travis Perkins in October 2021. Before joining us she worked in a supervisory role at WH Smith where she performed various duties, including managing a team, stock control, customer relations and the general running of the store.

After being made redundant she wanted to take her career in a whole new direction and applied for the Travis Perkins Apprenticeship Scheme.

She took to branch life very quickly, taking full responsibility for the branch in terms of locations, PI counts, ordering and replenishing stock. Hannah works on the counter every day, building those all-important customer relationships and this stands her in great stead now as customers trust and respect her. Hannah has a great talent for plumbing, and even rivals our Plumbing and Heating expert, much to his delight.

Simultaneously Hannah studied the Travis Perkins Level 2 Apprenticeship Certificate in Merchanting which she passed with distinction, finishing the course three months early, delighting her tutors with her engagement and the quality of her work. Hannah also completed her maths and English exams at a higher level than was required. She has already signed up for the Level 3 First Line Manager module.

During the refurbishment that took place at the Elgin branch, Hannah took pride in setting up the new shop and spent endless hours getting it right with little guidance. She set up the merchandising, pricing and located everything under her own steam. She is now using that experience to help the Travis Perkins Inverness branch who will be undergoing a similar process in the coming months. Hannah has an attitude of always being more than happy to help and chip in and she is certainly not afraid of getting her hands dirty.

In recent months Hannah has been promoted to Branch Operations Manager where she is now responsible for all aspects of the transport, yard and stock. It has been a quick trajectory, but Hannah is a quick learner and this, combined with her mature leadership skills (and dry wit), have made this possible. She has a bright future ahead of her with Travis Perkins.

Supporting quote from Jodi Davidson, Branch Manager at Elgin:

“In a few short months Hannah has proven time and time again that we made the right decision in giving her this opportunity. Her willingness to learn and keep pushing herself is inspiring. She’s never shy to pick up the phone and just ask the right questions and is a great personality to have in the branch, with staff and customers appreciating her straight talking and sense of humour.

“As a new Branch Manager myself, Hannah has been my saviour. She is my go to for stupid questions and has a wealth of product knowledge. With the refurbishment at the Elgin branch in Elgin she has implemented necessary changes, followed through with them and gained the support from everyone along the way. She is a real positive asset to us and if I could clone her, I absolutely would!”

Supporting Documents:

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Scott MacDonald

Company: Travis Perkins

Supporting Statement:

Scott joined Travis Perkins in July 2021 from Next where he had been an Assistant Manager.

Scott was looking for a change in his career and a pivot away from retail. He was interested in the Travis Perkins business in Inverness. He came in to chat a few times, and when there was an opening available, applied for it and then began his apprenticeship.

He studied for a Level 2 Trade Supplier Apprenticeship which he passed with distinction achieving some of the highest grades the tutors had ever seen, scoring 27/30 in the knowledge test and 100/100 in the observation and professional discussion. Scott also passed his Level 2 English exams during his time on the apprenticeship programme.

Over the 15 months of the apprenticeship programme, Scott worked tirelessly day in day out, submitting the highest quality work and always completed his modules in a timely manner. Scott held some great relationships with the other members in his cohort, and remained a strong figure within the group.

At the same time he quickly became a key part of the new team at Inverness branch, setting his mind to learning all aspects of our business including pricing, serving on the counter, stock ordering, working in the yard, driving the forklift and more. He was also instrumental in re-arranging the yard and warehouse and worked tirelessly over many evenings and weekends to make it better.

In October 2022 he was promoted to Assistant Branch Manager, which has come early in his career with Travis Perkins but is richly deserved. Scott is a key member of the new management team in his branch and a fundamental part of their recent success.

He manages to combine all of this with a cheerful, friendly and helpful personality. He has even extended his skills to other branches, helping them with recent refurbs and challenges.

He turns up every day with a “can do” attitude, and has a bright future assured with Travis Perkins.

Andrew Stables, the Branch Manager of Inverness said:

“Scott has been instrumental in the strategic, commercial and operational branch activities and plans which are taking our Inverness branch into the future. His energy, passion and commitment are priceless.”

Supporting Documents:

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Daria Gajzler

Company: Benchmarx

Supporting Statement:

Daria has quickly applied her learnings from her apprenticeship to revolutionise Benchmarx approach to data and product set up allowing us to bring in 5x as many ranges as any previous year and improving the efficiency.

She has also taken on line management and built a very strong team and helped develop some colleagues who are new to both the industry and the field. She has built a strong confidence allowing her to challenge and push other members of the team and effectively manage upwards as well.

Without the input and guidance of Daria and application of her learnings from the apprenticeship, we would not have been able to deliver the efficiency and scale of change that our commercial team has delivered this year.

Supporting Documents:

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