Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has announced the finalists of the Brathay Apprentice Challenge 2014, the official search for the apprentice team of the year.
For three months more than 1,000 entrants from over 100 teams of the UK’s apprenticeship employers, training providers and colleges, the four regional winners were announced as Pepsico, South Worcestershire College, e2v Technologies and QientiQ.
Nick Clegg said:
“Apprenticeships are vital to our country’s future. They build our houses, design our aircraft, programme our computers and make our furniture, among the many other things they do.
“It is important that we foster and harness that kind of dedication to secure their future and Britain’s long term success: building a stronger economy and fairer society for this generation and the next.”
The teams have almost 60 community projects in the last two months, from renovating community centres to fundraising for a van to help a local food bank collect supplies from the community, as well as, conducting more than 310 school visits across the UK to raise the profile of apprenticeships.
The challenge focuses on helping to create an enhanced apprenticeship for competitors, enabling them to developing skills like team building, leadership and communications – many of which are found in the top positions within business.
The finalists will continue fundraising and awareness raising activities until early June when the challenge culminates in a series of team building, logistical and physical challenges at Brathay Trust’s Windermere headquarters from 9th – 11th June 2014.
The four additional finalists, made of teams missing out on the top regional accolades, are the Barrow Engineering Project – Team Oxley Developments, British Airways, The Queen Elizabeth Hospital NHS Foundation and Virgin Media.