The special evening was dedicated to honouring the AMRC Training Centre Apprentice of the Year awards winners and finalists from both the 2020 and 2021 AMRC Training Centre Apprentice of the Year awards ceremonies who were not able to celebrate at the time due to the pandemic.
Host for the night was Steph McGovern, presenter of Channel 4’s daytime hit TV show Steph’s Packed Lunch, who is a former engineering apprentice of the event’s headline sponsor - toolmaker Stanley Black & Decker. “They are literally our future problem solvers and I think what they are doing is the best path for a successful career in industry. Despite the Covid setbacks, they have still smashed it and I can guarantee they will have a very rewarding career ahead of them,” said Steph.
The event, held on the eve of International Women in Engineering Day, saw Bethany Cousins, project engineer for the University of Sheffield AMRC, win the Apprentice of the Year award for 2020 and Kate Todd-Davis take the title for 2021. Kate also won “Degree Apprentice of the Year.”
Kate, a manufacturing engineering apprentice at global engineering giant Rolls-Royce, recently graduated from AMRC Training Centre with a first-class honours degree in Manufacturing Technology, having already completed a Level 2 NVQ in Fundamental Engineering, and is now working towards a Level 4 NVQ in Engineering and Advanced Manufacturing, both delivered by the Sunderland Engineering Training Association (SETA).
Michelle White, apprentice development leader at Rolls-Royce, said Kate is ‘one to watch’, adding: “I am so proud of Kate’s achievements and as her apprenticeship is coming to an end, I believe now is the time that she will really fly within the company.
“She is destined for big things, and I hope she remains to be a strong female ambassador for engineering and she proves that anything is achievable in a male-dominated industry.”
New Mayor of South Yorkshire Oliver Coppard, was thrilled to be at the event and marked out the up-and-coming talent in the room as the change makers the world needs.
He said: “We have a huge range of exciting and innovative companies in South Yorkshire, and the apprentices here are the future leaders of their businesses. Their talent will change the region and change the world. They are the ones who will get us to net zero.”
Nikki Jones, director of the AMRC Training Centre, praised the apprentices for their passion, adding: “Seeing our apprentices up on stage filled me with pride and reminded me why I chose to work for the AMRC Training Centre - it is them who make this literally the best job in the world.
Now in its seventh year, the awards are a firm favourite in the AMRC Training Centre calendar and put a spotlight on both the apprentices and their employers who together are the brave and bold, breaking the mould to innovate, inspire and impact the way industry in the UK continues to evolve.
