Employer Award nominations now open!

Article summary: Our Apprentice and Employer of the Year Awards 2023 are taking place on Friday 16 June and self-nominations for the Employer Awards are now being invited.

There are six employer awards in total, four of which employers can nominate themselves for:

• Best Apprentice Employer (Corporate) - over 250 employees

• Best Apprentice Employer (SME) - fewer than 250 employees

• Rising Star – Someone who started off as an apprentice and has now progressed into management or something similar.

• Mentor of the Year - An unsung hero in your organisation who has been instrumental in the nurturing and development of the apprentices within your business.

The other two awards are PETA staff awards and are nominated by the apprentices.

If you’re an employer interested in nominating yourself for one or more of these awards, please check out the application form here. You’ll need to register your company information and then complete the section(s) that are applicable to you.

If you’re submitting a nomination for one of the Best Apprentice Employer Awards, you’ll need to answer the following questions:

• Why do you consider your organisation to be an excellent apprentice employer?

• What has your organisation implemented to maximise the opportunities for recruiting and developing apprentices?

• What examples can you share of where and how your apprentices have excelled within your organisation?

• What challenges has your organisation faced in embedding your apprenticeship talent strategy and how did you overcome these?

• In your own words, why should your organisation win this award?

 If you’re nominating an employee for the Rising Star Award, you’ll be asked the following:

• Outline why you feel your nominee should be considered for the Rising Star Award.

• Give examples of where this nominee has delivered above and beyond expectation (include all objectives, targets and goals if relevant, the metrics you measured this by and their results against those metrics).

• In summary, why should this individual win this award?

If you’re nominating an employee for the Mentor of the Year Award, you’ll need to devise responses to the following:

• Outline why you feel your nominee should be considered for the Mentor of the Year Award.

• Provide examples of where this mentor has gone above and beyond in supporting the development of their apprentice.

• In summary, why should this individual win this award?

The deadline for business award nominations is Friday 31st March. Shortlisted nominations will be notified within 10 working days of this submission deadline.  

The Apprentice Award nomination process began earlier this month. Employers are not able to nominate their own apprentices for awards; it is the job of PETA’s L&D Coaches to nominate those they believe deserve to be nominated. Once they’ve selected their apprentice(s) to nominate, they will get in touch with the employer to work together on the entry submission.

The six apprentice awards - which will also close on Friday 31st March - comprise:

• Business Apprentice of the Year

• ICT Apprentice of the Year

• Management Apprentice of the Year (x2)

• Engineering Apprentice of the Year

• Overall Apprentice of the Year

The awards evening, which is being held at Portsmouth Guildhall, will commence with drinks, followed by a three-course dinner, with the guest speaker and award presentations after the meal. Winners will receive certificates and trophies to mark their achievement.

We have an inspirational guest speaker booked for the event - Alex Staniforth - a record-breaking adventurer, international motivational speaker, ultra-runner, author of two books and founder of mental health charity Mind Over Mountains. He’s an expert in overcoming challenges, having survived the two biggest disasters in Mount Everest history as a teenager, including the 2015 Nepal earthquake. His biggest challenges have been much closer to home, suffering with epilepsy, stammering, bullying and mental ill health since childhood.

PETA offers a suite of apprenticeship programmes in the areas of business and leadership, administration, IT, engineering, marketing, sales and customer services. PETA is great at not only delivering exceptional apprenticeship training, but also creating successful partnerships between employers and apprentices.

Please get in touch with any questions about the awards or our apprenticeship programmes.