Learner & Employer of the Month Awards

Our monthly learner and employer awards celebrate the fantastic work our apprentices do towards their learning and development, and our employer partners’ incredible efforts toward their employees’ apprenticeship journeys.

The awards are nominated and voted on by our Paragon Skills colleagues. Each month our winners will be featured here in our ‘Hall of Fame’ and in the next issue of our monthly ‘Employer Pulse’ newsletter.

Learner and Employer of the Month – October 2024

Catherine Luxford - The Nursery Family Ltd.

Since starting with paragon I have had a very bumpy road with my Maths, especially in the first few months. When I was assigned a new tutor, Jess, she passed me onto Victoria to be my Maths tutor. Victoria got me and my needs straight away, she adapted her lessons and the timings to suit my needs and my ADHD. She was so patient, kind and caring with me and never once doubted that I could do this. I failed a few times and Victoria never made me feel bad about it, she picked me straight back up and carried on.
Without her ongoing support I would not have been able to pass Maths, she truly did change my life and I will always be extremely grateful for her patience, understanding and kindness. She had such a friendly approach and was always so caring and passionate about what she did, I will miss seeing her every week but I won’t miss the Maths!
Learner

Beech House Nursery School

This is a fairly new partnership to Paragon and it was difficult to select just 1 of our values to nominate them under, as they have met each one, their Experience within this industry speaks volumes, their energy to ensure all their staff are supported, qualified and progress within their chosen pathway is a pleasure to witness, communication and getting things done is paramount to how they run their business, speaking to the young apprentices you can hear the passion and happiness in their voices when speaking about their role, they want to learn more, they want to succeed, I am looking forward to working further with them, having onboarded 8 apprentices over the last 2 months, and a few more to come, a worthy nomination.

Employer

Learner and Employer of the Month – September 2024

Kremena Ivanova - Greendown Trust LTD

This is a fantastic learner, even though English is not her first language , this does not act as a barrier to the way she learns, she is ahead of where she should be and independently books herself on to workshops for the modules and the Math and English even though she does not need to sit exams, she likes to upskill herself in these areas. She definitely deserving of learner of the month.

Learner

City and County Healthcare

We want to extend our heartfelt gratitude to Paragon Skills for their incredible support and guidance for our apprentices. Your commitment to nurturing talent and providing valuable resources has made a significant impact on our team’s growth and success. Together, we’re building a brighter future!

David Raine – Skills & Qualifications Manager

City & County Healthcare Group

Employer

Learner and Employer of the Month – August 2024

Donna Wood – Voyage Care

I have nominated this learner because of her attitude and desire to achieve her qualification. This learner has faced the most difficult year in her home life. This learner recognises her support system is her work, including all her colleagues and manager. This learner, despite all the difficulties, continued to complete work and show the desire to learn in every unit she did. Completing this qualification meant the world to her – something she had done for herself, saw it through and achieved! Throughout the course she gained confidence in discussion as an assessment method -done to support her own confidence in sharing her examples and learning verbally without relying on reading from notes. This led to the EPA where she passed with an amazing merit!

Learner

Swallowcourt

This employer has 8 homes in Cornwall, Sarah is inspirational to the team and a strong advocate of apprenticeships and staff development, Sarah supports with any issues promptly and the director is also hands on, a great employer.

Employer

Previous Winners

Hannah Adams-Cox - Step By Step

I think my learner should be nominated as they have really struggled with not only function skills but just retaining knowledge in general. They are on a Peer support apprenticeship but also has been working with one of our function skills tutors who has supported them, just when they thought they would throw the towel in and had said on numerous occasions they are giving it up and it’s too hard to do especially with such a busy job role. There was complete fear of failure and has just smashed every goal, every activity, this has had an outstanding effect on them to actually witness the growth and development.

Learner

Juniper Care and Support

I would like to nominate this employer as the Manager and both Deputy managers are so supportive of the learners. They go above and beyond to support them with their apprenticeships. The deputy managers will step in to support with reviews and have often joined meetings to support in engaging challenging learners. The manager has asked for topics to embed within monthly team meetings so they can ensure they are supporting with diploma elements alongside home updates aswell. I feel they all deserve this recognition.

Employer

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