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 – 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

Learner and Employer of the Month – July 2024

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

Learner and Employer of the Month – June 2024

Stephanie Prince - JDSPORTS GROUP

This student has regained confidence back, they were diagnosed with neurological disorders earlier in the year and have had to move away from their home and change their store location so they can get the right support. They have been supported throughout this by their employer. The learner lost themselves for a while, but now they are flourishing again, confidence is returning, and this is showing in their programme work completion, their appearance, their behaviours, and the smile on their face.

They are fully committed to their course, the adaptations made are really helping them, and they have recently been stretching themselves to become more involved in business activities that will expose them to environments they knows will be challenging for them, as they have regained that confidence they feel they can shine again.

Learner

Little Owls Day Nursery

We are absolutely delighted to be recognised for all the support that we give our apprentices at Little Owls. We understand and support all of our practitioners and understand they are all unique with their learning styles with the support and guidance that is needed individually to them to achieve their apprenticeships and goals
Employer

Previous Winners

Baldeep Kondal - NHSPH

This individual has found it difficult to manage their apprenticeship time due to managing two areas and dealing with a complete business restructure. They have experienced multiple family bereavements, dealt with high public risk reactive problems in the workplace and moved to a higher pressured environment. This has impacted their progress significantly, and at times felt it wasn’t possible to achieve, but reached Gateway and are now ready for EPA, which is a huge achievement.

Learner

Chatterbox Preschool Ltd

This employer runs a small preschool that is at the centre of a wider community, ensuring high quality care and education to the children and families. This employer has a number of learners completing their apprenticeships with us and always ensures her staff attend meetings (juggling their diary to accommodate everyone), completes the many reviews and also completes her own Level 5 apprenticeship. This employer is supportive and provides the opportunity for her staff to develop knowledge and skills.

Employer

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