Apprentice Training Awards Ceremony

 EKGTA’s Annual award ceremony is considered to be a very special occasion in the calendar of events each year.

It’s main purpose is to recognise formally the achievements of the individuals who have undergone training as engineering apprentices at our training centre and in their workplace with their employers.

Those selected for awards reflect the high standard of performance attained by all trainees throughout all aspects of their individual training programmes and with over 100 apprentices in the centre this year the judging was very difficult.

This year’s awards ceremony was on the 19^th May. The event was very well attended by member company representatives and the principle speaker was Mr Jim McHarg – Group Head Learning & Development – Weir Engineering Services Ltd.

This year there were 11 teams competing for the Chairman’s Award, which is awarded to the best project team, and the winning team was “G.I. Jim's" which consisted of:

Aidan Smith               Martin Aerospace

Mark Higgins             ClydeUnion

Jade Watson              Delta Electronics (UK) Ltd

Ross Hamilton          Star Refrigeration

Alec Wards                 Konecrane (UK) Ltd

Scott Loudon               Weir Engineering Services

Also pictured here are Hugh McKinnon Chairman EKGTA (left), team mentor Jim Gillan (top right) and Jim McHarg (right)

As part of the Chairman’s award the winning team enjoyed a corporate event at Scotkart, Cambuslang. This is always a highly competitive, adrenalin pumping couple of hours. The winning teame were also joined by three members of the second place team; Amy Keenan from Rosti Plastics, John Collins from Glasgow City Counsil and Ross Liddle from Thales Optics. In the end Ross Liddle took 1^st place on the podium with Ross Hamilton in 2^nd place and Mark Higgins came 3^rd.

The apprentices really enjoyed this experience and were well looked after by the Scotkart team.

Sean Connolly of National Semiconductor (UK) Ltd won the most prestigious award “Apprentice of the Year”. All the candidates for this prize were of an excellent standard and the competition was very close. Mr Jim McGarg presented the award.

Pictured with Sean are Jim McHarg (front right), Hugh McKinnon (left). At the back left to right are, Sean's parents and Derek Brown EKGTA Adviser.

Skills Awards are given in recognition of the trainees, who attained a high standard of performance throughout the Foundation phase of their training; who excelled in a particular technical skill area; and who achieved the highest aggregate points score across the criteria applied by our staff in terms of Knowledge/Technical Skills, Practical Ability, Timekeeping & Attendance, Behaviour & Attitude, and Vocational Assessment.

Presenting these awards were Bill Hawthorn, Works Manager of Weir Engineering Services, Hugh McKinnon our Chairman and Owner/Managing Director of Anderside Tools Ltd., Susan Pollock, HR Business Partner of ClydeUnion Pumps and Mr Derek Syme, Training Manger, EKGTA.

The Hugh Logan Award, is presented to the individual identified as the ‘learner of the year’ through their commitment to ‘continuing professional development.’