Over the next few months the EAL team will be busy supporting a range of industry events devoted to showcasing skills, innovation and achievement. We're proud to be sponsoring the Electrical Industry Awards, The Manufacturer MX Awards and the Manufacturing Champions Awards before Christmas. We'll also be sponsoring the National Apprenticeship Awards in the New Year and supporting the third Enginuity Skills Awards in February.
It really does never cease to amaze me how many awards there are, each championing different skills or parts of the skills journey. But I have come to appreciate, in my day to day role, the real value of doing just this; of celebrating all the contributors and components of building our industry skills pipeline.
Electrical engineering is a key and rapidly expanding sector for EAL with new apprenticeship qualifications coming on stream. Innovation is fundamental to this sector and so at the Electrical Industry Awards this week, our Programme Manager - Strategic Partnerships, Warren Thomas, will present the 'Innovative Commercial Product of the Year' award.
I'll be attending The Manufacturer MX Awards later in November, to present the 'People and Skills Award', which EAL has sponsored for the last two years, and shortly afterwards it will be the turn of the Manufacturing Champions Awards, in early December. At this, EAL is proud to sponsor the 'Community Champions Award', as part of our schools programme commitment. The award will go to the trailblazing employee or site team that has gone on the front foot to promote manufacturing with schools, colleges, universities or parents – something that has long been close to EAL's heart as the founder of the Industry Apprentice Council.
The National Apprenticeship Awards in January is always a milestone event in our calendar, where we hope to see EAL learners shine. We will be sponsoring and presenting the award for the prestigious Advanced Apprentice of the Year continuing to showcase our commitment to Apprenticeships across our sectors.
I would also like to highlight the forthcoming Enginuity Skills Awards – designed to shine a beacon on the 'Best of British Engineering'. Nominations are invited from across industry in nine categories – from training partner to apprentice of the year (and nominations are currently open so I encourage you to think about who you could put forward!). With sponsorship from many of the big names in UK engineering and manufacturing, it speaks volumes of the value industry places on participating in these awards. As a supporting partner to the awards, we also hope to see many EAL learners, employers and Centres among the nominees and hopefully taking home trophies on 10th February next year.
Over the last few years, I've heard quite a number of award achievers say "It's actually just what I do day to day." My response to that is, 'everyday' or not, what they are achieving and contributing is fundamental to UK plc having a high performance and thriving industry sector. So recognition is only right and proper!
What's more, if we can give a much needed boost to the talent pipeline by celebrating the people who already work in industry and are doing great things, and so inspire the next generation, it's all very much worthwhile.
Best of luck to all EAL's learners and partners!
