An Award Winning Apprentice
Second year Engineering, Design and Manufacture Graduate Apprentice Jack Leslie recently won Leonardo’s ‘Scottish Apprentice of the Year Award’ in recognition of his outstanding performance.
Aerospace engineering company Leonardo employs over 7,500 highly skilled people across the UK, with over 2,000 based at their site at Crewe Toll in Edinburgh. Their internal Scottish Apprentice of the Year awards recognise the exceptional efforts of their foundation, modern and graduate apprentices. Award recipients are selected on the basis of the growth they have shown over the course of their apprenticeship, not only as professionals, but also as active members of their community contributing to STEM (science, technology, engineering, maths) educational outreach and charitable causes.
Jack, who started working at Leonardo in August 2020, was encouraged by his Apprentice Manager to put forward his nomination for the award, after he observed the level of commitment he demonstrated to both his work and his studies.
All apprentices who are shortlisted for an award must deliver a presentation to a judging panel comprising members of the senior management team. The judges were impressed by Jack’s accomplishments and his ongoing efforts to apply his learning from his University course back in the workplace.
The company offers a range of early career paths including industrial and summer placements, an internal graduate scheme, apprenticeships and Graduate Apprenticeships.
Graduate Apprentices undertake different departmental rotations on a quarterly basis, and Jack was able to demonstrate a high level of skills acquisition across his rotations, including his Mechanical and Industrial placements.
Work based Learning is key for graduate apprentices and we have our own work-based learning advisors who work directly with the students, offering one-to-one support throughout their studies. This is one of the many benefits of studying for a graduate apprenticeship at Strathclyde.
Speaking of Jack’s recognition, Grant McConnachie, who is Jacks Work Based Learning Advisor, commented
“I wasn’t surprised to hear that Jack was recognised by his employer. He has an exceptional work ethic and is very strong academically, scoring 100% in his recent maths class. We have a strong emphasis on work-based learning and recently one of Jack’s designs were used within his workplace for a testing procedure. He used 3D models and the management team where so impressed they implemented his idea”
Leonardo’s Apprentice Training Officer Billy Barrowman said:
“Our apprentices’ immense enthusiasm and drive is reflected in the high degree of success they achieve and I think the graduate apprenticeship model is an effective one, as it pairs academic learning with on-the-job experience. We feel it is important to recognise our apprentices’ efforts and Jack certainly stood out. The academic learning he is bringing to his day job is exemplary and he has worked very hard since joining our company. He really deserves this recognition.”
