APPRENTICES and firms from across Worcestershire and Herefordshire triumphed in the West Midlands round of the National Apprenticeship Awards.

Lee Snead from Hereford, Evangelene Brookes from Kidderminster and Blue Moon Creative Ltd in Pershore all took home awards at the ceremony at Mitchells & Butler Training Headquarters in Birmingham.

Mr Snead, a 28-years-old former apprentice and now head of client services at Allpay Ltd in Hereford, won the West Midlands City & Guilds apprenticeship champion of the year award, while Miss Brookes, aged 21 and a business administration apprentice with the Community Housing Group, received the Learndirect intermediate apprentice of the year award. The Community Housing Group was also highly commended in the BAE Systems large employer of the year category.

Digital marketing agency Blue Moon Creative took the regional small employer of the year prize. Michael Tate, managing director, said: “Apprenticeships have helped us to grow a local and loyal team as well as enabling us to show our belief in the extraordinary potential of bright young people. Three years ago we doubled the size of our agency by taking on three design apprentices and we’ve continued to offer apprenticeships ever since. All our apprentices have embraced their training, embodied enthusiasm and aimed high, leading our clients to trust them and their judgement.”

Karen Riley, deputy director Employer & Delivery Services Central, Skills Funding Agency, added: “The National Apprenticeship Awards are an excellent platform to recognise and celebrate the dedication shown by all our excellent apprenticeship employers and apprentices. The quality of entries we have had for the West Midlands awards this year has been exceptional. Those who have won should celebrate their success. But every apprentice and employer who entered can be proud of what they have achieved."

All the West Midlands winners will go through to a final national judging stage and the apprenticeship employer entries judged to be the very best of the best will have the additional honour of featuring in the Top 100 Apprenticeship Employers list, to be produced by the National Apprenticeship Service in partnership with City & Guilds. The Top 100 Apprenticeship Employers and the national award winners will be revealed during the national ceremony at the LG Arena in Birmingham on November 13.