January Apprentice of the Month - Ahmed Nur Hussen
We are happy to announce that the winner of the LDN Apprentice of the Month is Ahmed @ Pension Insurance Corporation (PIC)!
Nominated by LDN Skills Coach, Steve Bond - Ahmed is the first winner of the Apprentice of the Month award for 2023!
After successfully coordinating a series of fundraising events in honor of Black History Month, Ahmed has continued to build an incredible impression on his team at PIC!
Check out Ahmed's winning Apprentice of the Month nomination along with our other fantastic nominations below!
Ahmed’s Skills Coach:
Ahmed has shown great consistency right from the very beginning of his Apprenticeship, where he is inquisitive, humble, and keen to accept (and action) developmental feedback whenever it is provided, allowing him to grow within himself and the role simultaneously.
According to his manager, Ahmed has also been increasing his level of autonomy at work and taking on more responsibility, including being instrumental in raising the profile of Black History Month at the Pension Service Corporation and beyond, raising over £900 for charity at the same time through his very hard work.
One of Ahmed’s strengths is that he takes every one of his targets seriously. He has always had an excellent grasp of the coursework, questioning where necessary to increase his own understanding, which has put him in a very strong position going into the latter stages of his qualification.
During the recent in-person event at LDN HQ, despite his nerves, Ahmed shared his experience on the course with the newer learners to enhance their learning journey, supporting his peers very effectively as he has done throughout the year in the Live Sessions too. And having now met him in person at the event last week, I can now confirm that he is a very big man with a very big heart, he is kind and unassuming but is someone who will put himself out for anyone he can wherever possible.
Ahmed’s Line Manager:
Energy: Since Ahmed started with us, he has picked up tasks quickly, developing his skillset. This has included taking ownership of new joiners, movers, and leavers on our Learning Management System, and writing articles for the company intranet. His writing skills are excellent.
He’s also taken on responsibility for organising our learning events, ensuring the rooms are set up as needed, and creating evaluation reports. He was part of a project with our apprentices and interns to pitch a proposal for a security exercise. They had to pitch this to senior management, like The Apprentice. Ahmed was in the winning group and had excellent feedback on how well he presented.
Enthusiasm: His mindset and attitude are his biggest strengths. He’s always willing to help and get involved in things even if he has no experience in that area. Ahmed is always smiling, and he can change the energy in the room with his positivity. Even if things aren’t going well, he stays upbeat which is refreshing. He has taken the lead on our apprenticeship group, which now has 20 people in it. He offers support to the new recruits and utilises the group for different projects, getting them involved in cross-company initiatives.
Willingness To Learn: Ahmed is definitely in the right business function as is always absorbing knowledge and developing his skills. He wants to understand how something works and will repeat tasks to aid quick retention. He is making excellent progress with his apprenticeship work, and it is never something I have to remind him about or chase him on. He is also flexible with the demands of the business and makes it work so his apprenticeship learning doesn’t fall behind.
Ability To Take Feedback: He excels in this. At the start of his apprenticeship, we discussed his organisation skills, particularly around prioritisation and asking for help if he wasn’t sure of something. He took the feedback very well, and made changes quickly, trying out different approaches. This has then been replicated when he’s been given any feedback on improvements he needs to make. He doesn’t just listen; he takes action to continuously improve.
Propensity To Take Action: Ahmed had some training on prioritisation, and he didn’t just come back from the training with a summary of what he’d learned, but with actions to implement. He has also been working on creating a diversity and inclusion hub on our intranet which will curate all our content in one place for colleagues. He’s shown great initiative with this in driving the project forward, asking for help when he needs it, but then going away and creating something before sharing it with the team. It’s an excellent piece of work that will be invaluable in promoting our Diversity and Inclusion proposition.
Example of Outstanding Piece of Work: This has to be his work on Black History Month which was a huge success. He led this project, working with other apprentices and interns to come up with an awareness campaign, and the budget they would need to deliver it. This included finding and booking a guest speaker.
Ahmed had to introduce the speaker to over 100 people and had to manage a difficult situation when the speaker was late, which he handled brilliantly. Something many experienced people couldn’t have done.
He also arranged a raffle and bake sale and liaised with our charity committee to raise over £900 for a black women’s charity. In addition, he wrote articles on black history, a watchlist of films and TV shows, and his own personal blog which received excellent feedback from colleagues for his openness and honesty.
The nominations we received this month were so fantastic we couldn’t just pick one runner-up for this month, we have two!
Our first runner-up is lvl 3 Digital Marketing Apprentice, Emma Bumpstead @ Walk in Media! Emma was nominated by her Skills Coach Dan, with feedback provided by line manager Molly.
Emma’s Skills Coach:
Emma has been on top form since day 1! She continues to be on top form in month 7 with work completed on time, exams smashed after the first attempt, and within a month of joining Walk in Media, had rebuilt their entire website.
Emma has also been there to help, support, and guide new team members with praise from HR highlighting that she is very special and they will be doing everything they can to keep her long after the apprenticeship.
Emma is driven, intelligent, resourceful, and puts herself out there. She is absolutely hilarious too, which just helps!
Emma’s line manager:
Emma has a great energy, she brings a positive ‘can-do’ attitude to the WIM team. She’s always willing to support her teammates and go the extra mile to get things done! Even when she’s busy, she’ll always have a smile on her face and is approachable to the wider team and is always willing to answer a question.
Emma has been an absolute rock for me in my first 3months at Walk In Media. I don’t think I could have been this successful in this role without her (and I know I’m not the only person who would say this)!
Our next runner-up and L3 Digital Marketing Apprentice joining Emma is Bethany Hawkins @ eyworks! Bethany was nominated by LDN Skills Coach Alex, with feedback provided by her line manager Tim.
Bethany’s Skills Coach:
Beth has done tremendously well at work recently; she had a very strong end to 2022 and has started 2023 where she left off.
Beth’s positivity and enthusiasm shines through, not only at work but on the apprenticeship also, where she is the class rep for my Digital Marketing cohort and brings her enthusiasm and really good ideas to the table during the class rep meetings.
Most impressively she has done a couple of really great presentations to the rest of the apprentices at recent live sessions showing casing her project work and sharing tips and insights around mail chimp email software for example. The feedback I have received from the other apprentices was immense.
Overall, Beth is a pleasure to coach, and mentor and has a bright future ahead of her.
Bethany’s line manager:
Beth's energy is infectious within the office making her a delight to work with.
As a small business made up of just 15 employees we are an extremely fast paced office and team that requires staff to learn quickly and throw themselves head first into any task that comes their way, while keeping a smile on their face to help keep spirits high. Beth does this and more!
Beth is extremely committed to her role and the organisation and this was clearly evident when I tasked her with taking on the management of our social media channels as part of our company rebranding from eyLog Ltd to eyworks. As part of the rebrand, there was a big focus on improving engagement through our social media channels by producing high-quality, on-brand, varied content, and Beth delivered this fantastically!
Here’s what was said about the other fantastic nominees:
Ava D’Amaro @ Warner Bros:
Ava is always on time, if not early. She is always available throughout the day and willing to take on new tasks and I think this is a real reflection of her energy and enthusiasm for the job. As well as seeking feedback from the team, Ava is always asking for more work to take on. This is exactly the can-do spirit that we love!
Diana Cocu @ Tempest Resourcing:
Diana has fitted perfectly into the team and the department since the day she started! She has picked up the role extremely quickly and goes above and beyond to complete each task to the highest standard. The enthusiasm that Diana has shown each day has been more than I could ever ask for. Her work ethic is outstanding.
Muhammad Shahzad @ Citywire:
Muhamad takes great pride in ensuring he’s not just completing tasks but also understanding why those tasks need to be completed and the impact it has on the team and business goals. Having that level of curiosity and enthusiasm is a rare quality and shows great maturity often only seen in more experienced team members.
Kundai Valentine Murefu @ N Brown:
Kundai has the ability to onboard tasks, understand them and then provide input to improve and then action is brilliant. Since joining Kundai has been a huge credit to much of the published documentation we have put together, increasing the scope of sustainability across the business.