August Apprentice of the Month
Joshua Rea
We are very pleased to announce the winner of the LDN Apprentice of the Month for August is Joshua Rea, Digital Learning Designer Apprentice @ The Woodland Trust.
Nominated by LDN Skills Coach Frazer, Joshua has ‘worked miracles’ according to his internal stakeholders and his work has also been short-listed by their LMS provider for their ‘Course of the Year’.
Joshua really is a shining example when it comes to Apprentice of the Month nominations and a well-deserved winner.
Check out all of the awesome nominations we received in August and Joshua's epic winning nomination below.
Joshua’s Skills Coach:
Joshua has had a sterling last few months, bringing real value to the business. His line manager, interestingly, commented on the best practice and advice Josh was recommending to the Trust to improve their digital learning delivery. Josh has been on a journey where he has proven that he is able to hold the floor in meetings and galvanize key stakeholders to push and move DLD projects along through to completion. He is really developing into a brilliant learning professional and importantly is open to trying new ways of working and thinking outside of the box. He's shown that he cares about his work and the impact that digital learning can have on misrepresented groups within the trust and pushed new policies and systems through to address these areas of concern.
Joshua’s Line Manager:
How have they improved/impacted the business and the team since they started their apprenticeship?
Josh regularly identifies areas for improvement in our service and brings new ideas into the team, which has encouraged us all to consider new ways of working. He has identified through this course that we have gaps in our approach to learning accessibility, and so has implemented a new accessibility checklist that will help SMEs across the organisation. He’s led on a new Sharepoint of carefully curated learning – saving colleagues precious time searching for content and he will soon take on the challenge of building a dashboard that will transform how we track learning.
What three words best describe them?
Integrity – Josh always, always strives to do the right thing. He is never one to just take the easiest route and he works hard to make improvements for the benefit of our colleagues.
Focus – Outcomes matter to Josh. He has a lovely way of collaborating with our internal customers and challenging the status quo to get clarity on why something is required before jumping to solutions.
Courage – Josh has pushed himself well beyond his comfort zone this year, taking on more responsibility and finding his voice in our team which has taken significant courage. Even when he is feeling less confident, he is always good-humoured and maintains an exceptional level of customer service.
An example of an outstanding piece of work, project or task they have worked on.
Josh recently produced a new GDPR e-learning course. Critical as it is, GDPR is not the most exciting subject! Josh worked in partnership with SMEs in the organisation to turn challenging content into an engaging, well-paced e-learning module – producing his own video content, recording voiceovers, and designing pop-ups and graphics in line with Brand guidelines. Internal feedback has included a view that he has ‘worked miracles’ to make the subject easily accessible and engaging. The course has also been short-listed by our LMS provider for their ‘Course of the Year’ – demonstrating how his work is recognised externally too.
Our runner-up for this month is Business Administrator Apprentice, Eve! Eve was nominated by LDN Skills Coach, Steve, with feedback provided by the team at Sodexo (Astra Zeneca).
Eve’s Skills Coach:
Eve has always been an incredibly diligent, hard-working and engaged learner right from the very start of her apprenticeship. She has consistently created some exceptional coursework for her portfolio, as well as being one of the constant mainstays at her workplace, despite going through some turbulent times there. Following the bereavement of a close colleague at work, Eve has continued to be fully committed to her job and supporting those in the team affected by this terrible news, whilst still being able to persevere with the apprenticeship itself. Eve has been a superb support for her fellow Apprentices too, meeting up with them separately to help each other successfully through the programme. Eve is a delight to coach and support, where she takes on feedback with a positive, thoughtful and insightful approach, always moving her work on accordingly. I am proud to be nominating Eve for the Apprentice of the Month award, for which she could’ve been nominated at any stage of her course, due to her exceptional productivity and determination to succeed.
Eve’s line manager:
Eve has always been a key member of the team and will always go above and beyond to support other team members to ensure our weekly & monthly deadlines are met, however since starting the apprenticeship she has gained more confidence in her role and as a result has looked at ways to improve her knowledge of the contract and to understand the impact her work has on achieving the monthly budget. We were recently given approval to purchase some new pieces of cleaning equipment for the site. Eve took this on as her project, she liaised with the onsite managers and their requests, placed the orders for the equipment and was key to ensuring we didn't exceed the budget.
Here’s what was said about the other brilliant nominees:
Andy Bodrenkova @ Alain Charles:
Andy stepped into the production role at a time of great transition for the press, they hit the ground running and significantly improved both the efficiency and quality of the production process. Their eagerness to learn has led to quicker project completion and a noticeable increase in productivity. By bringing fresh perspectives, they've introduced innovative ideas that have streamlined processes. Their ability to adapt and take on challenges has also lightened the workload for both myself and other team members, allowing them to focus on strategic tasks. Overall, they've become an invaluable asset to the business.
Jim Atkinson @ University of Northampton:
Jim is helping to shape the IT training and digital development portfolio for the University and is a driving force in this work. In addition, he is improving the staff development offer by increasing our catalog of asynchronous learning. This is important in that it allows the team to deliver interventions in the most appropriate way for the topic and in recognition of the scope of targeted roles. Jim brings a very organised and enthusiastic presence to these projects and his focus on both the detail and rational of the work is impressive and recognised at all levels of the organisation.
Abigail Gould @ Bloomsbury:
Abbie has been a huge help to the Children’s Marketing and Publicity team since she started: providing impressive administrative support as well as unparalleled creative insight, particularly in where her passion lies with social media and digital marketing. Abbie has also provided some much-needed interim support while our team has gone through various role changes: adeptly stepping into some responsibilities of other members of the team.
Scarlett Crittall @ Commercial Services Group:
Scarlett has continued to excel in her role, demonstrating remarkable growth and initiative. She has played a pivotal role in our competitions and email marketing changes, showing a keen eye for detail and creativity that has significantly improved our engagement rates. Scarlett has also become adept at social listening, using insights to strategically plan for increased engagement and followers on our social media platforms. Her work on the Headship microsites has been particularly impressive; she has not only created a visually appealing and user-friendly website but also ensured that the content aligns perfectly with our brand message. Scarlett's ability to integrate into the team has been seamless, and her contributions have been invaluable. Overall, her progress has been outstanding, and she has proven to be an indispensable asset to our team.