August Apprentice of the Month - Katy Bourne
We are happy to announce the winner of the LDN Apprentice of the Month is Level 4 Corporate Responsibility & Sustainability Apprentice Katy @ Grosvenor!
Nominated by LDN Skills Coach Geeta, Katy has demonstrated proactivity and determination across all parts of her apprenticeship, all while supporting the team in achieving award-winning research projects.
Check out Katy's winning Apprentice of the Month nomination along with our other fantastic nominations below!
Katy’s Skills Coach:
This month I have nominated Katy Bourne as she is thriving on the Apprenticeship. Katy was new to the field of CR&S and has already shown her fantastic skills and is making a key difference to her organisation. Katy is ahead of her training plan targets and her journal entries are amazing and really showcase how she is developing her knowledge, skills and behaviors every day.
Katy recently achieved a SPOT Award for a piece of research she pulled together regarding Grosvenor’s Supply Chain Charter and a cross-industry review of other property sector charters. This is a fantastic achievement and well-deserved for the hard work Katy puts in daily.
Katy is heavily involved in social value aspects and is committed to supporting Grosvenor to be an organisation that puts environmental and social issues at the core of its purpose. Katy has contributed to this by working on a protected values project, which has taken into consideration fair access across the board for all, and careful consideration of the 9 protected characteristics, which shows Katy’s commitment to EDI and social value. Overall, Katy is a fantastic apprentice and employee, and I am excited to see her flourish in her career of CR&S.
Katy’s Line Manager:
Energy: Katy has had a great level of energy and ‘can-do’ attitude across all projects she’s been involved in. This has been particularly clear to see when certain pieces of work require her to engage lots of people in the business, at different levels of seniority. Everyone I’ve spoken with commented on what a pleasure it was to work with her.
Enthusiasm: It’s clear that Katy has a real passion for sustainability and social impact, which comes through in her work and in conversations with various team members. Katy quickly became an integrated part of the team and made a real effort to get to know everyone, and how their roles play a part in helping us deliver our sustainability goals.
Willingness To Learn: Katy has been able to balance her apprenticeship learning, supporting the team with various tasks, all whilst picking up new skills. This has included taking part in training and attending coaching sessions on:
Digital survey platform Commonplace so that Katy can conduct research to help us maximise social impact in the places we’re active.
Community engagement skills such as how to manage difficult conversations
Ability To Take Feedback: As well as delivering high-quality work, Katy isn’t afraid to ask for areas of improvement and responds well to feedback. She’s not afraid to say when she doesn’t understand something and is keen to explore ways to improve. One area she’s keen to deepen her skills in is Microsoft Excel and data analysis – we’ve discussed various ways she can grow in this area, including online training as well as shadowing people in the team so she can learn ‘on the job’.
Propensity To Take Action: Katy has demonstrated proactivity and efficiency across all parts of her role and learning. She works so efficiently that she often completes tasks in less time than we expect it to take! But that doesn’t mean she rests on her laurels – she will always say when the workload is light and is keen to pick up new things that will allow her to grow.
An example of an outstanding piece of work that has benefited the team: Katy has a natural talent for writing and has produced various useful and genuinely interesting case studies about the social impact and sustainability initiatives across Grosvenor. This has ranged from attending a tennis tournament with local school children, talking with our security team about how we keep our neighbourhoods safe, to compiling information on charitable and community initiatives within our shopping centre in Liverpool. Katy has had to engage with a host of different people across the business, gather detailed information about the activities they have undertaken and present it in an engaging and concise manner so others can read about it, and are inspired to take action.
Our runner-up for this month is LDN Salesforce Apprentice Harry! Harry was nominated by LDN Skills Coach, Hannah, with feedback provided by the Willmington Team.
Harry’s Skills Coach:
Harry started his apprenticeship in March and has really hit the ground running. He is working as a Salesforce Administrator Apprentice and has already grown in confidence since his first meeting with me. The feedback from his line manager has been consistently good and shows that Harry is absorbing every bit of learning that he can!
He has started to show his resourcefulness by researching topics that he is unfamiliar with and speaking to people in his team to help him resolve tickets quickly and efficiently. Harry is always willing to take on new projects and is now looking at working on more complex tasks that involve the use of Salesforce Flow. His project work is already amazing and really shows Harry's dedication to learning and improving his skills in his role. This is a fantastic start to Harry's apprenticeship and I'm looking forward to seeing Harry continue to thrive!
Harry’s line manager:
Since Harry started at Wilmington, he rapidly learned all the team’s procedures and felt great about making a difference. He easily fitted in the team, feeling comfortable and confident within the shortest possible time.
You can tell Harry really enjoys what he does; he is always very positive when supporting our users and feels great resolving their issues. We have a wide range of users, and Harry picked that up very quickly. He manages to explain technical points, adapting language and pace to the type of users he is working with. Building relationships with people is one of his key assets.
At work, Harry is thrilled to work alongside a senior member of the team to implement a new backup solution. We are already raking in the benefits of it, and he is our go-to person!
Here’s what was said about the other fantastic nominees:
Georgina Blues @ University of Sheffield:
Georgina shows boundless energy in her approach to tackling projects, whether large or small, and it is infectious, helping to energise the whole team. She is tenacious and has a positive can-do attitude. It is her enthusiasm for the job that means Georgina is always close by to pick up the ball should it be dropped by a colleague. She doesn't see problems, she sees opportunities. That is a breath of fresh air.
Kai Papafio-Gordon @ Bloomsbury:
Kai has been a fantastic apprentice! Almost every week I get an email from someone from a different part of the business telling me how wonderful and helpful she is! Kai is an incredibly fast learner, relentlessly helpful, and full of brilliant ideas in meetings. Since starting at Bloomsbury she has become a crucial member of the marketing and publicity teams. We truly are dreading the day her apprenticeship ends!
Maliha Kabir @ Welbeck Publishing Group:
Right from the start of her apprenticeship, I received positive feedback about Maliha’s manner from both internal members of the team as well as external stakeholders. Maliha has brought a positive energy to the team which she has managed to maintain despite some difficult situations. A fast-paced environment can sometimes feel overwhelming, but Maliha remained positive throughout. I have been impressed with how quickly Maliha has gained new knowledge and how she has been able to put her knowledge into practice.