Meet Lois McClure and Ashley Terron – two winners of this year’s National Apprenticeship Awards.

National winner of the learndirect award for Intermediate Apprentice of the Year, Lois McClure, works for the Co-operative Group – the company which owns and runs the well-known Co-op grocery shops you see on many high streets around Britain. They also supply other services to the community, such as banking and insurance, legal services and funeral care. Lois has been an apprentice with the company for just over two years, having completed her GCSEs at school and A-levels at her local college.

During her first year at college, Lois was planning to study psychology at university but changed her mind during her second year. She began looking into the possibility of doing an apprenticeship at this point and applied to start on the Co-op’s apprenticeship scheme. She was turned down initially and was about to start work for another local company when she got a call asking her to join the Co-op after all!

Lois works in the group’s Membership Services Department – the Co-op is owned by its workers and her job involves booking accommodation and organising conferences for members as well as monitoring, updating and writing a newsletter for the company’s website.

As an apprentice herself, Lois understands the need to promote apprenticeship as a great pathway into employment for young people and as a result, she is now heavily involved in the Co-op’s Apprenticeship Ambassador Scheme, fundraising, volunteering and raising awareness of apprenticeship both within as well as outside the company. “Many people just don’t know how an apprenticeship works so it’s great to be able to talk to schools and businesses and let them know how it all works.” said Lois. She is also very keen to pass on her knowledge by mentoring other young apprentices in future.

After winning this prestigious award, Lois says she would like to stay on with the Co-op in a managerial role. “The Co-op run a graduate training scheme which I am eligible for, even though I don’t have a degree, as I’ve worked here as an apprentice for over two years now.” she said. She is also considering doing a degree, which the company will help her to achieve if it is relevant to the work she’s doing for them.

Next up is Ashley Terron , National Winner of the City and Guilds Award for Apprenticeship Champion of the Year 2014

“Doing an apprenticeship made sense to me as I wanted to go into the family bricklaying business with my dad and elder brother.”

After gaining 10 good GCSEs at school, Ashley Terron stuck to his guns and convinced his Head of Year that going to his local college to do an apprenticeship in bricklaying was the best way for him to kick-start his career, rather than doing A-levels and going to university.

Now aged 22, Ashley’s determination to choose his own way into the world of work has really paid off. He now works for property developers, Redrow plc, as an assistant site manager and is coming to the end of his first year of studying a degree in Construction Project Management at Salford University.

“When I got such good grades at GCSE, my Head of Year at school couldn’t understand why I wanted to do an apprenticeship in bricklaying instead of doing A-levels and going to university but I knew it was the right thing for me. I was always interested in working in the construction industry and I wanted to get a trade behind me. It felt natural to then want to join my dad and brother in their business and it all just made complete sense to me to do an apprenticeship and to earn while I learned.

“I did some research into doing an apprenticeship, checked out what was on offer at a few local FE colleges but when I went to an open evening at Warrington Collegiate I liked what I saw – the college, the environment, the building. The one day at college and four days at work arrangement on an apprenticeship scheme also appealed to me. I am a visual learner and for me, learning the theory of bricklaying and construction methods in the classroom for one day a week and then putting the theory into practise on site four days a week really suited my way of learning.” said Ashley.

Thrilled to have won a National Apprenticeship Award, Ashley’s career is going from strength to strength and he is enjoying the benefits of doing a post-apprenticeship degree with the support of Redrow . For more info visit our dedicated apprenticeship page.