FORMER COMMUNARD, REV RICHARD COLES, APPLAUDS EDA AWARD WINNERS
Posted by: electime 12th March 2018
Cleric, broadcaster and former Communard, the Reverend Richard Coles, helped celebrate the 2018 Electrical Distributors’ Association Education & Training Awards recently, where outstanding managers from wholesalers and manufacturers were presented with their trophies in front of 550 guests at the Associations’ Annual Dinner on Park Lane.
Nine managers, some of whom travelled from as far afield as Kirkcaldy and Cardiff, received their EDA Investor in Training Award from EDA President, Simon Barkes, and John Henry, MD of event sponsors EDA Apprenticeships Plus, on Thursday 8 March 2018. The next day at a lunch held at London’s iconic Shard, eight high-performing apprentices and employees collected an EDA Learning Achievement Award, as part of the EDA’s National Apprenticeship Week 2018 celebrations.
EDA President Simon Barkes said “Choosing our Award winners each year gets increasingly tough as more and more of our wholesaler and manufacturer members take advantage of the Associations’ Education & Training Programme to both attract new talent to their team and to develop their professional skills.
“This year we have a three-time trophy winner: Craig Hiepner of EDA affiliate, Deta Electrical Company Ltd, received two awards as a product knowledge student in 2012 and 2013 but this year took home a manager award.”
The EDA Investor in Training Awards acknowledge the support, commitment, and leadership of managers in one of two categories: apprenticeships, helping to attract new talent to the electrical wholesale sector, and the MOL Product Knowledge Programme, a distance-learning initiative designed to improve employee skills and performance.
EDA Learning Achievement Awards were presented to eight employees in recognition of outstanding performance in an apprenticeship or MOL Specialist Product Knowledge studies.
Margaret Fitzsimons, CEO at the EDA, added “Our Awards season spans two flagship events in the EDA calendar: our formal Annual Dinner where we celebrate the manager winners and our lunch where we encourage winners to bring their family members and friends to celebrate alongside business colleagues and the EDA Board. The lunch recognises outstanding apprentices and product knowledge stars who are tomorrow’s leaders, and by presenting the awards in front of family and friends we help spread the word about the fantastic career opportunities available in the UK’s electro-technical supply chain.”
EDA Apprenticeships Plus, sponsors of the dinner and lunch, were appointed by the EDA in 2011 to manage the Associations’ Apprenticeship Programme.
