12 Dec 2022
Transport for Wales has been crowned as Large Employer of the Year 2022 at this year's Academy Skills Wales Awards.
Hosted on Tuesday 15 November at Neath College, the event was an opportunity to showcase and celebrate the worthy winners from all over Wales who have achieved success during the last two years, because of their dedication and commitment to enhancing their skills development and contributing to business productivity through work-based learning programmes.
Transport for Wales were nominated by Coleg y Cymoedd for the Large Employer of the Year category (for organisations with over 100 employees), as a result of our fantastic work on the Driver apprenticeship programme, where in partnership with the college, we became the first train operator in the UK to offer an accredited NVQ level 3 qualification in train driver operations as part of its apprenticeship.
There have already been more than 100 trainee train drivers who have taken the qualification in the first year, with the aim of the programme being to recruit 100 more each year over the next five years.
The awards were attended by colleges and businesses who offer apprenticeships schemes from all over Wales, in what was a great night full of well deserving winners.
In attendance from Transport for Wales and there to receive the award was Adam Bagwell, Operations Training Manager, James Cooper, Head of Workforce Planning and Operational Training, as well as Driver and Operations Trainers Bev Hannible, Paul Yanez and Gareth Brace.
Adam Bagwell said: “It’s a fantastic achievement to be recognised in this way for all the work and effort that has been put into creating the Driver apprenticeship programme.
“To achieve this in only the second year of running this makes it all the more special. I’m so incredibly proud of the work and efforts the Driver and Operations Training team have and continue to put into this programme.
“We are seeing some Excellent, professional and committed people coming through the training programme that are making great drivers.”
Hear more from Adam on the win and what the programme offers in the video below.
