Navy joins elite band of apprentice employers

Princess Anne rewarded the Royal Navy for its efforts to nurture sailors and Royal Marines for the good of the Service and society.

She welcomed the Senior Service into a select ‘family’ of businesses and organisations large and small recognised for their outstanding training and development regimes.

The Learning and Development Organisation and the Naval Service Apprenticeship programme have earned the Senior Service a ‘badge of honour’ issued in the royal’s name.

The Princess Royal Training Awards, presented for the past three years, acknowledges efforts made to support staff, improve their personal skills, knowledge and professional development for the benefit of the individual, organisation and society as a whole.

To join previous winners – including household names such as car/bike firm Halfords, Lloyds Bank, and insurance giant Legal and General – the Royal Navy’s Learning and Development Organisation and the Naval Service Apprenticeship programme had to demonstrate:

• that training and development was integral to the work and success of the organisation;
• it delivers training and nurtures its personnel efficiently and effectively;
• that training and personal development have an impact both on the individual and the organisation.

There are around 3,700 personnel in some form of apprenticeship programme across the Navy, Royal Marines and Royal Auxiliary – that’s one in every ten men and women in the service, among them HMS Duncan’s Leading Engineering Technician Gavin Maidment, winner of the advanced apprenticeship title at this year’s Naval Service Apprenticeship Awards.

“As an apprentice engineer, I ‘earn as I learn’ to maintain high-tech equipment essential in keeping the warship operational,” he said.

The Royal Navy was one of 48 groups, firms and organisations added to the select list, singled out as “an exemplar of training”.

“The Naval Service Apprenticeship Programme is at the heart of personal learning and development plans – every rating undertakes an apprenticeship specific to their trade,” explained Commodore Andy Cree, Assistant Chief of Staff (Training).

“This provides apprentices, who are our future leaders, with the knowledge, skills and confidence required to operate competently on a warship in complex and challenging environments. And it ensures that they can execute their role, as part of a tightly-knit team, to the standard required.”

You can find out more about educational and developmental courses and opportunities in the Royal Navy at www.royalnavy.co.uk/navylearn