87 nominations nationwide, 10 individual/team awards announced
Brendan Kearns, Designer Electric announced as the overall Generation Apprenticeship Workplace Champion for 2023

The National Apprenticeship Office announced its Workplace Champions for 2023 at its flagship awards ceremony  on Thursday 07 December 2023 in celebration of Ireland’s outstanding apprenticeship advocates at Dublin’s Morrison Hotel.

10 outstanding individuals and teams from around the country were crowned as Generation Apprenticeship ‘Workplace Champions’ at an awards ceremony this afternoon, with 190 people in attendance.

The awards event had a strong industry presence along with members of the National Apprenticeship Alliance, CIF, Ibec, SOLAS, HEA, ICTU and Connect and education and training providers.

The event included the launch of findings from the first nationwide national survey of apprenticeship employers, with report findings now available to view on the Apprenticeship Ireland website.

Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research Innovation and Science Simon Harris TD said: “I congratulate the group of outstanding individuals and teams who have been nominated for an award this year, and those who were announced as award winners today.”

“Our national apprenticeship system simply could not function without the ongoing support of employers and the dedication of the thousands of people across companies who support apprentices through their learning journey.”

“It is only right that we acknowledge and celebrate them and I would like to thank everyone at the awards event today for the role they play in bringing along the next generation of apprentices. All of you are directly contributing to widening skills and training for our economy, creating more opportunities for people to help deliver on important priorities, for our society, such as Housing for All and climate action.”

Three award categories reflected the breadth of important work that apprenticeship workplace champions carry out in the workplace: ‘Apprenticeship Advocates to the Outside World’; standing as ‘Enablers and Supporters of Apprentices’, and working as ‘Advocates of Diversity and Inclusion in the Workplace’.

The Winning Workplace Champions were:

Apprenticeship advocates to the outside world (3 awards)

Anthony Donoghue, Dawn Farm Foods Ltd

Conor Doolan, Iarnród Eireann

Danielle Dalton, Danielle Dalton Instrotec ltd

Enablers and supporters of apprentices (3 awards)

Aine Curtin, Hartley People Recruitment

William Digan, Alkermes Pharma Ireland Ltd

Willie McMahon, Ellab Ireland Ltd

Advocates of diversity and inclusion in the workplace (3 awards)

Brendan Kearns, Designer Electric Limited

Thos Kennedy, H A O’Neil (Jones Engineering)

Michael Fitzgerald, ESB Networks

Team Award (1 award)

Pfizer Newbridge

Overall Workplace Champion 2023

Brendan Kearns, Designer Electric Ltd

Brendan Kearns, overall winner of the first-ever Generation Apprenticeship “Workplace Champions” award said:

“The Generation Apprenticeship Workplace Champions awards showcase and celebrate the dedicated employers, educators and trainers who work tirelessly to support over 26,000 apprentices across Ireland, helping apprentices to realise their talents, skills and ambitions in the workplace. I am delighted to have won this award.”

Dr Mary Liz Trant, Director of the National Apprenticeship Office said:

“Apprenticeships are an integral part of how businesses recruit and retain talent in the Ireland of the twenty-first century. These awards have evolved out of the ‘Employer of the Year’ Awards events held since 2019. This year acknowledge and celebrate the outstanding people in companies, education and industry who invest their time in training and supporting apprentices across the full range of 70+ Generation Apprenticeship programmes. Congratulations to all of the outstanding nominees and award winners today.”

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Michael McDonnell Managing Editor of Irish Construction Industry Magazine & Plan Magazine

Email: michael@irishconstruction.com    WWW.MCDMEDIA.IE         WWW.IRISHCONSTRUCTION.COM