WILTSHIRE College & University Centre celebrated its 10th Apprenticeship Awards in style by making it the biggest and best yet.

Since introducing the annual event a decade ago, it has always been held at the Arc Theatre in Trowbridge or one of the College’s campuses.

This year, for the first time, the event was held at Trowbridge Civic Centre and the awards were presented by Michelle Donelan, the MP for Chippenham.

Miss Donelan said: "We need events like this to spread the word across Wiltshire that these opportunities are out there and available for everyone regardless of background.

"I have been pushing hard for even more emphasis to be placed on apprenticeships as I feel they are a powerful tool when levelling up opportunities across the country, especially for people in rural communities like ours.”

Tony Basham, the College's executive director for business and partnerships, said: “The Apprenticeship Awards is one of the highlights in the College’s event calendar and every year we enjoy celebrating the achievements of our apprentices.“Over the past three years, the College has seen its apprenticeship starts double and so we were delighted to hold this year’s ceremony at the Civic Centre, to be able to accommodate our growing number of apprentice winners and their guests.It was a fantastic evening.”

More than 20 individual ‘Apprentice of the Year’ awards were presented in areas such as business administration, hairdressing, architectural joinery, engineering, horticulture and social media and digital marketing.

This year’s winners also included mature apprentices who have chosen to change career or upskill in areas such as HR, team leading and accountancy.

A total of 170 guests attended, including the winners, their family and friends, college staff, employers and VIPs.

The College welcomed Kathy Collis, head of learning and organisational development, from Dorset and Wiltshire Fire & Rescue Service, who talked about apprenticeships within the fire service and her own progression journey.

In addition to the individual awards, the College presented three employer awards, recognising their journeys on supporting apprentices and being advocates for apprenticeships.

The Smaller Apprentice Employer of the Year Awards was won by A J Reynolds Truck and Van Services of Frome.

Mander Duffill won the Medium Apprentices Employer Award and Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust was awarded Large Apprenticeship Employer of the Year.

Principal Amanda Burnside presented one surprise final award for ‘Outstanding Apprentice of the Year’ to Nicole Fever, who completed a Level 4 Engineering apprenticeship with Steve Vick International.

Nicole, 26, of Bradford on Avon, said: “I was amazed to win the engineering award, so to also win the Outstanding Apprentice award was fantastic. To say I was surprised would be an understatement!”