THIS week marks an annual celebration for NECC as we showcase the talent and achievements of those that engage in training and development with us.

The NECC Training Celebration Awards (formerly known as the NECC Learning Awards) continue for a third year and will be presented at a showcase event tomorrow at Durham County Cricket Club.

With an expansion of the categories this year to include awards for specific industry sectors we will, more than ever, be recognising the incredible achievements made by NECC learners across the region on a daily basis.

Over the past two years we have seen some very worthy winners who have shown a remarkable willingness to succeed and enthusiasm to develop the necessary skills to establish a strong footing for their future career ambitions.

The awards are, for us, a clear indicator of the calibre of learners at our disposal in the North East and perhaps more pertinently, of those choosing to develop further through the apprenticeship programme above other means of personal development.

We have, in recent years, seen a very positive upsurge in apprenticeships across the North East and these awards are proof of the level of success that apprentices are enjoying.

Couple this with the recent success of the 500 in 100 campaign, which demonstrated the importance placed on apprenticeships in the region, and you can see proof that businesses are recognising vocational learning as a competitive means of recruiting and retaining a strong workforce.

Indeed we will be recognising the efforts of those businesses that have committed to provide these apprentices with the opportunities to develop their vocational skills at the awards ceremony.

Thanks to the special position NECC holds within the business community we are at the forefront of apprenticeship delivery and increasingly see the improvement of staff performance within the companies that engage with us.

We are rightly very proud of the fact that NECC’s learners achieve on average an 80% success rate in their apprenticeships and we therefore feel they all deserve a chance to be celebrated.

I would like to wish the very best of luck to all of those individuals awaiting the results of tomorrow’s awards and that whatever the result, they, and everyone involved in apprenticeships with us across the North East, can all be incredibly proud of their efforts.

:: Patricia Wilkinson is director of training and skills development at the North East Chamber of Commerce