Intelect Apprentices Celebrated in Award Ceremony 2026
As part of our celebrations for National Apprenticeship Week 2026, we were proud to host our in-house Apprenticeship Awards ceremony, celebrating the outstanding young talent we have here at Intelect!
Our award-winning apprenticeship programme has been running for over 28 years, and during that time, it has supported more than 175 apprentices, providing a successful access route for a career in the engineering industry.
At Intelect, we operate on a ‘train to retain’ ethos, and we believe it’s vital to recognise the hard work and dedication our apprentices bring, and we’re proud to host this celebration each year to acknowledge their achievements, and the positive impact they make across our business.
Managing director, Fran Cormican, kicked off the event by welcoming guests, before handing out the first award of the day, the “Rising Star Award”. Celebrating first and second-year apprentices, this award is for those who have demonstrated exceptional progress and achievement in the early stages of their learning.
First year electrical apprentice, Will Dyson, was crowned winner, after he hit the ground running in his apprenticeship, becoming a valued member of his team, with second year electrical apprentice, Jack Strike receiving the highly commended award.
Our second award was the “Apprentice of the Year Award,” which celebrates apprentices who have made a significant contribution to the business, or are exceeding the standards we would expect of an apprentice.
This year’s winner was mechanical design apprentice, Rhys Edwards, who successfully completed his apprenticeship in record time, swiftly progressing onto his HNC, where he has since been promoted to Junior Design Engineer. The highly-commended award went to Business Administration apprentice, Emilie Onions, who also recently passed her apprenticeship with a distinction.
Our final category of the day was a special one, “The Charlie Baker Electrical Apprentice Award.” Introduced in 2015 in memory of a much-loved former employee Charlie Baker, who sadly passed away in 2014, this award was created to recognise the achievements of our electrical apprentices, and honours Charlie’s legacy within the business.
We were delighted to once again welcome Charlie’s wife, Janet, who kindly joined us to present the award to this year’s winners. Janet was joined by her daughter, son, and two grandchildren for the occasion.
Janet presented the Charlie Baker Apprentice of the Year Award to our winner, Joe Pemberton, following his successful apprenticeship qualification back in 2025, where he completed ahead of schedule, passing his AM2S test with flying colours. Our highly commended recipient, Joe Story was also acknowledged for his significant growth and dedication to his apprenticeship.
As well our apprentice awards, we also took the time to celebrate two 25 years’ service awards for Kevin Wills and Andy Rudd. Managing Director, Fran reminisced on how much the company had grown since they both joined the team back in 2001, and thanked them for their continued dedication, and the contributions they have made throughout their time with the business.
The event was a fantastic celebration of talent, commitment, and achievement, and we would like to wish a huge congratulations to all of our winners, and to every apprentice who was nominated.
For more information about our apprenticeship program, which is currently accepting applications for our 2026 intake, please visit: https://intelectuk.com/about-us/apprenticeships/
