Celebrating the best apprenticeship employers

Anna Morrison CBE is the founder and director of Amazing Apprenticeships, an organisation that works with government, schools and colleges, and many of the country’s leading employers to champion apprenticeships and technical education and inspire the next generation of apprentices. 

Amazing Apprenticeships has helped millions of students, teachers and families to navigate the complex world of apprenticeships through access to free resources that aim to inspire and inform individuals about their options, and to guide them on the next steps to take. 

Anna is a well-known figure in the education and skills sector and has spent the last 25 years raising awareness of the benefits of apprenticeships and helping to shape the vocational skills landscape. 

Her extensive and exemplary work with employers, training providers and policy makers has established her as a respected speaker on apprenticeships, and has seen her invited to support and contribute to countless research papers, legislative developments, media commentary, conferences and roundtables.  

Anna was awarded a CBE in the 2019 Queen’s Birthday Honours and an honorary Doctorate in 2021, both in recognition of her services to apprenticeships.

Conor Cotton is passionate about helping young people find the best options for them and established his career around supporting young people and employers in connecting the dots between top talent and the best opportunities.  

Conor is the Managing Director of Not Going To Uni, which raises awareness of the alternatives to university and works with global brands including RAF, Mondelez, Barclays, DEFRA, and more to deliver early career marketing campaigns that deliver and exceed client expectations.

Daniel Sandford Smith is a director of education programmes at the Gatsby Charitable Foundation. He started his professional career as a physics teacher before working for various professional bodies. In his role at Gatsby,  he leads the foundation’s work on apprenticeships. He is also supporting work to ensure that technical education can equip individuals with the skills required for emerging technologies and supporting colleges to play a greater role in supporting innovation.

James Adeleke, a Nigerian-born, dyslexic social entrepreneur, is on a mission to change the world.

He is the CEO of Generation Success, an award-winning social enterprise that works with more than 70 employers in the UK and Ireland to tackle social inequalities in society and connect diverse talent to careers through mentoring, training, events and early career recruitment services.

He has been involved in a number of projects, reports and commissions centered around enterprise and employability. He has spoken in Parliament and City Hall on social mobility, diversity and employability. He is a Co-opted member of the Education board at City of London Corporation, a school governor at Newham Collegiate and independent member of the Student Association Board at Arden University.

He won the Entrepreneur of Excellence Award in the National Diversity Awards 2022, was announced as EY’s Accelerate Entrepreneur of the Year 2021, and named in the Diversity Powerlist 2023 by Inclusive Awards.

Having spent the last 10 years working in recruitment, training and careers education, Jess has worked across a broad range of roles within the apprenticeship and early careers sectors. From managing internal apprenticeship programmes to guiding young people on how to secure apprenticeship opportunities, Jess is a self-confessed careers geek with a passion for sharing the benefits of apprenticeships with employers and young people alike.

Having started her business, The Careers People, in 2019, Jess currently works with a range of schools, education companies and employers nationally to help support young people on their transition from education to the workplace.

Laura-Jane (LJ) left school at 16 with poor GCSE grades, she had experience of being a free school meal student and being singled out because of it. Through her early career she worked in retail and sales, using each step to build her skills, experience and confidence. Whilst working in recruitment Laura-Jane began to see that the barriers she faced were not unique to her and became a passionate advocate for young people transitioning between education and employment. Spending time to better understand the structural issues of youth unemployment and the policy around the area, Laura-Jane founded Youth Employment UK in 2012.

Laura-Jane is a passionate campaigner for youth employment and the rights for all young people to access quality employment and have their voices heard on the issues that affect them. Laura-Jane believes that it is for all of us to create a youth friendly society so that young people can fulfil their potential.

Recognised as a leading youth employment expert Laura-Jane provides support, insight and expertise to many groups such as the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Youth Employment, she is the co-founder of the Youth Employment Group, and has supported a range of expert groups on issues of social mobility, employment and skills. Laura-Jane is also a Board Member of DIGIT and the Federation for Education Development, she also spent 8 years as a Secondary School Governor.

Lucy Hunte is the National Programme Manager of apprenticeships for NHS England, the largest public sector employer in England.

Lucy has worked in the training and education sector for over 20 years, with 10 years spent working in the apprenticeship arena. She first led the business development teams at two London further education colleges. For the past 6 years, Lucy has worked for Health Education England and now NHS England. As part of her role, Lucy offers strategic support to the NHS on all aspects of apprenticeship development, delivery, and implementation. She is very passionate about apprenticeships as a great tool to recruit new talent to the NHS but also as a way to upskill the existing workforce and offer career pathways and progression. She was Highly Commended – Apprentice Champion of the Year at the National Apprenticeship Awards 2022. 

For the past 10 years Mike has developed multiple award winning Recruitment, Apprenticeship and Diversity programmes in his role as Director for Early Careers at Barclays. 

His passions are social mobility ,diversity and mental health and during his time at Barclays he developed an Apprenticeship programme that supported over 3000 long term unemployed people into work across all areas of the Barclays business.  

His work earned him a place on the Governments Apprenticeship Delivery Board and his programmes have won 24 National Awards including from CIPD, BITC and Personnel today. 

For three years he chaired the financial services trailblazer group developing new Apprenticeship Standards for the financial services sector. 

For two years Mike was a route panel chair within the Institute for Apprenticeships (IFA) where he has responsibility for chairing the employer panel that approves  all new Apprenticeship Standards and T Levels for Legal, Accountancy and Financial Services 

He is passionate about wellbeing and mental health and has led research into mental health amongst apprentices and graduates as well as employer attitudes and strategies. He now runs his own business, Generation Healthy Minds working with a range of large and SME UK employers to help support their apprentices and graduates to stay well and thrive.

Parisa is Director of Standards at WorldSkills UK, a four nations partnership between education, industry and UK governments.  It is a world-class network acting as a catalyst for raising standards through international benchmarking, championing future skills and empowering young people, from all backgrounds, through competitions-based training and careers advocacy.  WorldSkills UK is the government’s representative at WorldSkills, the global body for skills development, and WorldSkills Europe, the European body for skills development.

Appointed Director of Standards in April 2023, Parisa was previously Head of Skills Development and International Competitions at WorldSkills UK, a role she had held since 2014.

Before joining WorldSkills UK, Parisa held senior roles in government, Further Education and not-for-profit organisations implementing apprenticeships and technical education policy.  In partnership with representatives from government, industry and education, she leads the UK-wide initiative to raise standards through international benchmarking and professional development, including most recently the award-winning WorldSkills UK Centre of Excellence.