Design and print apprentice wins East Midlands Chamber Leicestershire ‘Apprentice of the Year’ title

The winner has also been named a finalist for another award this year.

The Soar Valley Press team watching the virtual awards with winner Pippa (far right)

Soar Valley Press’ Digital Marketing Apprentice, Pippa Culverwell, has been named ‘Apprentice of The Year’ in the East Midlands Chamber Leicestershire Business Awards.

The virtual awards were broadcast via YouTube last night. They are renowned for showcasing the best of Leicestershire business with the ‘Apprentice of the Year’ category recognising the rising stars of their respective industries.

Pippa, who is completing her apprenticeship with North Warwickshire and South Leicestershire College, is the only marketer employed by Leicestershire-based, design and print company, Soar Valley Press.

Working across various areas of marketing, Pippa has progressed rapidly and has managed to achieve an eight-fold increase in traffic to Soar Valley Press’ website.

She has also gained several different qualifications including a Level 4 CIM award in Digital Marketing and a Level 3 Certificate in the Principles of Coding.

Her efforts were recognised as she was awarded ‘Apprentice of the Year’ on the night.

She said: “I was thrilled to find out I had been shortlisted for the award and was shocked to find out that I had won. It’s a real honour to win this award, especially as I was up against such tough competition who are all doing amazing things within their industries.”

Chris Goodman, Managing Director at Soar Valley Press, said “We’re really proud of Pippa who has performed brilliantly since she joined us. I gave her a really wide range of tasks to work on and she has developed new strategies and seen some great results from the campaigns she has put together for us. We look forward to seeing her develop further in her future career."

Pippa has also been named a finalist in the Association of Colleges ‘Student of the Year Awards’.

Pippa was selected as one of the top two contenders for the ‘Apprentice of The Year’ category at the national awards. The winner will be announced at the Association of Colleges’ Annual Conference in February 2021.

The judging panel was made up of members of the Charitable Trust Board, AoC President, and chaired by Kirsti Lord. All of the judges were thoroughly impressed by the variety of inspirational stories and the success achieved by the students.

President of the Association of Colleges, Sally Dicketts, said: “The standard of entries this year was incredibly high and all the nominated students deserve praise for the contribution they make to their colleges.

"It is inspiring to hear the stories from a range of students and colleges each year and the awards are an opportunity to highlight their outstanding achievements. The finalists this year have done fantastically well to reach this stage and I look forward to seeing them all at the annual conference.”