YOU’RE hired – the Dorset Echo is launching an Apprentice of the Year award.

We are setting up the contest to coincide with national Apprenticeship Week on February 1 to 5.

The aim is to highlight the achievements of trainees in south and west Dorset – and to recognise the best apprentice in the area.

We want employers, tutors, friends, family and fellow students to nominate the apprentice they think most deserves the title as soon as possible.

The winner will also receive a framed front page and certificate and £100 worth of equipment to help them in their chosen career.

Stonemason Oliver Clack, aged 21, carved out a name for himself as he gained his NVQ I, II and III qualifications at Weymouth College.

Oliver supports the apprenticeship route into work and the new Dorset Echo Apprentice of the Year Award.

He said: “I think apprenticeships are the future of learning.

“They are the best way to get ahead in a career.

“Conventional college never really worked for me. I did an art course and it was okay but being paid to learn pushes you just that little bit more.”

Oliver was employed by the Cathedral Works Organisation while taking his NVQs at Weymouth College.

He lived on the Esplanade while attending a block release course at Weymouth College and then attended day sessions for his NVQ II and III courses.

While at Weymouth College, he won the UK Masonry Skills Challenge.

He then represented the country at the World Skills contest in Calgary, Canada, where he won a Medal of Excellence.

He now works full-time for the Chichester-based Cathedral Works Organisation, on projects for such buildings as Windsor Castle and Buckingham Palace.

Oliver said: “It is going really well and I am getting some really good experience.

“Weymouth College has a really good reputation for its lecturers Darren Lawrence and Richard Mortimer. I owe a lot to them for the skills they taught me.”

Oliver has urged people thinking of a career to take apprenticeships – and for others to nominate apprentices for the new Dorset Echo award.

He said: “There is nothing to lose.

“The Echo award is a great idea and I think people should definitely go ahead and nominate a deserving apprentice.”

To nominate, send the name and age of an apprentice along with details of their course (eg: NVQ stone masonry II), employer, job title and training provider.

* We also need your name, contact number and relation to the apprentice; eg: employer, friend, tutor.

Email entries to newsdesk@dorsetecho.co.uk and post them to Apprentice of the Year Award, Dorset Echo, Fleet House, Hampshire Road, Weymouth, DT4 9XD. The deadline for entries is 5pm on Tuesday, January 26.

*Follow the link to our entry form . . .

Apprentice of the year.pdf