Mary Congratulates Local Apprentice On Award

24th February 2009

Mary has congratulated Katie Roe, a welding apprentice from local engineering firm TEi, for winning a prestigious apprenticeship award. Katie has won the Leeds Engineers Associated Award- Yorkshire Apprentice of the Year. Mary mentioned Katie in the Commons when speaking in a debate about the Government’s Apprenticeship Bill.

Katie has also been nominated for a Learning and Skills Council Apprenticeship Award. Now in their sixth year the Awards have been designed to recognise and reward both employers and apprentices. It recognises employers who are successfully using apprenticeships to improve their business performance and tackle skills shortages. It also rewards apprentices whose contribution to the workplace has exceeded their employers’ expectations and resulted in measurable benefits.

Mary met Katie last summer when she had just completed her three year apprenticeship with TEi Ltd. Katy completed 1 year at the ECITB training facility in Killingholme and has spent 2 years on TEi sites around the UK and in the TEi training school on Calder Vale road, Wakefield. She is now part of TEi’s team of skilled welders throughout the UK. Mary also met new apprentices who were just starting their training.

Mary Creagh MP said: “It was great to meet Katie and I am delighted that all her hard work has been rewarded. I wish her the best of luck in the national Learning and Skills Council’s award. She shows that women can take on the men in heavy engineering jobs and beat them at their own game!”

“The new Apprenticeship Bill will create an Apprenticeships Agency and give every young person the right to an apprenticeship by 2013. This is in sharp contrast to the Youth Training Schemes and YOP schemes of the Tory era when young people were used as cheap labour and sacked when their time was up.”

“It is great to see a local business contribute to the future of our young people and the future of our economy. I congratulate TEi Ltd and its commitment to education, training, and local sustainability for the engineering sector.”