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Holly Wins Apprentice of The Year

News
Ashley Wilkins
18 Feb 2025

As YPO celebrated National Apprenticeship Week (NAW), bringing together apprentices, learning providers and employers to celebrate the value, benefit, and opportunity they bring, one of our very own apprentices received an award.

Holly Ambler, a business administration apprentice working in our trading team, was announced as the business, enterprise and professional apprentice of the year at the Heart of Yorkshire Education Group Apprentice Awards.

The Heart of Yorkshire Education Group marked NAW 2025 with its annual awards – recognising the exceptional achievements of its apprentices and the contributions of its employer partners.

Following the footsteps of Adeela Afzal who won the award in 2023, the same year Holly joined YPO, our latest winner is delighted to have won the prestigious award:

"I'm very proud to be called the business, enterprise and professional apprentice of the year and happy to be able to represent YPO. If it wasn't for the amazing teams I've worked in and YPO as a whole for supporting me through the process, I wouldn't of been able to achieve it!" Holly went on to explain:

"I felt shocked when I found out I won as I was just happy I'd made it as a finalist! Especially as hundreds of people were initially nominated and I made it to the final four. Winning the award has definitely given me confidence and reassurance that I'm doing quite well! It's motivated to me keep trying hard. Being able to progress and try new things within the organisation whilst still completing my apprenticeship has been amazing."

Since joining August 2023, Holly is completing a level three business administration apprenticeship, working in the trading team specifically in early years. Recently, Holly has been seconded in the FMCG team too.

Speaking about Holly's achievement, Kim Bateman, Category Buyer - Early Years is proud her hard work has been recognised:

Holly proactively seeks out new opportunities to develop and has consistently demonstrated a commitment to both YPO and her own personal growth and learning. She's secured a maternity cover secondment as a procurement assistant which has given her increased responsibility and experience, as well as providing essential support to the business. This award is well deserved for Holly, and shows how much her hard work and dedication has contributed to her development and career!

Julie Hawley, Executive Director - Finance, had this to say about Holly's achievement:

We’re so pleased for Holly, it’s a tremendous achievement to be proud of. YPO are heavily invested in the success of our apprenticeship scheme and recognise it’s an excellent way to support individuals starting out in their career. We’re also delighted that many of our apprentices go on to have really fulfilling careers at YPO and wish Holly all the best with her future endeavours.

And Joanne Grigg, Head of HR & People Services reflected on Holly's achievement adding:

Well done to Holly for winning the business, enterprise and professional apprentice of the year at the Heart of Yorkshire awards, this is an amazing achievement and testament to the hard work Holly has put into her apprenticeship. The apprenticeship programme at YPO has successfully provided opportunities across a range of departments, including customer service, sales and marketing, warehouse and distribution to many people starting out in their careers and gaining valuable work experience whilst studying for qualifications. We wish Holly all the best in her future career and hope she has many successful and happy years to come at YPO.

We’re really proud of the contribution we make to the wider community regarding apprenticeships. Through our own successful apprenticeship scheme we offer routes into a range of different career options and we’re extremely proud of all our apprentices at YPO. Find out more here.

We’re also able to support the public sector with all their apprenticeship procurement needs via our national framework. Since the launch of YPO’s apprenticeship framework in 2018, we have supported over 2,560 apprenticeships, kick-starting many career journeys and providing valuable additional skills to staff in the public sector.

You can find read about our apprentices' stories and watch a series of vlogs on our National Apprenticeship Week page here.

Ashley Wilkins YPO

Author

Ashley Wilkins

PR and Communications Officer for Public Sector

YPO

Ashley is a PR and Communications officer for the public sector side of the organisation. This involves supporting communications to local authorities, emergency services, housing, NHS and the wider public sector. Ashley is responsible for assisting with PR and media relations, stakeholder communications and public affairs, content strategy and creation, research, as well as corporate comms such as strategic partnerships, sponsorship, events, awards and delivering the annual report.