Bringing Aycliffe Business Park Together | 5
/NEWS
Gestamp Tallent training
controller David Pearson and
commercial apprentice Hannah
Potter at the 2015 National
Apprenticeship Awards.
NEW CDP
EXPECTED IN 2016
Gestamp Tallent wins regional
apprenticeship award
Gestamp Tallent has beaten off competition from entrants
across the region to win the North-East final of the National
Apprenticeship Awards 2015.
Newton Aycliffe’s biggest employer fought
off stiff competition from other firms to
be named regional winner of the Large
Employer of the Year category.
Gestamp will now go through national
judging in the hope of becoming a national
finalist.
The awards, now in their twelfth year, are
run by the National Apprenticeship Service
and recognise excellence in two areas:
businesses that grow their own talent with
apprentices and apprentices who have made
a significant contribution to their workplaces.
Gestamp’s training controller David
Pearson, pictured with commercial
apprentice Hannah Potter, said: “We
are delighted to have won this award as
apprenticeships are fundamental to our
business.
“Our apprentices have exceeded
expectations, in terms of commercial
benefits to the business and increased
loyalty.
“That is why a lot of our apprentices
have enjoyed good progression within the
company and have worked their way up to
senior positions, forming the backbone of the
business.”
Gestamp Tallent was chosen as the winner
in the Large Employer of the Year Category
for the strength and depth of their apprentice
training programmes, their commitment to
recruiting apprentices on an annual basis and
also promoting apprenticeships within the
local area.
The award was sponsored by BAE
Systems
Sue Husband, director of the
National Apprenticeship Service, said:
“Apprenticeships deliver for businesses,
individuals and the economy.
“They enable people to gain the skills and
knowledge they need to succeed, in some
cases up to degree level, while working
and earning. And for businesses, hiring
apprentices is a productive and effective
way for them to grow their own talent by
developing a motivated, skilled and qualified
workforce.
“The National Apprenticeship Awards
enable talented apprentices and committed
employers to receive the recognition they
richly deserve. They not only help celebrate
the achievements of apprentices and
businesses, allowing them to gain the credit
for investing in their own futures, but they
drive up quality and encourage others to get
involved.
“I would like to Gestamp Tallent on their
achievement. They deserve to be rewarded
for their efforts. There has never been a
better time to become an apprentice or
employ one.”
The County Durham Plan (CDP) is an
economic blueprint for the area that aims
to create 30,000 fresh jobs, 500 hectares
of employment land, 9,500sq metres of
retail space and 31,400 new homes by
2030.
The plan originally included 2,000 new
homes for Newton Aycliffe and 123
hectares of new employment land on
Aycliffe Business Park.
It had been rejected in February after
planning inspector Harold Stephens said it
was “flawed” and “unsound”.
Durham County Council lodged papers
with the High Court challenging the
decision, and has now come to an out-ofcourt agreement with the Government.
It’s important that we get the CDP back
on track. We’ve got ambitious aims
of creating new jobs and carrying on
developing our infrastructure into the
future with tens of thousands of new
jobs.
The inspector’s report had put that into
doubt by reducing the numbers we
could look towards, but we’ve worked
very hard with the Government and now
we can set that aside and move on to a
new inspection and hearing, probably in
the New Year, which will give everyone
another chance to feed into the process.
It will hopefully move us forward to
where we need to be, in terms of
maximising the number of jobs we attract
to County Durham.
Aycliffe Business Park is now the biggest
business park in the