Babcock's engineering training wins top industry award

Babcock International won the Training Partner of the Year award, sponsored by GetMyFirstJob, beating off strong competition at the Semta Skills Awards in London.

The four-year residential programme is employer-driven and delivers academic and vocational training to A-level standard at one of the largest dedicated engineering training facilities in Europe, Babcock’s engineering academy at HMS Sultan, Gosport.

Costi Karayannis, director of energy and engineering for Babcock Training, said: ‘We are delighted to win this award. We are committed to our programmes with EDF energy and Network Rail.

‘It is not just about the focus on skills development but focus on behaviour and attitudes of the apprentices.

‘Babcock has an engineering heritage which is delivering services to the same organisation that we are training as well so we understand their environment and apply that understanding to the way we train people.’

Ann Watson, CEO of Semta, the not-for-profit organisation tasked with skilling engineering and manufacturing in the UK, said: ‘Babcock is fully deserving of this award.

‘Their unique partnership with EDF is turning out highly-skilled, high calibre apprentices who are going on to be first-class engineers.

‘I had the privilege of seeing the training in action last year.

‘The life skills element is superb, putting the learners into different cultures, countries and situations, learning to interact and creating new networks.

‘It is a fantastic training environment which is delivering the skills we need for the UK to remain world class in manufacturing.’

Babcock has offices at 1000 Lakeside, HMS Collingwood, HMS Sultan and HMS Excellence. It is a supplier of support services to UK armed forces and other non-military customers.