Brian Manning, Cogent Polymer Skills Adviser, stepped up to the stage at Friday night’s Award’s dinner at the London Hilton to present Leah with her award, he said: “This year has set new standards in the number and quality of entrants. The candidates straddled training and development across many disciplines to include, tool-making, project engineering, quality engineering, pigment formulation & colour matching and in the case of the winner Leah, composites processing. Thanks must also go to the PMMDA for awarding a cheque of £1000 to the winner of this category."

Plastics and Rubber Weekly (PRW) magazine reported that fierce competition from a breadth of disciplines made the judging for this category extremely challenging this year. The resulting shortlist of five candidates were interviewed by a panel of judges at the PDM exhibition in Telford.

The judges said this year's winner had the makings of a company and industry champion - in the same way she currently acts as a champion for young people and, in particular, women in the polymer industry. They remarked that Leah Groves - just 17 when she joined SP Systems' apprenticeship programme as an apprentice composites technician last August - was "a very confident and mature individual for her young years".

Leah is spending her foundation year studying for an engineering BTEC Higher National Diploma (HND) at the Isle of Wight college. During her semester breaks she works at SP's St Cross site in Newport and is currently gaining experience in the process engineering department. From August Leah will study part-time.

Leah impressed the judges from the start. Their first question was: "What exactly are composites?". Leah responded by producing a range of composite samples and described the materials and stages required to form a composite from resin and woven materials - including glass, carbon fibre and Kevlar.

During the first year of her apprenticeship, Leah completed pallet truck training, health and safety training and has also concentrated on lean manufacturing - achieving "best practice" manufacturing skills already. She produced a manufacturing report, which impressed her mentor and management, as it questioned a working practice on a machine.

Her researched suggestions saved the company money with only a small investment and also made her colleague's working environment easier. The judges remarked that Leah was adamant that more young people should enter the industry - in particular women. And she is doing something to ensure this happens - by presenting at careers road-shows for Island schools.

When Leah completes her HND she will start a foundation degree in composites design and manufacture.

She's no stranger to the spotlight - she recently won the Isle of Wight College's Mechanical Engineering Student of the Year 2003/4 award.

Best Training and Development

Daniels Healthcare won the Best Training and Development Programme category, for which Brian Manning was the Chair of the Judging Panel. He said: “Congratulations to the finalists for Best Training and Development Programme - Kostal UK Ltd, Daniels Healthcare Ltd and HBC Engineering Solutions.

“Cogent SSC acknowledge the investment made by each organisation into developing its workforce. It is obvious that this investment has had considerable payback both in terms of company productivity improvements and also employee participation in assisting the change process.

"The winner, Daniels Healthcare Ltd showed tangible and measurable improvements in production efficiency and reductions in employee absenteeism.”

PRW reported that Daniels Healthcare (DHL) was shortlisted for the award three times before taking the top spot. The company manufactures clinical waste containers for the safe disposal of syringes, needles and clinical waste. It employs 80 staff over two sites - with a manufacturing plant in Kidlington, Oxford, and a head office in Tring, Hertfordshire.

A PIA benchmarking exercise found that DHL was achieving best practice in many areas, but identified greater employee involvement as an area for improvement. The company also recognised that the need for a cultural change in how employees viewed continuous improvement.

DHL rose to the challenge and began a two-year investment programme in 2004 - costs that year were £40,000. The company committed to training staff during work time, and also giving them autonomy to develop improvement activities and drive through the changes. PICME was enlisted to ensure the improvement programme had credibility and a high chance of success.

The programme is working. The judges noted that staff turnover is now at its lowest level ever - a 10% improvement on the previous year - resulting in a 30% saving on recruitment costs. Equipment utilisation is up by 5% and sales value per employee is by 10%. Sales have also increased by 10%, with a reduction in customer complaints of 25%.

The company has also introduced schemes to acknowledge the improvements and effectiveness of employee contributions. DHL also promotes excellent training and development elsewhere. Appraisal and assessment programmes are conducted three times a year between an employee and their manager. The judges said: "This indicates that improvements and training needs are a continuous changing process and not just something that happens once a year." The company was successfully reassessed against the Investors in People (IIP) standard, and recruitment and selection standard in 2004. It also started to work towards the new IIP standard in leadership management. Over 60% of employees have achieved or are working towards a national vocational qualification for their occupation.

photo: Brian Manning and Leah Groves