Moments forts de 2020 – Make UK Manufacturing Awards
2020 was a very challenging year, but every challenge brings an opportunity for further development and growth. Today we would like to reflect on our highlights of 2020 such as East Midlands Make UK Awards which honoured both, our product and people. Read our blog post and find out more about our success.
In October we attended the virtual Make UK Awards Ceremony as finalists in two categories: Manufacturing Matters and Business Apprentice.
The ‘Manufacturing Matters’ is a new category that recognises manufacturers who have done exceptional work in the sector by showing dedication and resilience to improve lives and society. We were incredibly pleased to find out that our Social Distancing Kits were nominated for such a prestigious award.
The idea for Social Distancing Kits was born when Mike Ayres, CEO of Advance Tapes, and Darren Joint, Managing Director of Viking Signs met during a roundtable discussion organised by Make UK. Having implemented safety measures on their production sites they felt that they can use their knowledge to help others.
Darren Joint, Viking Signs: ‘Using our experience of manufacturing safety signs and operating industrial and warehouse premises we were able to conduct a risk assessment relating to COVID-19 and the new risks this presents. We identified 4 major areas where safety signage could help reduce the risk of virus transmission such as access / egress, pedestrian traffic, sanitiser / hand wash use, and multi-use / high touch surfaces. For each of these areas, signs have been included in the kit, either from our existing product range, or brand-new specific signage developed to meet the needs of warehouse and industrial customers’
Mike Ayres, Advance Tapes: ‘Many businesses were struggling to find the right tools to make social distancing an integral part of the new workplace. With our ready to use kits that include tapes and signage we wanted to provide an easy and quick solution and help manufacturers and retailers protect their staff, visitors and customers.’
Being a finalist in this category was already a great success but finding out that our product was a runner up exceeded our expectations.
There was however more great news to come.
The Business Apprentice Raising Star category recognises those who have done the most to seize the training and development opportunities presented to them so far and we were incredibly proud of our HR Apprentice George Palmer who was nominated as a finalist.
George joined Advance in the summer of 2018 and since then his contribution to the business has been invaluable. During his time at Advance George has accomplished the Level 3 HR Support Standard Programme accredited by CIPD and he is currently working towards the Level 5 qualification, which he hopes to complete by the end of 2021.
George recently won Advance’s Employee of the Year award for his professionalism, resilience and adaptability and we were over the moon to find out that George was also the winner in Rising Star category.
George Greenhill, Advance Tapes: ‘This year has certainly been challenging, however it has also been a fantastic learning opportunity for me and it has given me some invaluable experience as an Apprentice. I have been very fortunate that throughout my time with Advance I have been thoroughly supported by the whole team and that was why I was so proud to win the Midlands and East Business Rising Star Apprentice of the year award.’
The national finals are on January 28th 2021 and we are keeping our fingers crossed for George!
