Jane Gilham and Warren Page, Xtrac’s head of human resource and apprentice manager respectively, were invited to attend the prize giving award ceremony at St. James’s Palace on 31 October, following the announcement in August that Xtrac had achieved the Princess Royal Training Awards standard in 2018.

Page stepped up to receive the award from Her Royal Highness, The Princess Royal, on behalf of Xtrac. “I was thrilled to receive this award on behalf of Xtrac in the same year that we celebrate our 25th anniversary of developing world-class apprentices and student engineers,” commented Xtrac’s apprenticeship manager Warren Page, who also serves as a member of the City & Guilds sponsored Industry Skills Board.  “Xtrac demands high-level skills from its employees, and the success of our training is reflected in the high retention of apprentices and undergraduates that remain with the company in the long term.   We are very proud of this achievement, which significantly underpins the company’s commercial success.”

Gilham, who has represented the company and the Motorsport Industry Association (MIA) in meetings with policymakers and UK parliamentary committees to help develop best practice for component suppliers and customers, said:

“Since its inception, 60 apprentices have undertaken our Semta approved advanced apprenticeship in mechanical engineering and additionally 67 undergraduates have studied at UK universities. With Xtrac’s financial backing so they don’t have excessive student loans to repay, these young adults work hard for nationally recognised qualifications including engineering certificates, degrees and even doctorates.  The impact on our innovative business model is a steady flow of skilled technicians and professional engineers for our cutting-edge design and manufacturing operations.”

The Princess Royal Training Awards, delivered by the international City & Guilds Group, which operates in over 100 countries globally, are now in their third year. Each of the 90 applications was assessed against three Hallmarks of Excellence by the Awards Commission, which includes HRH The Princess Royal and seven leading figures in the business and training community.