The challenge in portraiture is to capture a sense of the person and I hope that I have caught a hint of this great man’s personality and creativity. It was a great honour to be asked by Haddonstone to do this.

We have always said that attitude, a warm personality and a willingness to learn are what we value most. Regardless of what previous experience they have, we can give them the necessary craft and life skills to develop.

Our goal is to develop talent by providing candidates with the necessary craft skills, confidence and self-belief to maximise their potential within this sector. We view it as a wonderful opportunity to give people that first step into hospitality but also as a way of immersing people into our culture and our way of doing things in the hope that they will stay with us and grow.

Apprentices can bring untold benefits to a business including increased productivity, improved competitiveness and a committed and competent work-force.

We invest in training at all levels of the business, from back of house to front of house, from the top down to junior members of our team, including our apprentices.We are constantly planning for the future by viewing the bigger picture, anticipating on-going skills gaps and creating deep pools of talent across the business.

This is a superb result for Woodland Grange because we champion customer service excellence throughout the business. It’s a credit to our teams who make our facilities come to life and ensure that our delegates feel welcomed and valued from the moment they step through the door.

Sherkin is the ‘Island of the Arts’. This is a fantastic opportunity for people to view the amazing creative talent on Sherkin Island and to see how the unique landscape of this island influences artists and inspires people of all ages and backgrounds to create.

Our teams have the necessary training and experience to handle the often complex operational requirements of a business event efficiently and competently because that is what they do, day-in, day-out. Every detail is looked after, from setting up presentation equipment to catering requirements. Nothing is left to chance.This award is for every single member of staff at Woodland Grange who tirelessly work to achieve customer service excellence.

We feel incredibly proud of Matthew for gaining such national recognition. For Matthew, there are no short-cuts as consistent quality is everything. ‘Do it well, do it right’ is his mantra so he instils high standards in his apprentices from the outset.

These awards promote the industry as a great place to work, highlight the value apprentices can offer, and celebrate those who play an essential role in supporting apprentices on their chosen career path. The passion and enthusiasm of everyone involved - the young people, their employers and those who came to support them points to a great future in our industries.

We have consistently demonstrated that we have the ability to compete with the very best in our market, and after thirteen years in business we have an extremely strong record for retaining and developing our clients and our people alike. We remain a relatively small organisation in a large market place but we are gaining a strong reputation and this is impacting positively on our business.

“Our bars are different to anything else on the market. The quality of the ingredients differentiates them straight away as they have a genuine home-baked taste but most of all, the fun branding seems to go down a treat too with just about every nationality.”

”This is an astonishingly nice piece of unexpected news to receive and both Carolyne and I are really honoured to be shortlisted, especially considering the breadth of talent and skills within our industry.”

The format of the conference is a combination of plenary talks and interactive workshops so we expect that it will be a lively event, with delegates making the most of our many break-out areas throughout this historic building.

The Swiss are famous for their chocolate so to sell our chocolate bars within such a discerning marketplace of chocolate lovers is a real vote of confidence in our brand. We couldn’t ask for a better endorsement of our quality standards and recipes.

‘It’s great to see Wilson Vale adding real bread-making to their staff members’ skills, putting all-natural loaves on their menus, particularly in schools, and teaching kids lessons in loaf.’

For me, training is very personal business. I love to see people touched by training and watch their attitudes change and see them grow in confidence. People I have trained have described it as having changed their lives, and that is an incredibly rewarding thing to hear.