Irvine Incorporated Trades Association, Apprentice of the Year Award, - 22nd September 2017

The Lord-Lieutenant and Mrs Duncan were guests at a Gala Dinner, hosted by Irvine Incorporated Trades Association, on Friday 22nd September to celebrate the Apprentice of the Year Award for 2017. The Dinner was held in the impressive new Portal Centre in Irvine.
The Apprentice of the Year Award went to Blair Larmour of UPM, the paper mill company in Irvine. Blair, from Kilwinning, was chosen from a shortlist of 35 nominations for this year’s principal award.
The Junior Apprentice of the Year went to Jake Gilchrist of Troon, an employee of South Ayrshire Council.
Blair is an instrument technician at the Meadowhead plant and Jake is a groundkeeper at Dalmilling Golf Course, Ayr.
The main prizes – a cheque for £1,000 for the winner and a trophy for the employer – were presented to Gordon McLean, Technical Director of UPM Caledonian after the gala dinner. He accepted the award on behalf of Blair who was on holiday in Portugal.
This year’s shortlisted nominations were: Amy O’Rourke, North Ayrshire Council; Jake Gilchrist, South Ayrshire Council; Grant Walker, South Ayrshire Council; Darryl, South Ayrshire Council; Arran McGarvie, South Ayrshire Council; Morgan Thomas, South Ayrshire Council; Mark MacKenzie, South Ayrshire Council; Jordan Matthews, GSK; Sean Fleming, GSK; Cameron Wilson, South Ayrshire Council; William Roberts, UTC Aerospace Systems; Luke Paton, Spirit AeroSystems; David Mills, Hillhouse Quarry Group; Paul McKenna, Stagecoach West Scotland; Stephanie Roney, East Ayrshire Council; Leevi Stebbings, East Ayrshire Council; Scott Cairns, Ardagh Glass; Mark McColl, Ardagh Glass; Tracy Govan, GE Caledonian; Stuart Good, GE Caledonian; Aidan McKintyre; Aidan McKintyre, GE Caledonian; Kerr Bryant, GE Caledonian; Jonathan McKillop, GE Caledonian; Connor Bell, GE Caledonian; Craig Love, Barratt Homes; Keir Adrain, MacKenzie Construction; William Tattersall, North Ayrshire Council; Nathan Porte, South Ayrshire Council; Emma Russell, South Ayrshire Council; David Hunter, Braehead Foods; Callum Caswell, GSK; Lauren Barbour, North Ayrshire Council; Greig Russell, Cunninghame Housing Association; Andrew Hunter, UPM Caledonian; and Blair Larmour, UPM Caledonian.
The awards format this year was changed following the most extensive ever search for worthy candidates with the competition being widened to take in the whole of Ayrshire for the first time.
The judges interviewed all shortlisted candidates, taking into account a number of key factors relevant to the employability of each, including skills level, personal attributes, longer term ambitions and relationship with others in the workforce.
Judging panel for 2017 were Ronnie Fergus, chairman (Incorporated Trades); David Watt, Director, Institute of Directors, Scotland; Heather Dunk, Principal and Chief Executive, Ayrshire Colleges; Jackie Galbraith, Vice Principal, Ayrshire Colleges; Sir Iain MacMillan, Chairman, Strathclyde Business School Advisory Board and former CBI Director (Scotland); Gio Benedetti, Businessman and Entrepreneur; and Brian Donohoe, Awards Organiser.