Keeley Anderson – Level 3 Business Skills Apprentice of the Year

Keeley was presented with her award for her achievements in her Business Skills Apprenticeships. In the words of Steve Marriage,  Keeley’s Training Coordinator, here is why Keeley is so deserving of this award

“Ladies and Gentlemen, the last 18 months have been difficult, they have been challenging, but it’s not the situation that defines the individual, it’s how they react and apply themselves to it that counts.

And it’s this that brings me to Keeley the winner of this award. Let me take you briefly through her journey to this point.

Ladies and gentlemen, we have, as new and inexperienced managers, maybe found ourselves in situations where we know what might be best for the business, but sometimes the thought of making that tough decision is too difficult or we simply don’t know how to make it.

It’s 2020 and Keeley is 2 years into her career at Kustom Design and Print. In these first two years, she starts initially at a junior level as a customer service agent and then moves up to a supervisor’s role. Kustom are a business that actively develop their talented staff and she is offered the managers role and jumps at the chance to manage her team of 6.

Keeley enrols on an L3 Team Leader apprenticeship with BPIF Training to help her develop her business and people management skills.

After a short while in her new managers role, Keeley starts to realise that changes need to be made to her team.
She doesn’t shy away from what is needed though and she makes the changes required, reducing the team to 4 while she looks to bring in new talent.

The pandemic starts to really bite however, and 2 more of her team leave due to COVID related issues leaving just Keeley and her supervisor, Laura, covering everything in the customer service team. To add more pressure, Kustom is actually doing really well, and orders are up some weeks by 200% on pre COVID levels.

Keeley knew though that her apprenticeship was helping her make those tough decisions and was giving her the knowledge to be able to develop the skills she needed to be effective, and the confidence to build a strong new team.

So, she doesn’t look back, she pushes forward. She recruits, trains, develops, motivates and builds the team she needs to deliver in this ‘new normal’ world of print.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is an individual that uses her apprenticeship to help her in meeting the challenges she faces in the workplace. She recognises the real value it can bring to her on the ground in the role she fulfils as a manager.

She has demonstrated this from day one with me. Keeley has thrown everything into her studies and has consistently delivered the highest quality innovative work. She never misses a single session. She never complains about workload or deadlines despite the considerable challenges she has faced. She is always positive, contributes fully to each and every topic. She is enquiring and, as you have heard, determined to succeed.
Keeley has challenged me to deliver a programme that meets her requirements too and she does everything with a smile, an unassuming demeanour, but a firm resolve.

Ladies and gentlemen, our Level 3 Business Skills Apprentice of the Year, Keeley Anderson.”