I was recently nominated by Surevine for the BCS IT & Digital Apprenticeship Award; specifically Software Developer & Tester Apprentice of the Year. Reading the nomination form and seeing the effort and time the Surevine team put in to recognise my impact within the company meant a lot. Surevine frequently recognises employees contributions internally, but it felt so good for them to share these positive things about my work publicly.

The British Computer Society is a major influence in the software engineering and cyber industry and it is great to see them recognise apprentices who are joining these professions by hosting their second ever IT & Digital Apprenticeship Awards on Thursday 15 June 2023.

I was delighted to attend the award ceremony as a finalist. The BCS team did a great job of planning and hosting the event, bringing together a variety of great organisations and employers to network and celebrate apprentices across the IT industry. There were many different award categories which ensured that different roles were represented and eligible for nomination.

I felt overwhelmed by the number of talented apprentices from across the UK and it was great to meet them all and find out about the interesting problems they were working on with their organisations.

I had met some of the other impressive finalists for my category, so on the lead up to it being announced I wasn’t feeling nervous, believing there was little chance I could win.

They finally got to the category of ‘Software Developer & Tester Apprentice of the Year’.

When the announcer started describing why the judges had selected the winner, I realised they could be describing me! I was so happy to be recognised alongside the fellow finalists and was overjoyed when they read my name out and I got up to the stage to collect the award.

I’d like to say a massive thank you to Surevine and all the engineers who have supported me throughout my apprenticeship, helping me to become the engineer I am today.