People are the lifeblood of our civil engineering industry and our young people are the future. Every year we celebrate the “brightest and the best” young people across our sector at our Annual Dinner and Awards. But 2020 was a year like no other and, unfortunately, we weren’t able to hold our Awards in person. But, as we drew to the end of an extremely challenging year, we felt it was still really important to recognise the achievements of our young people across the Welsh civil engineering contracting sector. So, to try to give everyone a bit of a lift, we decided on a different approach and we announced our nominees and winners via our CECA Wales Twitter and Instagram channels.
And here are the 2020 nominees and winners – congratulations to each and every one of them for their achievements.
The Most Promising Trade Apprentice nominees were:
• Kate Bowen, Encon Construct
• Joel Gilliett, Kaymac Marine
• Kieran Jones, Alun Griffiths
• Jack Meredydd Owen, Jones Bros UK
And the winner of this award was Joel Gilliett, KaymacMarine
And we also gave a “Highly Commended Award” to Kate Bowen, Encon Construct
The Most Promising Trainee Civil Engineer (Non-Graduate) nominees were :
• Joseph Pugh, Knights Brown
• Bethany Griffiths, Alun Griffiths
• Rhys Williams, Alun Griffiths
• Adam Blackmore, Knights Brown
• Gary Salisbury, Jones Bros UK
• Kieron Davies, Alun Griffiths
And the winner of this award was : Rhys Williams, Alun Griffiths
The Most Promising Trainee Quantity Surveyor nominees were:
• Bethan Schofield, The Walters Group
• Liam Hubbard, The Walters Group
• Jack Little, JN Bentley
• Rebecca Manley, Alun Griffiths
And the winner of this award was Rebecca Manley, Alun Griffiths
The Most Promising Trainee Civil Engineer (Graduate) nominees were:
• Jamie Stearman Phillips, Centregreat
• Joseph Tucker, Knights Brown
• Tomos Evans, Alun Griffiths
• Nicholas Louca, JN Bentley
• Elliot Bidmead, Jones Bros UK
The winner of this award was Elliot Bidmead, Jones Bros UK
We also gave a Recognition Award to Joseph Tucker, Knights Brown, for showing compassion in the workplace by safely supporting two distressed members of public and helping to develop Knights Brown mental health programme.
Our workforces are the lifeblood of our industry and these young people are the “shining lights”. We wish them all well for the future. I also hope that we will be able to relaunch our CECA Wales Leadership Challenge this year, in partnership with the Armed Services, so that all the shortlisted candidates can take part in this 2-day event to test their leadership and teamworking capabilities with their peers from other organisations. This will depend on how we manage to deal with the pandemic but, fingers crossed, we get the green light. I’ll keep you informed how we get on.
Ed Evans
Director CECA Wales