We would like to Congratulate Rob Cully who is employed by Fresenius Kabi Ltd in Runcorn, as he has been awarded a STEGTA Excellence Award for Outstanding Performance in Apprenticeship Mentoring.

We asked Rob how he felt about winning the award.

“I was surprised and very proud to be told that I had won an excellence award from STEGTA. The support that I have received from STEGTA from the beginning of our apprenticeship programme has been top class. What our training officer, Dave Smith, doesn’t know about Apprenticeships probably isn’t worth knowing.

I think that the role of a mentor is a very important part in the apprentice’s journey, from providing professional guidance to offering advice on personal issues the involvement level is extremely high. I would recommend it to anyone as I feel that I’ve got much more out of it than I’ve put into it.

Our apprentices are fully supported throughout they’re employment with us, they will be fully qualified engineers up to and including HNC level.

The apprenticeship scheme has been a real success story within our business. Our last 5 appointments in our technical services department have all been apprentices and their drive and enthusiasm has had a positive impact on the whole department. Our sixth and newest apprentice is due to start with us shortly with approval for our seventh in 2020 already in place. The apprenticeship route has been adopted throughout our business in other departments largely down to the success of our technical services scheme”.

STEGAT Assistant Group Training Manager/Training Officer – Dave Smith commented:

“Rob has showed excellent levels of support, to all his many learners, over the past few years.

He is available at every review and proactively supports them during their learning journey. He has successfully mentored learners through the full cycle of an apprenticeship, with both his learners winning STEGTA Excellence Awards last year – reflecting the time and effort he has put into the process.

Rob’s experience and drive to help the learners’ means that he fully understands how the qualification works and he can support the learners directly. He realises the difficulties they may face achieving the high standards Fresenius Kabi expects and is always available to help at any juncture.

His affable demeanour means that Rob is always approachable and is thus able to help learners with problems or issues, which may not always be directly related to a work environment. He seems able to make that all important ‘connection’ with the learners, which means that they trust him and look up to him.

Learners at Fresenius Kabi are now encouraged to progress their apprenticeship past Level 3 and into Level 4. This is something which Rob has pushed hard to promote and the path which three more learners will take this September.

Learners who have been mentored by Rob are now taking up more experienced positions with the team and are themselves supporting new learners at the beginning of their apprenticeship.
Fresenius Kabi should be proud of Rob’s achievement, with five apprentices he has directly mentored taking up important roles in the Medical Devices team. I’m sure that in the future all of them will look back and recognise the contribution he made to their early career development.

Having worked with many workplace mentors over the past few years, I would like to finish my recommendation by stating that I wish all workplace mentors showed the same drive, commitment, dedication and enthusiasm as Rob Cully”.