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Star Graduation Evening

January 21, 2016 | By | No Comments

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Our Star Pupils graduated in fine style last night, with a glitzy awards ceremony at the Crewe Alex Football Stadium.

It was the second time we’ve held the prestigious event, which was hosted by Group Logistics Director Dave Ashwell.

The Speeches

Dave opened the night by talking about the benefits of the course, and how well this year’s crop has developed – despite an albeit different approach in our nurturing style.

“This programme is designed to help nurture, coach and develop our employees. It isn’t about finding the finished article; it is about finding the right personality, finding people who have the right DNA and bringing them together”

“As this programme is still relatively new, lots of lessons were learned from the class of 2014 and how we handled our emerging talent. But 2015 still proved to be quite challenging. It was hit by something which we can only call the ‘2nd Child Syndrome’.

With your first child you wrap them in cotton wool, and do everything you can to make sure they won’t fall down. Whereas with your second you realise that even if they do fall down they probably won’t hurt themselves, and more than likely they’ll just get back up stronger than ever and carry on. So with this year’s class we sometimes let them make their own mistakes, and although we did things differently – both years have turned out to be absolutely amazing”

Then it was the turn of 2015 Star Graduate Stuart Siddall to take to the podium, and tell us about his experience on last years course:

“The Star Programme changed my life…..no I mean it, it actually did! The last 12 months have been incredible. I’ve been promoted 3 times, made some friends for life, and I also won the SMART award at the Christmas Party……It’s the perfect platform to get noticed and move forward, and the best advice I can give to the new class is to embrace it. Throw yourself into it and you’ll definitely get something out….. I did.”

The Awards

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There were also some awards handed out to our Pupils, in recognition of some of the exceptional work they did whilst completing the course.

Shooting Star –Presented by Lorraine Hewlett and Tony Chrystal, this award was to recognise an individual who propelled themselves to the forefront and reaped the benefits by showing Steely determination. Also, for gaining 2 promotions (and moving a whopping 240 miles south for one of them). Congratulations to Gareth Stephens!

Shining Star – Presented by Helen Hookway and Richard Paul, this award was to recognise the student who has visibly applied what they have learned on the programme with their fantastic work ethic and 2 changes in career since joining the programme. Congratulations to Paul Sedgwick!

Brightest Star – Presented by Melissa Clutton and Adrian Hasson, this award was given t the individual who represents our values on a daily basis, and who has really stood out and the ideal student throughout the entire process. Congratulations to Ben Tesla!

Star of Stars – Presented by Lynne Wood and Jason Charnock, each Star was given the opportunity to vote for whom they thought was the stand out candidate throughout the entire course. To be chosen by your fellow peers is recognition like no other, so a massive congratulations must go to Samantha Wainwright!

Goodbye class of 2015, hello class of 2016!!

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The podium was once again returned to Dave Ashwell, who brought the occasion to a close by welcoming the class of 2016. With the previous years restricted to just 12 pupils, Dave told the audience that no matter how hard they tried they just couldn’t get the class numbers below 20. Each and every applicant who has made it onto this years course was just too good of a prospect to turn down – so the only reasonable thing to do would be to expand the class size!

Please welcome your new Stars:

ionut Sandu , Kelly Taylor, Simon Ratcliffe, Liam Shropshire-Fanning Tom Evans, Jayne Chapman, Dale Flather, Keeley Nash, Simon Clarke, Hannah Drake-Wilson, Liam Hughes, Amit Singh, Mike Taker, Christine Berry, Gerry Burns, Matt Tyldesley, Becca Davey, Liviu Agache,James Johnson & Holly Draper.

Congratulations to all of our Star Pupils, both old and new.

It was a memorable night once again, and as always our P&D team did a fantastic job of turning a credible venue into an incredible one.

Congratulations to everyone who was involved in making the night a success and best of luck to our Stars on their brand new career chapters.

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