Greater Lincolnshire Apprenticeship Employer Champion 2025 - Micro and Small Business
What makes a winner?
The Greater Lincolnshire Apprenticeship Employer Champion 2025 – Micro and Small Businesses - Award seeks to acknowledge and celebrate employers’ commitment to the development of their staff through apprenticeships This year we want to recognise employers large and small, so have introduced an Employer Champion award for micro (less than 10 employees) and small (less than 50 employees) employers.
We recognise that there are additional challenges for these types of businesses and we want to acknowledge their work with apprentices. The winning employer in this category will demonstrate commitment to excellence in skills development through high quality training support to their apprentices in a way that enables long term business growth and sustainability and progression pathways for their apprentice/s.
Judges are looking for micro and small business employers that deliver excellence in Apprenticeships through:
- Clear partnership working with their training provider/s
- Providing meaningful development opportunities to support apprenticeship achievement
- Enabling apprentices to develop beyond their current role
- Identifying and supporting opportunities for apprentices to progress into long term or higher level employment within the business
Who should enter?
Any micro or small business who has employed an apprentice at a Greater Lincolnshire base who has been on programme for at least 6 months on 9 June 2025, or who completed their Apprenticeship programme during 2024. The application must relate to the provision of apprenticeships within Greater Lincolnshire.
Completing the form
Applications for Greater Lincolnshire Apprenticeship Employer Champion (Micro and Small Business) 2025 should be made by the organisation wishing to be considered for an award.
You will be asked to supply a third-party endorsement to support your application, for example your training provider. Without a third-party endorsement, your application cannot be progressed to adjudication.
Please read these guidance notes carefully – they will help you to complete the application form.
Guidance on completing your application
Please complete all sections of the application form. Incomplete entries will not be progressed to the judging stage.
Forms should be completed and submitted using the online form.
Please observe and adhere to the character limit where these apply. The online form will not accept submissions beyond this limit.
The application form is split into four sections:
- Section 1 – Contact Information
- Section 2 – Background Information
- Section 3 – Application
- Section 4 – Third Party Endorsement
Please ensure that you follow the guidance notes as this will enable you to provide the information that the judges need. All entries will be treated in the strictest of confidence.
Section One – Contact Information
In this section, we will ask the primary contact for the entry and for publicity purposes, if this is different to the person completing the form. We will also use this information to confirm eligibility of your business to be included in consideration for the awards.
Section Two – Background Information
You are asked to provide the judges with information about your organisation, its size, the sector you operate in, the number of apprentices that you employ and the Apprenticeship Standards that your business supports.
Section Three - Application
Please answer all questions as fully as possible. Include evidence such as quotes from clients, staff/apprentices, statistics, comparative data, etc. Remember the judges will be looking for evidence of achievement, commitment, business benefits from skills investment and best practice/transferability.
Question 1 – Please explain your approach to apprenticeships within your organisation in Greater Lincolnshire (25%)
In this question, the judges will be looking to understand your organisation’s rationale for employing apprentices. This could include information on how apprenticeships fit within your approach to business growth, staff recruitment and specialist training. You could also outline how you work with partner training providers to develop specialist and perhaps niche training that meets the needs of your micro or small business (Max 2,500 characters)
Question 2 - Please describe the benefits that apprenticeships have brought to your organisation and your apprentices in Greater Lincolnshire (25%)
The judges will be looking for evidence of how your business and/or apprentices have benefited from apprenticeships, taking into account the size of your business and local context. This may include specific examples of how you support apprentices with career progression, promotion and overcoming barriers to learning and work. For benefits to the organisation, you could consider examples of the benefits gained as a result e.g., business growth and improved retention of specialist and skilled staff. (Max 2,500 characters)
Question 3 – Please explain how apprenticeships help your business stay competitive in an evolving and competitive marketplace
In this section, the judges are looking to understand how apprenticeships have helped your business stay relevant by building a trained workforce relevant to your business and industry sector. The judges are particularly interested in understanding how you invest in the development of apprentices so they stay relevant and adapt to industry changes. It could also include information on how you have supported apprentices in overcoming challenges unique to Greater Lincolnshire. (Max 2,500 characters)
At this stage, you will be asked to submit your form. A notification will be sent to your nominated third-party endorser, attaching a copy of Section Two Background Information and your answers to Section Three Application. This information is shared to enable the endorser to fully complete their part of the application.
If the third-party endorsement is not received, then your application cannot be progressed to adjudication.
Section Four – Third Party Endorsement
This question asks for a third-party endorsement to support your application for consideration as Greater Lincolnshire Apprenticeship Employer Champion 2025. The third-party endorsement should either come from a representative of a training provider or supply chain business, who is working with you to deliver existing apprenticeships, or an apprentice employed within your organisation who has been on programme for at least 6 months on 9 June 2025 or completed their apprenticeship during 2024. Your endorser should be based in Greater Lincolnshire, or a training provider delivering to Greater Lincolnshire-based apprentices.
Endorsers will be asked to confirm their organisation, role and contact details so that the endorsement can be verified.
Question 4 – Why do you think that this employer should be considered for Greater Lincolnshire Apprenticeship Employer Champion 2025 – Micro and Small Businesses (25%)?
In your answer, you should outline the aspects of the employer’s approach to Greater Lincolnshire apprenticeships that you consider to be exceptional. Special consideration should be given to the size of the business and potential limited internal systems - given the size of the business - to support apprentices and how they have overcome these challenges. This could include the opportunities that the employer makes available for apprentice development and progression, systems adopted to support apprentices overcome barriers and specific examples of where the employer has gone above and beyond to support apprentices. You could also discuss the impact that apprenticeships have had on business growth and productivity, the contribution to addressing skills gaps or staff retention. (Max 2,500 characters)
Supplementary Private Video Evidence (Optional)
Applicants and endorsers have the opportunity to provide supplementary video evidence to support their written answers. It is not mandatory to submit a video and candidates who do not submit one will not be penalised in the judging process. The content of any video submissions should reflect questions 1-3 for applicants and question 4 for endorsers.
If you would like to submit a private video, we recommend that you upload your video to YouTube and paste the link into the application form. Please ensure that videos are set to private before sharing – this will ensure that only the individuals connected with the awards can view the video and will help to protect your anonymity. Video evidence submitted will only be used to support the judging process and will not be used in any publicity associated with the awards.
Please see below the following support pages for how to upload and share videos to YouTube:
For supplementary videos, we are setting a time limit of:
- 5 minutes for applicants
- 2 minutes for endorsers
If you have further questions with regards to submitting video evidence, please email Place_LearningTeam@lincolnshire.gov.uk.
Declaration
For both applicants and endorsers, you will need to confirm that the information provided is true to the best of your knowledge.
An authorised member of staff will give consent for your organisation to be considered for Greater Lincolnshire Apprenticeship Employer Champion Award 2025 confirming in the declaration that they agree to the nomination and are happy to participate in publicity activity related to the Awards.
The endorser will be asked to confirm that they support the employer’s application to be considered for Greater Lincolnshire Apprenticeship Employer Champion 2025, and that they are happy for the information provided to be used with publicity material for the awards.
All parties will receive confirmation of the application.
Help with your application
If you require any help with your application, please email Place_LearningTeam@lincolnshire.gov.uk.
Conditions of entry
The organisers cannot accept any responsibility for loss or damage of an entry. All entries will be treated in the strictest of confidence. The judges’ decisions will be final, and no correspondence or discussion will be entered into regarding the selection of winners.
All entries will be acknowledged by email to the applicant and learning provider email provided in the application. If you do not hear from us, please email Place_LearningTeam@lincolnshire.gov.uk.