Award Nominations - Nominate an Apprentice

• Nominations open: 17 November 2025
• Nominations close: 12 December 2025
• Shortlist announced: w/c 5 January 2026
• Winners announced: w/c 9 February 2026 (National Apprenticeship Week)

There are two categories for the Apprentice Champion Award:

• Level 2-3 apprentices which would include Damar apprentices on the customer service, business admin, team leader, accounting level 2 or 3, paralegal or travel apprenticeship programmes
• Level 4-7 apprentices which would include Damar apprentices on the data protection, operations manager, level 4 accounting or solicitor apprenticeship programmes.

Please select the appropriate category in the nomination form.

For these Apprentice Champion categories, anyone at the employer organisation – such as the apprentice’s line manager/supervisor or a member of the HR team – can nominate.

Please bear in mind that we have sent communications out about the awards to both our key HR/apprenticeship contacts and supervisors/line managers so please make sure you let the relevant people in your organisation know that you are submitting a nomination for a particular apprentice to avoid duplication.

We have a separate category for Damar coaches to make nominations.

To be eligible for the awards, the apprentice must still be on their apprenticeship or have completed their apprenticeship in 2025.

Only Damar apprentices can be nominated for these awards.

Multiple apprentices cannot be submitted within one nomination. If you want to submit multiple apprentices for our awards, please use a separate nomination form for each apprentice.

There is a maximum word count of 200 words per question. Please provide as much detail as possible without going over the word count.

We recommend preparing your answers in Microsoft Word and checking you’re within the word count before copying and pasting into the form. Where longer responses are submitted, judges will only consider the first 200 words for each answer.

Judges are looking for entrants that have developed significantly as a result of their apprenticeship and that make a real difference to the organisation they work for by exceeding expectations and delivering measurable benefits. 

How has the apprenticeship developed as a result of the apprenticeship?

In this question, the judges will be looking for evidence of the impact that the apprenticeship has had on the apprentice both professionally and personally. You could talk about specific achievements within the workplace as a result of the apprenticeship, or how their skills and knowledge have been developed such as their confidence, communication or teamwork.  You could also talk about how the apprentice has addressed any challenges that they have faced and how they have overcome these. 

What impact has the apprentice had on the team / organisation?

For this question you may like to explain specific key performance indicators or targets they have achieved or helped the team to achieve. You may also want to mention projects they have worked on and how they support colleagues to achieve organisational goals.

Why should the apprentice win? What makes them stand out?

For this answer you may like to outline the aspects of the apprentice’s performance that you consider to be exceptional and above expectations. This could include the opportunities that they have embraced to develop and progress, and any barriers that they have overcome. You may want to mention specific examples of where they have gone above and beyond expectations in their role, making a significant contribution to their organisation.