Tom Gregory of Prospero Facilities Services was named Craft Apprentice of the Year in the Scottish HVACR Awards for Outstanding Achievement, during a ceremony held at the headquarters of the Building & Engineering Services Association Scotland this month.

Tom, who also came top in this year’s Service and Maintenance Apprentice of the Year category, received his trophy – the David Kettles Cup – from Bruce Bisset, president of the B&ES.

Mr Bisset said he was pleased to be able to report a slight increase in the number of apprentices recruited in Scotland in what had been another challenging year for the sector.

“I’d like to think that this shows a growing level of confidence among employers, which can only be good news for all of us in building engineering services,” he said, while acknowledging that we won’t be returning to previous levels of employment overnight.

“As I have said before, it’s going to be a long, slow haul – but one which I know that we, as an industry, have the determination to see through,” Mr Bisset added.

“The young people we are here to honour today represent our future – in terms of innovation, technology, project management and the introduction of new ideas and new ways of working.”

The full list of winners and runners-up is as follows:

Pipe Fitter Welder Apprentice of the Year: Max Thomas of EMTEC Group Ltd, Uddingston, Glasgow. Runner-up: Ross Donnelly of Bannantyne Ltd, Whitburn, West Lothian.

Pipe Fitter Apprentice of the Year: Lee Cockburn of Taylor & Fraser Ltd, Paisley. Runner-up: Jordan Gilmour of James Frew Ltd, Stevenston, Ayrshire.

The Scottish HVACR Awards for Outstanding Achievement were organised by B&ES subsidiary Building Engineering Services Training (BEST) Scotland.

The Scottish government’s aim is to deliver 25,000 modern apprenticeships annually.