Anybody attending a Verner Wheelock course – whether here in Skipton, in-house, or remote – has a chance of being selected for a Verner Wheelock Excellence Award. There are awards for HACCP, Auditing and Food Safety as well as Individual Excellence, Company Excellence and Ethical Excellence.
For the HACCP, Auditing and Food Safety Awards, our trainers and staff nominate delegates throughout the year who have been outstanding during their training and have performed well in examinations.
The Individual Excellence Award is given to a delegate who might not have achieved the highest examination marks but who impressed the trainers with their enthusiasm. Often it is a combination of the two.
Company Excellence and Ethical Excellence awards are presented to those companies which have shown a dedication to the training of their staff and have demonstrated a policy of continuous improvement.
The winners of the 2021 Verner Wheelock Excellence Awards are
HACCP Student of the Year 2021
Liam Smith, Bradford Metropolitan District Council
Liam, who attended an in-house Level 4 HACCP course said, “I was extremely thrilled and it is an absolute pleasure to be awarded HACCP student of the year 2021. I felt the course was extremely insightful, interesting and applicable to my job role as an Environmental Health Officer. I would also like to personally thank both Verner Wheelock and the trainer Peter, who did a fantastic job of structuring the course to maximise the learning potential; through the application of theoretical content into real life practical examples.”
Food Safety Student of the Year 2021
Kathy McConnell
Cranswick plc
“I’m absolutely delighted (and a little shocked!) to have won this award,” said Kathy. “I thought the course provided a good mix of theory and examples of practical applications in a variety of settings, giving everyone views outside of our own industries. Being a virtual course, didn’t deter from the discussions we had throughout the week, which is testament to our course trainers. I would highly recommend this course to others and am looking forward to attending other Verner Wheelock courses in the future.”
Auditing Student of the Year 2021
Vicky Davidson
Thistle Seafoods Ltd
Vicky says, “It was a lovely surprise to win the award. I really enjoyed the Lead Auditor course from Verner Wheelock. It was organised very well with the full training pack arriving in plenty time before the course with a bonus of some biscuits too! There was a good range of interactive sessions over the days which allowed everyone to get fully involved. Carrying out an actual audit as part of the assessment also gave me some experience there and then.”
Company Excellence Award
Fullers Foods International plc
Osborne Farming Ltd
Samantha Day, Ethical Co-ordinator at Verner Wheelock, says, “This award was well-deserved. Osborne Farming impressed us with their commitment to implementing the ETI Base Code and continuous improvement. They had a SMETA audit that resulted in zero non-conformances and had clearly put lots of effort into preparing for the audit.”
Individual Excellence Award
Laura Parham
Pret A Manger
Laura said, “I’m grateful to Verner Wheelock for this recognition as part of our ongoing efforts to build the team’s expertise in allergens and food safety. At Pret, training has always been one of our biggest focuses, particularly when introducing new systems or in-shop changes, making sure that staff feel fully comfortable is essential.”
Ethical Excellence Award
Osborne Farming Ltd
Samantha Day, Ethical Co-ordinator at Verner Wheelock, says, “This award was well-deserved. Osborne Farming impressed us with their commitment to implementing the ETI Base Code and continuous improvement. They had a SMETA audit that resulted in zero non-conformances and had clearly put lots of effort into preparing for the audit.”