{"id":6592,"date":"2021-01-25T13:42:22","date_gmt":"2021-01-25T13:42:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vwa.co.uk\/blog\/?p=6592"},"modified":"2025-05-02T06:57:51","modified_gmt":"2025-05-02T06:57:51","slug":"2020-verner-wheelock-excellence-award-winners-revealed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vwa.co.uk\/blog\/2020-verner-wheelock-excellence-award-winners-revealed\/","title":{"rendered":"VWA Excellence Award Winners 2020 Revealed"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"366\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.vwa.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/awardwinners-1024x366.jpg\" alt=\"Verner Wheelock Excellence Award Winners\" class=\"wp-image-6599 lazyload\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.vwa.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/awardwinners-1024x366.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.vwa.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/awardwinners-300x107.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.vwa.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/awardwinners-768x274.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.vwa.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/awardwinners-1536x549.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.vwa.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/awardwinners-2048x731.jpg 2048w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 1024px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 1024\/366;\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"> The Verner Wheelock Excellence Awards <\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>We might have been in lockdown and in and out of tiers last year, but the pandemic didn\u2019t prevent us from delivering their training courses to the food industry or providing ethical audit services. It certainly didn\u2019t stop us from presenting our annual Excellence Awards last week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The <strong>Verner Wheelock Excellence Awards<\/strong> were introduced in 2015 to coincide with our 25<sup>th<\/sup> anniversary and comprise six categories. These are HACCP Student of the Year, Auditing Student of the Year, Food Safety Student of the Year, Individual Excellence, Company Excellence and Ethical Excellence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">And the winners are&#8230;<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>HACCP Student of the Year 2020<\/strong><br>Sarah Eames, Group Technical Manager at World Wise Foods<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Food Safety Student of the Year 2020<\/strong> <br>Michelle Teape, Technical Compliance Auditor at M\u00fcller Milk &amp; Ingredients<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Auditing Student of the Year 2020<\/strong><br>Sue Nock, Technical Systems Manager at Saputo Dairies UK<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Individual Excellence<\/strong><br>Helen Harris, Training Co-ordinator at Pladis Global<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Company Excellence <\/strong><br>Pilgrim&#8217;s UK<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Ethical Excellence<\/strong><br>Berry Gardens<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Normally, the Awards are presented in person at the recipients\u2019 premises, but this year they took place virtually via a Zoom conference call.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThis year has certainly been different,\u201d said MD, Alison Wheelock, \u201cbut we were determined to continue to provide our customers with the training and audits they need and to recognise outstanding delegates and customers through our <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.vwa.co.uk\/blog\/verner-wheelock-end-of-year-round-up-2015\/\">Excellence Awards.\u201d<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Awards criteria<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vwa.co.uk\/haccp\/haccp-training-courses.html\">HACCP<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vwa.co.uk\/auditing\/auditing-training-courses.html\">Auditing<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vwa.co.uk\/food-safety\/food-safety-training-courses.html\">Food Safety<\/a> awards are given to delegates who have shown a genuine interest, understanding and flair for their subject. They have engaged and interacted well with the course trainer and other delegates and demonstrated excellent knowledge through impressive <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vwa.co.uk\/blog\/exam-techniques-6-tips-for-improved-performance\/\">examination<\/a> results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-media-text alignwide is-stacked-on-mobile\"><figure class=\"wp-block-media-text__media\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.vwa.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Sarah-Eames-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"VWA HACCP Award Winner\" class=\"wp-image-6595 size-full lazyload\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.vwa.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Sarah-Eames-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.vwa.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Sarah-Eames-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.vwa.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Sarah-Eames-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.vwa.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Sarah-Eames-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.vwa.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Sarah-Eames.jpg 1600w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 1024px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 1024\/768;\" \/><\/figure><div class=\"wp-block-media-text__content\">\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-style-large is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>&#8220;Verner Wheelock and our trainer, Julie, did a fantastic job&#8221;<\/p>\n<cite>Sarah Eames, World Wise Foods<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Sarah Eames, recipient of the HACCP award<\/strong> said, \u201cIt was a lovely surprise to hear that I\u2019d won the HACCP student of the year award!&nbsp; When we scheduled the training course last April, I wasn\u2019t too sure how well it would work \u2013 we were all remote (including two of my team based in Bangkok!) and we had both <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vwa.co.uk\/haccp\/Level-3-haccp-training-course.html\">level 3 HACCP<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vwa.co.uk\/haccp\/Level-4-haccp-training-course.html\">level 4 HACCP<\/a> students in the same classes.&nbsp; Verner Wheelock and our trainer Julie did a fantastic job of tailoring the course appropriately and we all thoroughly enjoyed having some time together as a team whilst completing some of our training needs.&nbsp; Thank you!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Sue Nock<\/strong> attended a Verner Wheelock <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vwa.co.uk\/auditing\/lead-auditor-course.html\">FDQ Lead Auditor<\/a> course last year. As part of the course, the delegates perform a mock audit of Verner Wheelock\u2019s Quality Management System (QMS). The entire course and audit was delivered remotely and Sue\u2019s natural auditing style really impressed the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vwa.co.uk\/blog\/verner-wheelock-welcomes-new-team-members\/\">Verner Wheelock team<\/a>. She said, \u201cI was absolutely thrilled and surprised to be awarded Auditing Student of the year. &nbsp;It was a privilege to be nominated and to be recognised for the hard work.&nbsp; I found the delivery of the course to be inclusive, interesting and thoroughly enjoyable especially in the current climate.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">An exception to the rule<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>All previous <strong>Individual <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.vwa.co.uk\/blog\/the-winners-of-the-excellence-awards-2021\/\">Excellence award winners<\/a> have been course delegates. However, this year the decision was made to present the award to <strong>Helen Harris, Training Co-ordinator at Pladis UK\u2019s Ashby de la Zouch site<\/strong>, who had been outstanding in her efficiency throughout the year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Helen said, \u201cI am truly honoured to have won this award. I have been in this role nearly four years and have been working with Verner Wheelock during that time. I have always found the Verner Wheelock team extremely professional, helpful, accommodating and a truly lovely, friendly bunch of people to work with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I have to organise training for approximately 80 people from 11 different sites, so co-ordinating this many people can prove challenging, but between myself and the Verner Wheelock team we have always seemed to manage it.&nbsp;&nbsp;2020 was obviously a different year for everyone and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vwa.co.uk\/blog\/verner-wheelock-students-get-top-marks-from-rsph-rsphwinners\/\">Verner Wheelock stepped up to the mark<\/a> once again and helped me arrange remote training for team members that needed it.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Michelle Teape of M\u00fcller Milk &amp; Ingredients <\/strong>was thrilled to receive her Food Safety Award.<strong> \u201c<\/strong>The skills I have are testament to the development I have received within M\u00fcller, and the encouragement I have received from colleagues on a daily basis,\u201d she said. \u201cI would like to especially thank the M\u00fcller Milk &amp; Ingredients technical team for supporting my progression and the excellent training given by Verner Wheelock.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Ethical Excellence<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Andy York, Responsible Sourcing Manager of Pilgrim&#8217;s UK<\/strong>, the largest pig farming business in the UK, summed up the feelings of many on news of his Company Award, saying, \u201cThank you so much, it\u2019s so nice to have some positive news for a change!\u201d Pilgrim&#8217;s are an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vwa.co.uk\/ethical-audits\/ethical-audits.html\">ethical auditing<\/a> client of Verner Wheelock who are committed to ensuring that audits take place and the continuous improvement of environments and workplaces for their workers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-media-text alignwide is-stacked-on-mobile\"><figure class=\"wp-block-media-text__media\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"1024\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.vwa.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Berry-Gardens-Ltd-Lizzy-Nuttall-1024x1024.jpg\" alt=\"Lizzy Nuttall VWA Award Winner\" class=\"wp-image-6593 size-full lazyload\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.vwa.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Berry-Gardens-Ltd-Lizzy-Nuttall-1024x1024.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.vwa.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Berry-Gardens-Ltd-Lizzy-Nuttall-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.vwa.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Berry-Gardens-Ltd-Lizzy-Nuttall-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.vwa.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Berry-Gardens-Ltd-Lizzy-Nuttall-768x768.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.vwa.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Berry-Gardens-Ltd-Lizzy-Nuttall-1536x1536.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.vwa.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Berry-Gardens-Ltd-Lizzy-Nuttall-2048x2048.jpg 2048w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 1024px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 1024\/1024;\" \/><\/figure><div class=\"wp-block-media-text__content\">\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-style-large is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>&#8220;It\u2019s lovely to receive news like this, in all this misery&#8221;<\/p>\n<cite>Lizzy Nuttall, Berry Gardens<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Lizzy Nuttall of Berry Gardens<\/strong>, another of Verner Wheelock\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vwa.co.uk\/blog\/put-yourself-in-an-agency-workers-pre-worn-ill-fitting-and-sweaty-shoes\/\">ethical audit<\/a> customers, echoed his sentiments. \u201cIt\u2019s lovely to receive news like this, in all this misery,\u201d said Lizzy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Berry Gardens, the UK&#8217;s leading berry and stone fruit production and marketing group, has won this year\u2019s Ethical Excellence Award. Lizzy said, \u201cThis award demonstrates the work that has gone into improving our management and post <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vwa.co.uk\/blog\/help-to-stamp-out-modern-slavery\/\">audit follow up of ethical<\/a> auditing internally. Also the work that our growers have put in to all aspects of worker welfare on their farms, as seen by the reduction in numbers of non-conformances raised in ethical audits in recent years. This can also be demonstrated by the positive feedback received from growers with regards to the way the whole process is managed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We have worked with Verner Wheelock for a number of years and over that time, the relationship has improved greatly. They are our first point of contact for queries on matters relating to worker welfare. The team understands our business and the challenges presented by ethical auditing for our growers. They are willing to adapt and communicate fully with us when issues arise which may affect our ability to complete audits and also follow ups within the timescales we would like. The auditors that visit our farms are understanding of the issues our growers face, and this has been particularly evident in 2020 with the restrictions and concerns that our growers have had regarding on farm physical audits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Verner Wheelock also have a good relationship with retailers which gives us confidence that issues we are facing are communicated to the right people, therefore aiding <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vwa.co.uk\/blog\/new-years-resolutions-food-safety-foodsafety\/\">resolutions<\/a> where they might be required.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Staying strong in 2021<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>We are committed to providing high quality training and ethical audits for the food industry, even during Covid-19. Our courses are offered face-to-face (subject to social distancing requirements) and remotely and cover all levels of HACCP, Auditing and Food Safety as well as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vwa.co.uk\/specialist\/specialist-training-courses.html\">specialist courses <\/a>such as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vwa.co.uk\/specialist\/legal-labelling-course.html\">Legal Labelling<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vwa.co.uk\/specialist\/managing-food-allergens-course.html\">Managing Food Allergens<\/a>. Live SMETA audits are also going ahead wherever possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>More information can be found at <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.vwa.co.uk\/\">www.vwa.co.uk<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Verner Wheelock Excellence Awards We might have been in lockdown and in and out of tiers last year, but the pandemic didn\u2019t prevent us from delivering their training courses to the food industry or providing ethical audit services. It certainly didn\u2019t stop us from presenting our annual Excellence Awards last week. The Verner Wheelock [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,245,1316,7,6],"tags":[1491,1490,1488,1493,1489,1492,555,30,1042,1043],"class_list":["post-6592","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-food-safety-hygiene-news","category-auditing-training","category-ethical-trading","category-food-safety-training","category-haccp-training","tag-berry-gardens","tag-ethical-audit-award","tag-food-safety-award","tag-food-safety-excellence-awards","tag-haccp-award","tag-lizzy-nuttall","tag-smeta-audits","tag-verner-wheelock","tag-verner-wheelock-awards","tag-verner-wheelock-excellence-awards"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vwa.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6592","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vwa.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vwa.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vwa.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vwa.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6592"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.vwa.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6592\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vwa.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vwa.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6592"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vwa.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}