Freemen of Oxford Apprentice Award
Conditions for entry to “Freemen of Oxford Apprentice Award”
1) Candidates must have lived or worked in Oxford (OX1 to OX4 postal districts) during the greater part of his/her apprenticeship.
2) A Selection Committee of Freemen of Oxford shall select the Candidate who has, completed his/her apprenticeship in the twelve months prior to the closing date for applications (or who has already completed the first two years of the apprenticeship) and who, in the opinion of the Committee, has most distinguished him/herself during the period of his/her apprenticeship. The Committee will not consider apprenticeships that have lasted less than two academic years. There may be several awards, one for the Apprentice of the Year of the City of Oxford and one for each trade or occupation where the Selection Committee decides to award a certificate to the person it considers to be the best apprentice.
3) The Chair of the Committee will be the final arbiter of the rules and of the selection.
4) An application form may be obtained by writing to the secretary, John Sanders at 200 Headington Road, Oxford OX3 7PS or by email to jsanders@boltblue.com or by telephone at 01865 761856
5) Candidates must post completed application forms to the Secretary of the Freemen’s awards committee, John Sanders, 200 Headington Road, Oxford OX3 7PS. No other material will be considered (except any alterations and clarifications admitted by the Secretary) until the Selection Committee has shortlisted candidates. Received applications will be acknowledged.
6) The closing date for applications is Monday 1st September 2008.
7) The Secretary may contact Candidates for any clarifications of the initial application that are deemed necessary.
8) The Committee will decide firstly on a shortlist of suitable Candidates, afterwhich it may seek further information from Candidates, Employers and/or Training Providers. From shortliosted Candidates, the committee will make its final selection of the most suitable Candidate.
9) The award will be presented at the autumn Admissions Ceremony of the Freemen of Oxford on Thursday 30th October 2008.
Apprentice Awards 2007
The Freemen Committee are indebted to fellow Freemen and County Councillor John Sanders for the concept of this great idea . The Awards are designed to encourage all Apprentices and reward the best . The main condition for entry is that the Apprentice must be involved in at least a two year apprenticeship and live or work in our city.
It must be remembered that Apprenticeship is one of four routes for entry to the Freedom . Freemen have been skilled craftsmen and tradespersons in Oxford for possibly a thousand years and they have in turn given opportunity to many young men and more than a few women to learn a trade by way of a binding agreement called apprenticeship.
Companies and Training Colleges were courted for suitable entries to this Award Scheme and again our thanks to John Sanders for carrying out a sizable chunk of the leg work.
By the end of July the Freemen Committee had a good number of suitable candidates and the process of adjudication could begin. A tried and tested method was adopted and the Committee gave valuable input to produce a shortlist of finalists. A further full meeting of the Committee brought the winner and merit winners to the fore. The scene was set for the presentation evening.
Beautiful Parchment certificates were crafted ready for the presentation. A carved wooden shield emblazoned with the Oxford City emblem of the Ox on the River was commissioned and cash prize money was donated following an appeal (Thank you to all concerned).
On Thursday 6th October , the presentation evening was preceded by an Admission Ceremony of new Freemen . It is always a happy occasion and it was special to have a good crowd to witness this age old swearing of the oath. The Lord Mayor , John Tanner and the Sheriff , Mary Clarkson led the process. Our Chairman gave a welcome speech to the new Freemen .
It was our Chairman again who presided over the Awards evening and began with a speech which gave background to the Awards and relevance to the Freemen. He went onto explain the difficult process of selecting the finalists. But finalists is what we had here tonight in the Old Library . Their exam and course work had been considered along with their work in the community and current progress with their companies. One worthy point to note of all three finalist was that they are all learning a second European language. The market place of yesteryear , within the walled city of Oxford extends today to well beyond our shores.
It was with excitement that the three winners were announced and the first Apprentice of the Year was congratulated as Craig Moss from Witney .Twenty one year old Craig is under apprenticeship with BMW and learning robotic paint spraying . The future is orange ! The Merit winners were Bahaven Yadev and Katie Round. We wish them all well .
Please remember your cameras for 2008. If you have suggestions on tweaking or helping with the presentation for later this year then please write to our Hon. Secretary.
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