SWINDON company CentraHeat Heating & Plumbing were recognised for their commitment to helping young people get into the workplace after receiving the Apprenticeship, Training and Professional Development Employer award.

The company currently has eleven members of staff, with three of them having started at the company as apprentices.

From boiler breakdowns to full new heating systems and leaking taps to new bathroom installations, the company provide coverage to the Swindon and Wiltshire area.

Director and founder Lee Flanagan, said: “I took Robert Dawes on as my first apprentice three months after I started the company and since then we have had three that have become fully-qualified and are still with us.

“In our industry it’s very full of one-man bands and trying to find a senior level engineer to come into the company, we’ve tried it so many times and failed.

“The only way that it works is to bring them on from the start and absolutely we want to try and bring a new apprentice in year-on-year.”

Mr Dawes, now a senior engineer at the company, said: “It’s been the making of me to be honest both in my career and as an actual person.”

Second in the category was Haddon Training and third was Purpol Marketing.