National award nominations for Waterford Chamber and Waterford Chamber Skillnet

Waterford Chamber and Waterford Chamber Skillnet have both been shortlisted for IITD National Training Awards for their Regional Leaders Programme and Graduate Accelerator Programme respectively.

Waterford Chamber’s Regional Leaders Programme has been shortlisted in the category of “Excellence in Coaching and Mentoring”, while Waterford Chamber Skillnet’s Graduate Accelerator Programme will compete in the “Best Consultancy” category at the upcoming awards ceremony on April 24th at Killashee House Hotel.

Now in its twenty-second year, the IITD National Training Awards is recognised as the premier Learning & Development event for industry. The purpose of the IITD National Training Awards is to promote excellence, best practice and innovation in Training and Learning & Development, and to highlight the importance of this area in today’s business climate.

Speaking about the nomination, Gerald Hurley, CEO Waterford Chamber said: “The Regional Leaders Programme, now in its third year, has surpassed all our expectations in terms of delivery and engagement. We now have over 40 mentors giving of their time to develop the future leaders of our region, and we have seen 200 participants pass through the programme. We are proud to say that we have created a culture of mentoring and support among the business community through the Regional Leaders Programme. It has highlighted the importance of succession planning, supporting our employees and the benefits of having an external confidante to engage with. This nomination is a testament to the hard work put into developing and sustaining the programme but also to our partners Bausch + Lomb, Waterford Chamber Skillnet and Waterford Institute of Technology for their support and guidance.”

The Waterford Chamber Skillnet “Graduate Accelerator” programme showcases the successful collaboration and partnership between Waterford Chamber Skillnet, Bausch and Lomb and local industry including Sun Life Financial, Ernst & Young Waterford, Caratmundi, Sanofi, SE2, Jabil, Medite Smartply, and Dawn Meats in response to the learning needs of the emerging workforce in the South East. The programme is the perfect vehicle to develop and support a workforce of homegrown talent by offering practical training designed to ease new graduate recruits into their new working environment by giving them the skills necessary to become a valuable member of a larger corporate team.

Sara Mullally, Network Manager, Waterford Chamber Skillnet, said: “These awards are at the highest level in industry and we are delighted to be featured among the best in class. We take our remit as training providers extremely seriously and our core mission is to support employers in the region to grow and develop their staff to become strong professional, technical and subject matter experts in their chosen field. Waterford Chamber Skillnet is the largest Regional Network of the 70 Skillnet Ireland networks nationally, and in 2019 successfully facilitated 230 training events for 300 companies and 1,707 individuals. We are delighted to be nominated alongside Waterford Chamber and we will both certainly put our best foot forward for Waterford.”