ANNA Schlautmann is officially the best advanced apprentice in Britain after winning the EAL Award for Advanced Apprentice of the Year.

The 21-year-old picked up her award during the National Apprenticeship Awards at the LG Arena in Birmingham.

The glittering ceremony was hosted by Tim Campbell, the first winner of BBC’s The Apprentice, with Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg delivering the keynote address.

Anna received her award from Ann Spearing, head of quality and customer support for EAL.

“It feels really good,” said Anna. “I am really happy to be named EAL Advanced Apprentice of the year. I was hoping to win this national award because I do promote apprentices whenever I can regionally and this will give me a great opportunity to promote them even more across the UK.”

Anna, from Wigan, is a logistics apprentice at MBDA Missile Systems, in Lostock, studying for an NVQ level 4 and part-time business degree.

She proactively promotes apprenticeships, in addition to being a member of the Industry Apprentice Council (IAC), which feeds apprentice views into parliament.

“I am really proud to be an apprentice, and want future apprentices to be proud too,” she said. “I am also tremendously pleased to manage MBDA’s Charity Team in which we raise funds locally; thus developing my management skills for my future career.

“I hope my success will promote apprenticeships to students and will inspire others to be able to achieve such an award and join the IAC to influence apprenticeships. Without MBDA giving me the opportunities I have had and I wouldn’t be here today.”

MBDA’s HR advisor, Gareth Humphreys, MBE, said: “Anna’s just amazing. She joined MBDA three years ago; she is so enthusiastic, hard-working and gets involved in whatever we are doing. She is an amazing asset to the business - she has won lots of accolades and is absolutely brilliant.

It was a great night for MBDA which was also named Large Employer of the Year at the National Apprenticeship awards.

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