National Apprenticeship Week 2025 wrap-up and Graduation Ceremony

Thank you all for listening to and engaging with our maiden UCL National Apprenticeship Week podcast series. We have had nothing but great feedback with 586 listens and counting during NAW. We encourage you all to watch or listen now by visiting our apprenticeships and professional development webpage. We hope the podcasts in some way helped crack open some of the mystique surrounding all aspects of what it means to be an apprentice at UCL and the benefit it can have on both the individual and organisation at large. Whether you are an apprentice, line manager or employer. 

We also held a number of well attended online events. Including the Championing Apprenticeships in the Higher Education Workforce roundtable, co-hosted by Martin Howells, Director of Data and Insight, UCL as well as the Apprenticeship Week Online Drop-In session Hosted by Apprentice Managers Uzma Sadiq and Paula Sandamas. 

The centrepiece of NAW was of course our Graduation Ceremony. Thank you to all that attended IOE on Thursday 13th. We were thrilled to be able to host so many of this year’s graduating cohort and to celebrate what is a huge achievement to all involved.  

Over the course of two hours, we heard from our very own Stuart McLellan Director of HR Strategy & Development at UCL, who discussed the importance to the HR department in growing our apprenticeships. He also kindly handed out our department recognition awards to the following partners. Without whom none of this would be possible: 

• Department of Mechanical Engineering​ 
• Sainsburys Welcome Centre​ 
• Maintenance Operations​ 
• Institute of Archaeology ASE​ 
• School of Pharmacy​ 
• Advanced Research Computing​ 
• Information Services Division​ 
• Academic Programmes Office - IOE​ 
• UCL Day Nursery​ 
• Bartlett Faculty Office​ 
• Maintenance and Infrastructure Helpdesk 

Vice-President (Operations) at UCL Aimie Chapple then gave a fascinating insight and real-world examples of the ​importance of apprenticeships in supporting ​our talent pipeline at UCL.  

After all of our attending graduates collected their certificates from Aime, we heard from our keynote speaker Eugene Washington Walker. Eugene has a fascinating and unique background which encompasses acting, lecturing and being the careers lead at the (The UCL MBA) UCL School of Management. He was able to offer those in attendance a fresh insight into questions surrounding career planning and development. For those who missed the event his slides are available below and are well worth engaging with. 

Director of Organisational Development, UCL​ Catherine Stow​ rounded off the day with a brief discussion around strategically aligning our apprenticeships, which was followed by coffee, cake and networking. A big thanks to all who helped organise and we look forward to hearing all about your career’s progression post-graduation 

Strategic Career Planning
Eugene Walker, UCL School of Management