Enterprise Oxfordshire invites businesses to join them in celebrating 10th anniversary of Oxfordshire Apprenticeship Awards

The prestigious awards – now in their 10th year – offer individuals and organisations from around the county the opportunity to highlight the positive role apprenticeships have had on them.

Enterprise Oxfordshire – alongside the official Oxfordshire Apprenticeship Awards committee – yesterday evening (3 December) announced the 2026 awards are now open for entries and nominations, with a new, spectacular venue set to host the celebrations next May in what is its 10th year.

The Oxfordshire Apprenticeship Awards will be heading to the recently-opened Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities – the University of Oxford’s new world-class centre for the arts and humanities.

The celebration evening will take place on 21 May with around 160 guests from the Oxfordshire apprenticeship community expected to be in attendance.

The 2026 awards were officially launched at Enterprise Oxfordshire Business’ Christmas Networking Event at Loose Cannon Brewery in Abingdon last night, a gathering that saw dozens of business leaders and entrepreneurs from across Oxfordshire come together.

Loose Cannon Brewery are themselves a champion of apprenticeships, recruiting many of their own staff via such training schemes.

Led by the Enterprise Oxfordshire Skills team, the Oxfordshire Apprenticeship Awards has become an established occasion in the county’s business calendar, witnessing many inspiring individuals, businesses and training providers showcase their excellence in the field of apprenticeships

Enterprise Oxfordshire – alongside the wider awards committee – have been recognising apprenticeship talent through the awards since their creation in 2017.

Over the past decade, the awards have attracted over 700 entries representing over 200 employers and 100 training providers, with over 100 winners being crowned to date.

The 2026 awards follows in the footsteps of previous stand-out events held at some of Oxfordshire’s most prestigious venues, themselves champions of apprenticeships.

The 2025 edition of the awards were held at the world-renowned Blenheim Palace, whilst previously, the Williams Racing Conference Centre has also hosted the showpiece event on several occasions.

Enterprise Oxfordshire have also revealed that the 2026 headline sponsor is Popham Hairdressing, who will choose the overall Apprentice of the Year from the winners of the five apprentice-focused awards.

Popham Hairdressing – an award-winning salon group based in Oxford – is the only UK hairdressing company to be awarded the Champion Investors in People award, demonstrating its commitment to good management and people development.

A total of 77% of its current staff are home-grown, which has previously been recognised at the Oxfordshire Apprenticeship Awards.

Popham won the Apprenticeship Employer of the Year (less than 250 employees) in 2018 and was highly commended in 2025 too, whilst their apprentices have also celebrated success at the awards, with Senior Stylist and Colourist Scarlet Boyd being highly commended in both the Special Recognition and Shining Star Awards in 2025.

The 10th year of the awards will be celebrated through 10 award categories, each backed by a company sponsor – namely:

• Intermediate Apprentice of the Year – Abbott Diabetes Care
• Advanced Apprentice of the Year – NielsenIQ
• Higher / Degree Apprentice of the Year – Grundon Waste Management
• Special Recognition Award – M Group Highways
• Rising Star Award – Webexpenses
• Shining Star Award – Hill
• Skills Champion Award – The Engineering Trust
• Training Provider Individual Award – Blenheim & Pye Homes
• Apprenticeship Employer of the Year (less than 250 employees) – Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust
• Apprenticeship Employer of the Year (more than 250 employees) – Assure UK

Enterprise Oxfordshire Skills also welcome the support of several other organisations including High Spec Composites, Darke & Taylor, Oxford Brookes University, Oxfordshire Advanced Skills, Siemens Healthineers, ACE Training, Oxford North, Activate Learning, the South East Apprenticeship Ambassador Network, Oxfordshire County Council and the University of Oxford.

The awards were declared officially open by Councillor Ben Higgins – Oxfordshire County Council’s Cabinet Member for Future Economy and Innovation – along with awards committee members and awards co-hosts Sarah Jaycock, Co-founder and Executive Director of High Spec Composites and Simon Newton, Joint Managing Director at Darke & Taylor.

Headline sponsor representative Shirley Popham, of Popham Hairdresser, was also on-hand to back the launch.

Helen Brind – Head of Business and Skills at Enterprise Oxfordshire – said: “The Oxfordshire Apprenticeship Awards offer the perfect moment to not only celebrate individual success and business success but also inspire young people and employers across the county to begin their own apprenticeship journey – we therefore want to hear from as many Oxfordshire businesses as possible with wonderful, apprenticeship stories to tell.

“Apprenticeships provide local people with the opportunity to gain new skills and on-the-job experience, whilst earning as well as obtaining an industry-specific qualification. They each offer fantastic training opportunities to talented individuals and benefit businesses too, with new ideas helping companies to stay ahead of their competitors.

“After 10 years, our awards remain so important and continue to shine a light on the great work happening in Oxfordshire, delivered through apprenticeships.”

Shirley Popham, Managing Director and Founding Director at Popham – said: “It is an honour to be the headline sponsor as we celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Oxfordshire Apprenticeship Awards.

“The awards raise the profile of this ‘hands-on’ way of learning across so many sectors, and in our current climate of economic issues, being able to learn while you earn is invaluable – it opens the door to people being able to retrain, as well as those of 16 to 18 continuing in education.”

“Having been involved since 2018, when we won our first award, it really is a privilege to celebrate apprenticeships, and we are delighted this year to support as the headline sponsor.

“The awards provide a platform for everyone involved to be acknowledged and celebrated, whether an apprentice, a training provider or an employer. Each one plays their part in providing this pathway for people and so to be at the heart of it, and work alongside all the individuals, as well as the Enterprise Oxfordshire team again is very exciting.

“We are looking forward to seeing the entries flow in and a fantastic night at the Schwarzman Centre for Humanities.”

The awards’ 10th anniversary comes during a time of change for the organisation behind the major event.

Enterprise Oxfordshire became the new trading name of OxLEP on 1 April this year, with the change marking the completion of a two-year process that saw the economic development functions – previously led by Local Enterprise Partnerships – altered so that they were to be overseen via a mechanism agreed by respective upper-tier local authorities, in this instance, Oxfordshire County Council.

Since becoming Enterprise Oxfordshire, Oxfordshire County Council now act as the organisation’s 100% shareholder, known as a Teckal company arrangement.

Details of categories, sponsors and how to enter are available via the Enterprise Oxfordshire Skills website.

Find out more and enter the Oxfordshire Apprenticeship Awards 2026.

Pictured above at the launch: Sarah Jaycock, Co-Founder and Director – High Spec Composites; Simon Newton, Managing Director – Darke & Taylor; Councillor Ben Higgins – Cabinet Member for Future Economy and Innovation, Oxfordshire County Council; Lewis Hancock, General Manager – Popham Hairdressing, Shirley Popham, Managing Director and Founding Director – Popham Hairdressing, Helen Brind – Head of Business and Skills, Enterprise Oxfordshire.