By Hugh Boag
A community worker on Arran has been named the Ayrshire Chamber of Commerce apprentice of the year.
Ellie Bonner, 22, who works with Arran Community and Voluntary Service (Arran CVS), was announced as the winner as the best of Ayrshire business was celebrated in a ceremony last Friday at Ayr Racecourse.
The Ayrshire Business Awards, hosted by Ayrshire Chamber of Commerce, promotes the major achievements and celebrates the success of the region’s companies with 16 awards handed out.
And there was delight for the Arran CVS team which attended on the night to see Ellie, a digital admin apprentice, lift the apprentice of the year trophy.
Chief executive officer Vicki Yuill said: “We are absolutely thrilled at this outstanding outcome for Ellie, which I personally nominated her for in July.”
Ellie, from Whiting Bay, has worked at Arran CVS in Lamlash for 18 months.
Vicki said: “Ellie is a remarkable digital admin apprentice, carrying out her studies in record time, whilst growing in confidence. She deals directly with enquiries from the public and oversees our website amongst many other office responsibilities, including the weekly bulletin for community groups and organisations. She is our ‘go to girl’ for technical glitches being the youngest most tech savvy member of our team.
“Ellie’s kindness and hard work ethic really shines through, as she dedicates much of her time supporting other young people, when they are out of school, at the local Youth Foundation, often leaving the office to go straight there.
“Arran CVS always aspired to host an apprenticeship role which until last year was beyond the realms of funding possibilities. It is a wonderful opportunity which I would recommend to any business as we need more young people to stay and work on Arran.
Vicki added: “Since starting with Arran CVS, I have watched Ellie progress. She is competent in her role and has worked very hard with her studies. Her attitude is always ‘can do’ coupled with friendly and kind. She is an outstanding young person who truly deserves this award.”
