AN apprentice with a York university is celebrating after scooping a prestigious award from his employer.

York St John University (YSJ) apprentice Daniel Fulton has been named Higher Apprentice of the Year by energy company E.ON Energy.

E.ON benefits from apprentices as it means immediate boosts to the business while employees develop their skills and apply their learning back in the workplace. The apprentices themselves benefit from earning while they learn.

YSJ, whose vice chancellor is Prof Karen Bryan, has 81 students on its data science course, nine of which are employees of E.ON Energy. Daniel received the award due to distinguishing himself on the degree programme. He consistently received marks above 80 per cent in assignments and has committed a significant amount of his personal time to ensure he is well-read about the data science subject. He has also exceeded academically and professionally within his role.

Darren Cook, apprenticeship lead coordinator at E.ON, said: “In a year of challenges and change for E.ON, it is fantastic that we can celebrate the achievement of those that have gone above and beyond in their development and career. Daniel has grown from strength to strength over this past year and is now able to take on complex data science projects end to end with little direction or input from senior members of the team.”

Pierre-Philippe Dechant, Programme Director at YSJ, said: “We are very proud of Daniel for achieving such a distinction in the workplace at E.ON. He is a model data science degree apprentice who has very successfully integrated his work-based learning with the underpinning academic programme, working with a very scientific mindset and at the interdisciplinary intersection of mathematics, computing, business, and communication.

“With his skills, mindset, and creative problem solving, Daniel will have a very bright future ahead of him, solving many interesting data science problems.”