BAE Systems Submarines has been recognised as the ‘Best Company’ for providing training and support to its apprentices.

The Worshipful Company of Shipwrights ‘Best Company’ award was presented to BAE Systems Submarines after it put forward a decade’s worth of outstanding apprentices to the Queen's Silver Medal competition.

The Queen’s Medal Competition is a prestigious annual event for apprentices across the maritime sector to test their leadership, problem solving and teamwork skills.

After being nominated by their apprentice trainers, the best candidates are selected to take part in a week-long course at Kielder Water in Northumbria, where they are put through their paces in a range of outward bound tasks – all under the watchful eye of assessors.

The very best apprentices are then selected to take part in a final interview with a chance to win the Queen’s Silver Medal.

Ted Creighton, who is head of learning and fevelopment at BAE Systems Submarines, attended an award ceremony at the Ironmongers Hall in London where he was presented with the award.

He said: "To collect this award on behalf of BAE Systems was a huge honour and testament to the hard work and dedication of our apprentice training team.

"Recognition like this underlines the quality of our apprenticeship programme and the calibre of our apprentices. We hope to welcome more than 340 apprentices and higher apprentices onto our training schemes in 2016 so look forward to continuing this success in the future.”

Matt Tippins, an apprentice fitter at BAE Systems Submarines, was also recognised during the ceremony after successfully reaching the final stages of the Queen's Silver Medal competition. He was presented with a cheque for £500.

Ted added: "This is an exciting year for our business and it's vital that we continue to develop our highly skilled workforce. Working with high quality apprentices like Matt gives me great confidence that our apprenticeship scheme is working - and provides our employees with the best opportunities.”