Enginuity Skills Awards 2025: A Memorable Evening for Warren’s Founder
On 3rd July, Warren’s Founder Owner, Richard Bridgman attended the prestigious Enginuity Skills Awards in London as a special guest. Hosted by Enginuity. the charity dedicated to closing the skills gap in UK engineering and manufacturing – this event brought together leading businesses, apprentices, and educators to celebrate excellence and innovation in skills development.
Richard’s journey to the event began with a train from Cambridge North to King’s Cross, followed by the Tube to Vauxhall.
“I felt a bit out of place travelling in my dinner suit, especially on a very hot afternoon,” Richard reflected.
After a 15-minute walk from the tube station to the venue, Richard arrived at a packed awards ceremony with more than 300 prize winners and guests. By a stroke of luck, he immediately bumped into Phil Smith CBE – the evening’s keynote speaker and recently appointed Chair of Skills England, working directly with government to shape skills policy. The evening also provided a chance to catch up with Fiona McGarry, Warren’s primary contact at Enginuity.
The pre-dinner drinks reception was a valuable opportunity for Richard to network and reconnect with friends and colleagues, many of whom he hadn’t seen for some time. He was seated at the table of EAL – the organisation responsible for setting qualifications, standards and assessments for apprenticeships – who had kindly extended the invitation.
As the evening unfolded, guests enjoyed a well-prepared meal, as well as speeches and awards recognising outstanding achievements by both businesses and individual student prize winners. After dinner, Richard took the opportunity to meet the head trainer from BAE Systems, one of the UK’s largest apprenticeship providers, who train thousands of apprentices annually.
The journey home, however, provided its own memorable twist! After leaving the event at 11:15pm, Richard made his way back to King’s Cross only to discover that his ticket for the 12:10 train was valid for 12:10pm — not 12:10am.
“I started to panic,” Richard admitted, “but luckily managed to buy another ticket. Unfortunately, that only got me as far as Cambridge Central. The whole journey back I was worrying about whether I’d be able to get a taxi to Cambridge North… but thankfully, I did. I finally arrived home at 2:15am.”
His eventful night didn’t end there – Richard was up again at 6:00am the next morning, taking his granddaughter to Addenbrooke’s Hospital for her work experience placement.
Despite the late-night travel saga, Richard summed up the event as a valuable and rewarding evening, reinforcing Warren’s commitment to supporting skills development and recognising the vital role apprenticeships play in strengthening the future of UK manufacturing and engineering.
