Luke Starkey

Luke Starkey, an electrical apprentice from Lowestoft in Suffolk, was last month named best apprentice in East Anglia in awards sponsored by JTL, one of the UK's leading training providers for the building services engineering industry.

Luke Starkey, an electrical apprentice from Lowestoft in Suffolk, was last month named best apprentice in East Anglia in awards sponsored by JTL, one of the UK's leading training providers for the building services engineering industry.

The competition was open to around 3,000 young apprentices who finished their training with the company this year.

Luke, a newly qualified electrician, came through against 10 other finalists in the region taking part at Queen's College in Cambridge to win the title of East Anglia Best Apprentice of the Year 2007 and a prize of £700.

He now goes forward to JTL's national awards to compete against nine other regional finalists from across England and Wales at the Tower of London in June.

“Winning this award is a great surprise,” said Luke. “I've worked hard over the last four years and learnt a huge amount about working with people and in the electrical industry.

“I can't thank enough my JTL mentor, my employer Eastern Power Systems and staff at EAGIT training centre who have helped me gain the necessary skills and a wide range of experience that will help me in the future.”

Darren Lloyd, Eastern Power Systems contract manager, said: “We are extremely proud of Luke Starkey. He has worked exceptionally hard over the past years and we're really pleased that this has been recognised by JTL and the industry.”

The two runners-up in East Anglia were Stephen Davies, employed by Emersons, and Jonathan Bidewell who works for Wensum Valley Services.