Katy Dorman recently won Skills Champion of the Year in the Department for Education’s National Apprenticeships & Skills Awards 2025. Here, the Apprenticeship Strategy Manager at Norfolk County Council explains what it means
First things first, who are you and what do you do?
I am Katy and I’m currently employed as ‘Apprenticeship Strategy Manager’ at Norfolk County Council (NCC). I lead an externally facing brokerage service called Apprenticeships Norfolk – which is part of the Strategy, Growth & Investment department.
In addition, I hold several voluntary roles, including co-founding/co-chairing the National Apprenticeship Hub Network; being a Governor for two independent training providers; I am a member of the UCAS Apprenticeship Stakeholder Group; and an Ambassador for East of England ‘Apprenticeship Ambassador Network’.
How long have you been in the role and what does your job involve?
I started in my role in 2020 following just over a decade working in FE/Apprenticeship delivery at City College Norwich. My job involves leading the Apprenticeships Norfolk service, which is a free and impartial service in which we provide practical and financial support to help more businesses start apprenticeships – this can include incentives and/or levy transfers. We also offer information and guidance to individuals and we facilitate a training provider network too – essentially, Apprenticeships Norfolk helps to overcome the barriers that people and businesses can face in accessing apprenticeships; the system sometimes feels complex and clunky for those who have no experience and often, smaller business owners are time poor and just need handholding through the process. Ultimately, through apprenticeships, our service helps more people find opportunities to increase their skills and supports businesses to grow and diversify, which contributes to economic growth.
As Apprenticeship Strategy Manager my role also includes leading the development of our NCC Apprenticeship Strategy and ensuring that Apprenticeships Norfolk delivers against our five strategic aims. This includes understanding the pain points or barriers for individuals, businesses and training providers and developing innovative interventions to help drive up the quantity and quality of apprenticeships in the county. Since 2020, we have secured over £2.7m of funding to deliver local place-based initiatives which have helped contribute to Norfolk to outperforming growth of apprenticeship starts nationally.
My voluntary roles contribute to shaping local/national skills policy, enhancing the apprenticeship landscape through strategic leadership, governance, advocacy, and collaboration.
Why are you so passionate about apprenticeships?
Every day we hear from businesses who realise the transformative impact that apprenticeships can have on their business, and individuals who recognise that undertaking the apprenticeship was gamechanger for them in terms of developing knowledge, skills and professional development. In fact, we are so passionate about amplifying the impact businesses have felt, that Apprenticeships Norfolk developed an award-winning TV advert and digital campaign called #MadeInNorfolk, which features real businesses we’ve worked with across Norfolk. We hear firsthand from local business owners (including some who have taken on an apprentice as their first ever employee) how using apprenticeships has helped them to bring in fresh ideas, increase clients and sales, diversify their offer, increase productivity, take a step back and let senior leaders concentrate on more strategic work and importantly, develop a talent pipeline into their organisations. It is hard not to be passionate about sharing this sort of impact to be honest!
Personally though, as a former apprentice myself (undertaking a L7 Senior Leader Masters Apprenticeship in 2020) I’ve seen firsthand how apprenticeships transform lives. My apprenticeship journey lifted my vision, confidence and empowered me to embrace opportunities to drive meaningful change. The apprenticeship enabled me to transition from an ‘accidental’ operational manager to a confident, strategic leader. Despite having no previous experience at under-graduate level and working through a fairly significant amount of imposter syndrome, I achieved a distinction in both the MBA and the apprenticeship end point assessment, alongside winning an impact award, presented by UEA, recognising the impact from my applied learning. My own apprenticeship journey inspired me to apply for a highly competitive ‘Churchill Fellowship’ – which I successfully achieved and was awarded earlier this year!
We understand you visited Australia on a fellowship recently – what can you tell us about the trip and what best practice did you learn which you can put to good use here?
Yes, the Churchill Fellowship is about learning from overseas to drive change. My fellowship is split into two trips and explores how two anglophone countries engage employers in the apprenticeship system, with a focus on SMEs and pre-apprenticeship programmes within that theme. I set off on the first leg of the trip, to Australia, in the middle of October and spent four weeks travelling through five states: starting in Western Australia then Southern Australia, followed by Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland. I visited a range of players in the system, including State Government, state funded (TAFE) and private training providers, through to intermediaries such as Group Training Organisations (GTOs) and Apprenticeship Connect Australia Providers (ACAPs) – meeting employers and apprentices along the way too. I am still reflecting on the experience as I only arrived back a few weeks ago, but there was some interesting learning around the various federal and state incentives on offer for apprentices and employers; how the value proposition for employers could be better articulated through some innovative ROI calculations; how trauma informed pre-apprenticeship training and school-based apprenticeships support young Australians to begin their apprenticeship and how employers value this route; and how we could better support employers to develop the skills to mentor their apprentices. I am looking forward to completing the second trip (Canada/North America in early 2026) to build on the learning in Australia and consider how learning could be applied, both locally and nationally. If anyone is interested in following the ongoing fellowship journey; my Instagram page is @kd_fellowship!
Congratulations on the award – what does it mean to achieve national recognition?
I feel honoured to be recognised as the ‘Skills Champion of the Year 2025’ in the National Apprenticeships & Skills Awards. This award acknowledged the impact created through the work I have led through Apprenticeships Norfolk and supporting SMEs to create meaningful opportunities; as well as co-chairing the National Apprenticeship Hub Network, enabling shared best practice and the opportunity to amplify the impact of effective brokerage nationwide; and securing the Churchill Fellowship to explore global intermediary approaches to apprenticeship engagement. I was delighted to attend the awards ceremony and celebrate alongside my manager Jan Feeney, whose mentorship and support was instrumental during my Level 7 apprenticeship and enables me to thrive in my role at Norfolk County Council. I’m also hugely grateful to my amazing Apprenticeships Norfolk team whose passion and dedication make everything we achieve possible.
Where can people find out more about the support available in the county?
We have a brand new website here Apprenticeships Norfolk – and if anyone would like to talk to us, there is a contact page – or we can be reached via our socials (Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn). Or, you could just pop us an email apprenticeships@norfolk.gov.uk – we’d love to help, and can offer as much or as little as you may need!
Visit Apprenticeships Norfolk.
Featured image of Katy Dorman – supplied
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