September Apprentice of the Month
Kira Jones
LDN Sustainability Professional
This month we’re celebrating Kira Jones, an LDN Sustainability Professional apprentice at Dairy Partners, as our LDN Apprentice of the Month for September!
Nominated by her Skills Coach, Laura Blume, Kira has impressed throughout her apprenticeship with her commitment, resilience and enthusiasm for learning. She has embraced every opportunity to develop her knowledge and skills, consistently demonstrating a proactive approach and a determination to make a positive impact within her organisation.
Read Kira's winning submission, along with feedback from her line manager, Bruce Shannon, and discover the other outstanding nominations received this month below. 👇
Kira’s Skills Coach:
Since joining the apprenticeship, Kira has consistently gone above and beyond. She has already completed all of her online learning and produced excellent evidence pieces that clearly demonstrate her knowledge and progress.
As one of the few members of staff responsible for sustainability within her organisation, Kira has embraced the challenges of the role. She has consistently demonstrated a proactive approach, showing resilience, commitment and a strong focus on delivering meaningful outcomes.
Kira has successfully applied her learning by embedding sustainability across the organisation, establishing an environmental committee, and even creating a sustainability logo to help increase engagement and awareness.
The progress she has achieved with limited support is particularly impressive, including developing the organisation's ESG Policy and Human Rights Policy. These initiatives have helped strengthen governance, accountability and the organisation's sustainability commitments.
Kira’s Line Manager:
How has Kira improved/impacted the business and the team since she started her apprenticeship?
Since starting the Sustainability Professional apprenticeship, Kira has grown in confidence and taken a leading role in guiding the team on sustainability. As our Health and Safety Executive Lead, she brings a strong work ethic and a thoughtful approach to complex subjects. Her carefully researched presentations make challenging topics clear and accessible, helping colleagues understand sustainability and its relevance to the business.
It has been particularly rewarding to see her become more confident in sharing her knowledge and leading discussions. Her development is making a positive difference to the team, and she continues to demonstrate the value of applying her learning in the workplace.
What three words best describe Kira?
Dedicated – Kira has an excellent work ethic and takes her responsibilities seriously. She puts genuine effort into her work, approaching complex and challenging subjects with determination and a willingness to learn.
Thorough – She researches topics carefully and presents her findings clearly. Her ability to create informative and engaging presentations demonstrates both her preparation and her skill in making complex subjects easier to understand.
Resourceful – Kira takes demanding tasks in her stride and works effectively with limited guidance. Her recent success in drafting a company policy ahead of deadline is a strong example of her initiative and ability to deliver results.
Can you share an example of an outstanding piece of work, project or task Kira has worked on.
It is difficult to select just one example, as Kira has made valuable contributions across several projects. Recently, she was tasked with drafting a company policy to address an identified gap. Working with limited guidance, she took ownership of the assignment and produced the policy ahead of schedule.
This was an excellent example of her ability to work independently, tackle a challenging task and deliver a practical solution for the business. It showcased several of her key strengths, including thorough research, a strong work ethic and the ability to translate complex information into a clear and accessible document.
Here’s what was said about the other brilliant nominees:
Evie Guironnet @ Lambert Smith Hampton
Evie has an extremely inquisitive nature and consistently asks insightful and pertinent questions, demonstrating a strong commitment and genuine dedication to all aspects of her apprenticeship. She regularly goes above and beyond in her role and, even when faced with competing priorities, differing opinions or disengaged stakeholders, remains professional, patient and solutions-focused, delivering positive outcomes across her projects.
Evie has continued to develop her knowledge of both commercial real estate and sustainability, approaching new challenges with a positive attitude and a willingness to learn. She consistently takes the initiative to support new opportunities and embrace additional responsibilities. Drawing on the knowledge and experience gained through her apprenticeship, Evie has also helped develop a new approach to biodiversity and contributed to shaping partnerships that support the company's wider sustainability objectives.
Jonathan Lomax @ Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade
Jonathan has demonstrated exceptional commitment, resilience and determination in overcoming challenges while remaining focused on his professional development. He has thrived in a demanding environment while continuing to make strong progress with his apprenticeship, earning the full trust of both his manager and colleagues.
Jonathan's role involves supporting highly important government and political activities, yet this responsibility has not fazed him. Instead, he has embraced every opportunity to learn, applying the knowledge gained from both his role and apprenticeship to a consistently high standard. Jonathan regularly reflects on how the apprenticeship has enhanced his knowledge, skills and understanding of the organisation. He is highly positive, professional and a pleasure to work with. This is consistently reflected in the positive feedback shared by both his manager and colleagues during our sessions and throughout the apprenticeship.
Matthew Camp @ Bell Publishing Ltd
Matt has been an enthusiastic and curious apprentice from the very start. I volunteered him to become our LDN Ambassador, and he has carried out the role exceptionally well, including preparing for and speaking at the LDN-wide webinar on behalf of Publishing Professional apprentices. Matt has developed significantly in his role at Bell Publishing, with several of his own articles being published and a growing confidence and aptitude for interpreting complex analytics.
His confidence has grown tremendously, and he is now comfortable representing the business at a variety of events and speaking up during LDN group sessions. Matt consistently delivers excellent work, contributes positively to every activity he is involved in and is always great company.
Samantha Tapscott Roberts @ Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Samantha is an exceptional apprentice whose commitment, resilience and passion for sustainability have made a lasting impact on both her organisation and the wider community. She has consistently demonstrated a remarkable capacity to overcome challenges with determination and a solution-focused mindset. From organising Green Week, wellbeing initiatives and sustainable projects to engaging guest speakers, coordinating volunteers and supporting colleagues in improving sustainable practices, Samantha has consistently gone above and beyond.
Her standout achievement is her crisp packet project, which grew from a simple idea into a thriving community initiative that produces sleeping bags from crisp packets for people experiencing homelessness. As the project expanded, Samantha secured additional workspace, recruited volunteers beyond the trust and successfully obtained donated materials from external businesses, including Bentley. Despite facing challenges, she continues to inspire others through her positivity and unwavering commitment to making a difference.
Morgan has been an outstanding apprentice from day one. She consistently demonstrates curiosity, enthusiasm and a strong commitment to learning. Taking great pride in her work, she actively seeks feedback and asks questions to ensure she achieves the best possible results. As highlighted by her line manager, Morgan recently made a significant impact by independently developing a comprehensive playbook for the Ladies that Launch programme. By taking ownership of a long-standing team objective, she demonstrated excellent initiative, strategic thinking and professionalism. Her work will support the programme's global expansion and create lasting value across the business.
Liz is an outstanding apprentice, demonstrating exceptional ownership, professionalism and impact across both her apprenticeship and the wider business. Alongside her sustainability responsibilities, she took the lead in coordinating e.surv's annual BSI assessment, a significant project involving more than 20 colleagues and multiple stakeholders. Despite limited prior experience of external certification audits, Liz successfully managed communications, preparation activities, scheduling and stakeholder engagement, receiving outstanding feedback from the BSI Lead Auditor.
Her contribution helped the organisation retain internationally recognised certifications, demonstrating excellence in quality, environmental management, information security, business continuity, and health and safety practices. Liz consistently exceeds expectations, builds positive relationships across the business, and has already been recognised through a nomination for e.surv's Adding Value Award.
Kelly Li-Yan-Hui @ City of London Corporation
Kelly has worked hard throughout her apprenticeship, but she is now truly coming into her own. She consistently looks for ways to use her apprenticeship projects to add real value to the business. Since returning from maternity leave, she has become the go-to person for digital learning design, and the growth in her confidence and application of knowledge has been remarkable.
Kelly has helped create new brand logos, collaborated with colleagues specialising in gamification, and successfully overcome SME engagement challenges using storyboards, kick-off documentation and stakeholder mapping. She also transformed an in-person workshop into a scalable online refresher course using the Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation and Evaluation (ADDIE) model. Her growth, initiative, and professionalism have been outstanding, and I am excited to see what she achieves as she progresses towards completing her portfolio.