“It feels great to win. Lewis’ success last year gave us, as a company, that belief in ourselves and the way that we do business, the way that we train our new entrants and all our staff.”
The Herne Group, a project consultancy in the nuclear sector, received the Small/Medium Employer (SME) of the Year accolade at the Engineering Construction Industry (ECI) Training and Development Awards in 2025.
The Wigan-based company was presented with the trophy by award category sponsor NUVIA at a prestigious ceremony at Glaziers Hall, London, to honour the very best of engineering construction talent.
A year after one of its employees, Lewis White, won the prize for apprentice of the year at the 2024 ceremony, Herne Group scooped the SME award after demonstrating “exceptional commitment to learning and development” in the previous 12 months.
Judges recognised the company’s commitment to developing talent through training, mentoring and hands-on project experience.
In particular, the company was praised for its “agility, personal approach and proven success” in the career development of young professionals.
This included measures it has taken to overcome barriers faced as an SME in the highly regulated nuclear sector. With security clearances and limited access to client projects restricting opportunities for new entrants, Herne Group created internal scenario-based training using real, but desensitised project data.
Alongside structured mentoring to give learners hands-on skills before going on client placements, the company places apprentices on projects at no cost to clients to help accelerate their confidence and capability.
“As the company has grown, we’ve been able to support projects in a different way, which has allowed us to bring our new entrants on quicker.
“The length of time it took us to develop our first apprentice to now is a lot faster thanks to using the ECITB, the training available to us and the qualifications they can gain.
“At the same time, we can get them in front of our clients, we can get them supporting on projects and that just gives them hands-on experience nice and early.
“Around a year ago, we created scenario-based training that replicates the projects we have worked on. We made sure that all our new entrants carry out a number of months of training on that.
“They build a work breakdown structure (WBS), develop a schedule, and work through risks and progress updates, giving them a flavour of the work planners do on projects. That’s really worked well.”
Mike Preston
Director at the Herne Group
A judging panel of industry representatives – made up of Tracey Shelley (BCECA), John Simpson (ECIA), Mark Riley (Phillips 66 Limited), Steve Hunt (Altrad) and Helen Woodward Davies (EDF Energy) – picked the overall winners across nine categories based on the significant contributions they have made both to the ECI and their own organisations.
Find out more about all the winners from the ECI Training & Development Awards 2025
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