Kim Holmes

Said the following about Beth Chambers:

“I would like to nominate Beth for Apprentice of the Year as I truly believe she deserves this for her successes during her higher-level degree apprenticeship programme. Beth has been completing placements throughout the business whilst studying for her degree and has become a real star within the organisation. Beth has just been nominated for our ‘Stars’ award representing Virgin Trains at the overall Virgin company award ceremony. This accolade comes from Beth’s hard work, commitment and drive during her programme.

Beth’s biggest achievement to date is her work with the stations, creating a space and facilities for our more vulnerable customers. During her time in the estates team, Beth managed a project from start to finish to improve our offering at stations. This project was so successful that it made news headlines on Virgin.com and ITV news;

This week Virgin Trains opened the doors to ‘The Calm Corner’ at Crewe station – a room specifically designed to offer customers with hidden disabilities a safe and calm environment.

The room is the first of its kind on a UK railway network.

The idea was brought to life with the help of Network Rail, London Northwestern Railway and SLC Rail with advice from Direct Access on room layout and Boss Design for choice of furniture.

Building relationships with internal and external stakeholders, making management decisions and managing resources really showed Beth’s growth over her time with VT. This is echoed by the external partners she worked with on the project who sent letters in to show Beth their appreciation.

Boss Design is a privately-owned UK business, designing and manufacturing quality contract furniture products.

I have worked with Beth Chambers on furniture projects for Virgin Trains regarding corporate office, staff mess rooms, station waiting rooms and public concourse pod/kiosk solutions. I have listed below the attributes and responsibilities recognised during these projects: -

• Giving a detailed and clear project brief and good management skills throughout.

• Setting out clear client expectations, deadlines and budgets.

• Dealing promptly and professionally with any problems, queries or questions that arise during our supply progress on each project, including assisting with last minute RAMS and site access to avoid any disruption of project fulfilment. Being contacted and accessible out of hours to ensure project fulfilment.

• Good technical and manufacturing understanding enabling realistic and reasonable supply demands.

• Communications skills and dedication towards each task.

• Every task conducted professionally, calm and with a cheerful and uplifting personality.

Beth has been a pleasure to with on these projects and shows maturity of experience above her years. Always available and responding promptly to any task put before her.

It has been an absolute pleasure to work with Beth Chambers at Virgin Trains while she is supporting the Estates Team.

Steven Mifsud NRAC, Director, Direct Access Consultancy Ltd; Since we have had the pleasure of working alongside Beth with the mutual goal of increasing the accessibility for disabled people at Virgin Trains, we have been absolutely impressed with how professional and diligent she has been in all matters.

In the last 12 months, her ongoing progress has been outstanding particularly in her communication and organisational skills. Her ongoing professional acumen has no doubt been immensely valuable to helping Virgin become more inclusive. She has been optimistic, engaging, a wonderful team player and is continuing to be an absolute joy to work with.

Statement from Project manager; Beth has grown immensely in confidence, from being very nervous young lady to one who is inquisitive and always eager to learn more. She will always try and give 100%. Beth excels in everything she does, not only her university work and assignments but with any task/role/job she is given, how she fits it all in is a testament to her ability. She is a great organiser and her IT skills are exceptional. Apart from her role, if there was anything, we needed doing that could use her skills i.e. Presentations, gathering information or even arranging a Team Gathering, she was the one we could rely on. Beth has a bubbly personality, great sense of humour and is a delight to be with. I am extremely proud of what Beth has achieved in her time with VT and can’t wait to see where she develops with the organisation.

Beth continues to impress in a new placement that she has just started. Working within our supplier contracts team Rhian Taylor comments; having only been with the team for a short time Beth show her can do attitude and her proactive approach very quickly.

Beth has completed a station change after one training session, she sent it over to be for reviewed and I was amazed as her ability to grasp a complicated process so quickly and produce a Station change with minimal error. Beth has retained everything she has learnt throughout this process and puts in to practice in all tasks. I asked Beth to pick up the hand dryer project which has been ongoing for nearly a year, within a few weeks she had a meeting set up to get a strong position on what was achievable in the current franchise, the following week one of our offices had brand new hand dryers with all required consents and no additional costs from the Supplier. Beth is eager to learn and she has jumped at any opportunity to do so in the short time she has been with us. She doesn’t cut corners and she gets things done. She considers all stakeholders in any task she completes and she communicates effectively to all parties. She should be so proud of what she has achieved.“

Angela Burke

Said the following about Beth Chambers:

“I have worked with Beth Chambers on furniture projects for Virgin Trains regarding corporate office, staff mess rooms, station waiting rooms and public concourse pod/kiosk solutions. I have listed below the attributes and responsibilities recognised during these projects: -

• Giving a detailed and clear project brief and good management skills throughout.

• Setting out clear client expectations, deadlines and budgets.

• Dealing promptly and professionally with any problems, queries or questions that arise during our supply progress on each project, including assisting with last minute RAMS and site access to avoid any disruption of project fulfilment. Being contacted and accessible out of hours to ensure project fulfilment.

• Good technical and manufacturing understanding enabling realistic and reasonable supply demands.

• Communications skills and dedication towards each task.

• Every task conducted professionally, calm and with a cheerful and uplifting personality.

Beth has been a pleasure to with on these projects and shows maturity of experience above her years. Always available and responding promptly to any task put before her.

I wish Beth all the best for her future career and with the well-deserved nomination.“

Charlotte Guest

Said the following about Beth Chambers:

“Outstanding Service“