Sort Legal honoured for top SME Apprenticeship Award at the Palace of Westminster

DERBY, U.K. - Jan. 3, 2024 - PRLog -- A member of the team at a leading Derby law firm was invited to the Palace of Westminster recently for a special event to celebrate the UK's leading employers.

Carolyn Mars, HR and operations executive at Sort Group, was invited to the event by the Department of Education in recognition of the firm being listed in the 2023 Top 50 SME Apprenticeship Employer awards.

The Top 50 SME Apprenticeship Employer listings were first developed in 2020 by the Department of Education, in partnership with High Fliers Research, who independently assess and rank the nation's top apprenticeship employers.

Employers with up to 249 staff are assessed based on their commitment to employing apprenticeships, the number of new apprenticeships created, the diversity of their new apprenticeships, and the progression of their apprentices onto further employment.

Sort Legal, whose head office is in Derby and has a second office in Cardiff, ranked 24^th at this year's awards.

At the event, which also celebrated companies that had received an award in the Top 100 Employers 2023, Rt Hon Robert Halfon MP, Minister of State for Department of Education, delivered a speech celebrating the UK's leading employers. Guests also had the opportunity to network and share experiences of best practice.

Following the awards, Carolyn has been asked to serve as an Apprenticeship Ambassador having been invited by the Department of Education, and she will be participating in webinar scheduled for January 2024.

Commenting on their invitation to the Palace of Westminster, Carolyn Mars said:

"Over the past few years, the conveyancing industry has experienced a decline in recruitment, which was worsened by the pandemic. This drove us to explore the apprenticeship route and we now invest heavily in apprentices to support its longer term growth plans.

"Being invited to the Palace of Westminster is a great honour and is testament to our commitment to nurturing talent and providing opportunities for apprentices and our investment into our recruitment, growth, and development strategy.

"A huge thank you to our apprenticeship training providers, Derby College and EMA Training and to all our Apprentices for their commitment to learning. We would also like to thank all the staff at Sort Group who have worked so hard to develop and support the apprenticeship programme."

Sort Legal was launched in 2016 and provides quality legal services to clients wishing to buy, sell or remortgage their homes. Sort Legal is a branch of Sort Group, which also includes SortRefer and Sort Move.

The company currently has an impressive cohort of apprentices, with three trainee legal cashiers, alongside two apprentice administration assistants specialising in business administration at Level 3. Two more apprentice administration assistants are set to be recruited shortly.