Persistence paid off for Apprentice of the Year Matthew Davis, who’s been excelling in his role with 3M Aycliffe.
Aycliffe Village lad Matthew, 23, admits that when he was younger, he tried for several roles with various companies at Aycliffe Business Park but failed to get taken on.
But it turns out that their loss has been 3M’s gain as Matthew – now a fourth year apprentice – continues to impress.
He didn’t get off to an easy start either, with his first year severely disrupted by the Covid pandemic.
Now, though, he’s flying with 3M and has even helped save the company £50,000 to date – earning himself a 3M reward scheme silver award – for an apprenticeship-based sustainability project around capturing and repairing air leaks.
Matthew – who perhaps gave the most naturally astonished reaction on stage to receiving his award, to laughter from the 300-strong audience – explained: “I’ve really enjoyed my apprenticeship – I’ve liked all the colleges I’ve gone to and now I’m doing a HND with Teesside University.
“They’re keen to put me forward so I can finish my apprenticeship early and start working. Then as long as I keep performing well, they’re happy to put me through my degree, which I’m ecstatic about.”
Standing 6ft 6ins, Matthew enjoys hiking and mountaineering in his spare time – “I’ve done all the big UK ones,” he says.
He also thanked 3M apprentice lead Gary Simon for putting him forward for the award.
After receiving the award from Tracy Fee of category sponsor Hiyed CiC, Matthew said: “There are nine apprentices at 3M and when Gary said he wanted to put me forward for the award, I was really pleased.
“He’s the one who works closest to us so the fact there’s nine of us and he put me forward meant a lot.”
Matthew says that after finishing school and college, a few months with an electrician on his local estate showed him the sort of career avenue he wanted to go down.
And now with some sort of electrical engineering degree on the horizon, he couldn’t be happier, especially having achieved distinction in his apprenticeship EPA – a grade only 15% of apprentices achieve nationally.
He said: “I just want to keep going as far as I can, really. I want to get my degree and hopefully move up – and I’m very happy working at 3M, it’s a great company.”
Matthew beat off competition from Kelsea-Jo Watson of South West Durham Training and Ruth Alderson of Contego Environmental Services Ltd to the Apprentice of the Year award at the 2025 Make Your Mark Awards, which was delivered at Hardwick Hall, in association with Senstronics.