Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service (NFRS) is celebrating the success of its latest cohort of Wholetime Apprentices.

In late February and mid-March, the first 12 of the Service's 2021 Apprentices attended the final stages of their Apprenticeship.

They were put through a series of tests assessed by external assessors from SfJ Awards, in what was the culmination of the past 18 months of training, operational work, theoretical learning, and revising.

Firefighter (FF) Bates, FF More, FF Mower, FF Smith, FF Tunley, FF Smith, FF Hopkins, FF Shepherd, FF Copestake, FF Dale, FF Smythe and FF Taylor all completed their exams to become competent firefighters.

The group managed to claim an impressive 27 Distinction grades out of a possible 36.

FF Bates, FF Mower, FF Smith, FF Taylor, FF Hopkins, and FF Shepherd managed to score full Distinction grades throughout, so have been awarded an overall grade of Distinction for the Operational Firefighter Level 3 Apprenticeship.

Currently less than 20% of Apprentices in the UK achieve a distinction grade overall.

A statement on the Service's website said: "Well done and congratulations to the group."

This month, NFRS has moved to a new chapter welcoming a new cohort of Wholetime Apprentices.

The new group began their training last Wednesday (12 April) and are set to pass out at the end of July.

A statement from NFRS said: "There is a tough 13 weeks ahead of them but the Service wishes them all the best in their training over the coming months."

NFRS' apprenticeship scheme is headed up by on-call Hucknall firefighter Marcus Pratt. In November, he received the Collaboration Award for his work on developing the firefighter apprenticeship programme at the Service's annual awards evening at the Albert Hall in Nottingham.