Jill Whittaker, Managing Director of HIT Training, Connect2Care, and the Executive Development Network has been awarded an OBE in The Queen’s Birthday Honours list, announced on Thursday 2nd June. The honour has been bestowed on Jill following her outstanding services to apprenticeships in hospitality, care, and management.
During her career, Jill has impressively helped around 100,000 employees complete their apprenticeships or gain the qualifications they’ve needed to embark on long and fulfilling careers across a wide range of sectors.
She is well-known for her unwavering passion to drive the future of apprenticeships and works tirelessly to improve the experience of working in industries such as hospitality, adult care, management, early years education and funeral care.
Her passion transcends into exceptional charitable work, working closely with charities such as Hospitality Action, The Springboard Charity, Only A Pavement Away, and The Clink Charity. Furthermore, her well-regarded opinion also sees her representing education across industries, including providing evidence for the likes of the House of Commons Select Committees on Education, Health, and Social Care and All-Party Parliamentary Groups for both Apprentices and Tourism, Leisure, and Hospitality.
As a Fellow for a variety of leading organisations such as the Institute of Hospitality, the Royal Society for Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA), and the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW), she volunteers to mentor others and shares her understanding of the markets to fight for greater development opportunities to strengthen the future of these industries.
On being recognised in The Queen’s Birthday Honours list 2022 Jill said:
“I am hugely grateful to have been chosen for this prestigious honour. I’ve had the pleasure of working alongside a vast number of talented individuals and industry bodies during my career and I’m extremely proud of the positive change we’ve achieved in that time.
“I look forward to continuing my work and collaborating with colleagues as well as charitable partners and organisations that I hold close to my heart, to continue supporting the future leaders of the industry, and enabling workers to be the best they can be.”