A partnership between two Norfolk companies has been honoured at the National Training Awards ceremony.Norwich-based May Gurney and TIPS for Good Management Ltd, of Dereham, were among the top 55 organisations from around the UK to receive an award from BBC Question of Sport presenter Sue Barker at London's Royal Lancaster Hotel.

A partnership between two Norfolk companies has been honoured at the National Training Awards ceremony.

Norwich-based May Gurney and TIPS for Good Management Ltd, of Dereham, were among the top 55 organisations from around the UK to receive an award from BBC Question of Sport presenter Sue Barker at London's Royal Lancaster Hotel.

The award was for the TIPS for Good Management programme, which aims to improve effectiveness and competitiveness while reducing costs.

The programme's achievements include introducing time management techniques to free up time to win new business worth £600,000, and reducing the cost of concrete waste from driven piles by £250,000 by improving process techniques.

The total business benefits to date have been identified as worth £1.7m.

The award was presented to Christine Goose and Rosanne Goose, of May Gurney, and Julian and Carl Hammond, of TIPS for Good Management.

The National Training Awards celebrate organisations and individuals that achieve outstanding success through training.

Parliamentary Undersecretary for Skills, David Lammy MP, said: "Skills are the key to meeting ambitions for people, businesses and the nation as a whole. Training is the key to unlocking the skills potential of our greatest resource - our people. I applaud these employers for making training their priority, and urge more of our companies to follow their example."

Rosanne Goose, May Gurney's learning and development manager, said: "We needed to put together a training and development strategy, which would help deliver increased management ability and achieve cultural differentiation as well as our vision of passionately striving to be the best.

"We now have a measurable management development programme, ensuring help with taking on more responsibility, becoming accountable and role models for their teams. Most of all, this is a real endorsement of the hard work of everyone involved, and of the successes of the delegates."