awards – Page 23 – The NEN – North Edinburgh News

Edinburgh College in the running for marketing awards

Edinburgh College has been shortlisted for three prestigious marketing awards, recognising achievements in marketing courses, catering for students’ needs and communicating with staff.

The College Development Network (CDN) Marketing Awards 2015 – which take place next Wednesday (25 February) – are designed to recognise and celebrate the excellent marketing and communication practice taking place in colleges across Scotland.

The college is shortlisted for the following awards:

The Internal Communications Award, for communications around the college’s first staff conference in June 2014. The staff conference brought all the staff together to take part in workshops around the theme of innovation, covering technology, sustainability, teaching and learning, the workplace of the future and outward innovation.
The Customer Experience Award, for the college’s Centre for Creative Industries student Employability Day. The day was designed to develop students’ understanding of employers’ needs, give them insight into how they can make themselves as employable as possible, and promote positive destinations. Professionals from a wide range of creative industries ran workshops, talked to groups of students and shared their expertise.
The Integrated Marketing Campaign Award, in recognition of the success of marketing campaign held to promote, and increase, applications for college courses starting in January 2014. The campaign used the theme ‘Of course you can’ and achieved the highest attendance recorded for an open day at Edinburgh College or at any of its legacy colleges.

Edinburgh College interim principal Elaine McMahon said: “Being shortlisted for these awards is a great achievement and our staff deserve huge congratulations. It’s fantastic to see the creative work put into supporting, encouraging and communicating with students and staff being recognised in this way.

“The Creative Industries Employability Day was a fine example of the focus college staff put upon preparing students for working life in a competitive market and was so successful that the event will run again in February.

“The nomination for the staff conference is a welcome credit for the work done to build a sense of community in the still newly merged Edinburgh College.

“It is also satisfying to see that the work of our marketing and communications staff to promote the range of courses on offer at the college has been recognised. Their hard work led to a highly successful open day and the college meeting student recruitment targets for the year.”

Last year, Edinburgh College achieved a silver award in the Internal Communications category and bronze in the Event category in the CDN Marketing Awards 2014.

STV Appeal cash for Changeworks

Changeworks receives £2,000 from the STV Appeal

Newhaven Road-based environmental charity Changeworks has been awarded £2000 from the STV Appeal Awards 2014. The money will be used to provide reflective radiator panels and emergency radiators to those most in need – perfect timing as temperatures continue to plummet.

Changeworks is a local environmental charity and thriving social enterprise which provides practical ways for people and organisations to live and work more sustainably. The service supports individuals, communities and organisations to deliver practical solutions that reduce carbon emissions, fuel poverty and waste by managing resources more efficiently.

Changeworks helps householders to lower energy bills; reduce, reuse and recycle; install renewable energy and heating systems; offers waste education for pupils, teachers and Early Years practitioners; and provides consultancy advice, project management and training to support the efficient management of resources and behaviour change for organisations.

The STV Appeal is committed to making a difference in the lives of children and young people living in poverty in Scotland. Across the country, 220,000 children live in poverty and figures from the Campaign to End Child Poverty show that in Edinburgh it’s actually 21.1% of children – more than one in five. Changeworks is one of the projects the STV Appeal is supporting in Edinburgh.

Since launch in 2011, the STV Appeal has raised over £8.2 million with 297 big and small grants distributed to projects across all 32 local authority areas in Scotland, providing much needed support to over 37,000 children. The money raised is distributed to provide practical help like food and warm clothes; create opportunities for training and employability; and enable social and emotional support for those who need it most.

Sam Mills, Head of Projects at Changeworks, said: “We are delighted to be awarded this money to support our work helping families to better afford being warm at home. We will use the award to provide reflective radiator panels and emergency radiators to those people most in need. This practical support will be much welcomed at a time when the wintry weather continues, energy costs are rising, people’s incomes are increasingly stretched and families are struggling to keep homes warm.”

Rob Woodward, STV CEO and trustee of the STV Appeal, said: “The money donated to the STV Appeal remains in Scotland and will help bring about a positive change to the lives of vulnerable children and young people on our doorstep. With the help of the extraordinary fundraising efforts taking place in communities across the country we have raised an incredible £2.6m in 2014 allowing us to make grants to 297 projects. We are extremely grateful to everyone who supported this year’s Appeal.”

Sir Tom Hunter, trustee of the STV Appeal, said: “Yet again the people of Scotland have cast their vote – end child poverty. Through the STV Appeal we are attempting to deliver sustainable solutions to do just that. It is simply unacceptable in modern Scotland to still have young people debilitated by poverty, through this project and many more the people of Scotland are doing their level best to combat poverty.”

Sir Ian Wood, trustee of the STV Appeal, said: “The generosity of the people in Scotland who provide such great support to the STV Appeal is incredibly encouraging and heart-warming. However, it is deeply concerning that there continues to be a significant requirement across Scotland for financial support for child poverty.

“Developing Scotland’s Young Workforce, a commission I chaired recently, has the overarching aim to enable Scotland’s young people to move into sustainable employment upon leaving education. But how can they achieve positive destinations if they have a less than adequate start in life?

“I sincerely believe that the grants donated by the STV Appeal can have a significant impact on the lives of Scotland’s young people and make a real contribution to eradicating child poverty in Scotland.”

The STV Appeal 2015 is now well underway with an exciting line-up of fundraising activities planned for the year ahead.

Book your place to see Scotland’s top new writing talent

The hottest new writing talent in Scotland will perform their work, live, next week as Scottish Book Trust celebrates the work of the New Writer Award 2014 recipients.

These awards identify the authors of some of the most affecting, exciting and engaging new writing in Scotland. The 2014 awardees were selected last January from hundreds of entries by a panel of writers including Liz Lochhead, Doug Johnstone and Jenni Fagan, and received a £2,000 cash award alongside a tailored package over the past year including mentoring from writers and industry professionals and training in public relations, social media and performance.

Those interested in Scotland’s literary scene are invited to book their tickets now to join host Cora Bissett at The Jam House in Edinburgh on Thursday 29 January at 7pm for a winter’s feast of words. Tickets cost £2 and can be booked on The Jam House website.

The New Writers Awards are managed by Scottish Book Trust in association with Creative Scotland and each year they provide unpublished writers with financial support to enable them to concentrate on developing their work, as well as professional guidance to help them move towards publication.

The 2014 New Writer Awardees are:

Fiction & Narrative Non Fiction

Malachy Tallack (narrative non-fiction)

Poetry

Children’s and Young Adult Fiction

Juliette Forrest

Lindsay McKrell

Scots Fiction and Poetry

Philip Murnin (fiction)

Ann MacKinnon (poetry)

Callan Gordon Award for New Writers

Jonathan Durie

Caitrin Armstrong, Writer Development Manager at Scottish Book Trust said: “The New Writers from 2014 are a very talented and dedicated group of people and we are very much looking forward to watching how their writing develops over the coming years.”

Many New Writer Award recipients go on to secure publishing deals and Scottish Book Trust New Writers can also be found in the programmes of the Edinburgh International Book Festival, Aye Write, Stanza, Margins Book and Music Festival, the Dundee Literary Festival and the Wigtown Book Festival amongst others.

Last call for heroism award entries

‘There are no accidental heroes’

The search for the first ever winner of the recently established The Annie Dow Heroism Award – TADHA for short, which celebrate acts of heroism by young people with additional support needs in Scotland, will close to nominations on Saturday 31 January.

The winner of the inaugural award will be announced at a celebratory awards ceremony at Edinburgh’s Summerhall on Thursday 19 March and will receive a cash prize of £2,500. Two runners up will each also receive a cash prize of £500.

Officially launched in October 2014, TADHA takes its inspiration from Annie Dow, a young woman with additional support needs who saved the lives of her mother, father, family friend and dog Hamish when she bravely raised the alarm after discovering a fire in the middle of the night which destroyed her home.

TADHA founder (and mother of Annie) Sophie Dow is urging anyone who knows of any young person that might be eligible to receive TADHA recognition to put them forward for consideration. She said: “If you have any questions about nominating someone, please just get in touch! We are looking to hear about heroic acts from those with additional support needs, but will also consider inspirational acts as well.

“With TADHA we have a real opportunity to recognise and highlight the often unsung heroes in our society. We need your help to make sure that we hear about those acts, however big or small they might be.”

Made possible by an anonymous donor who gifted £20,000 to recognise Annie’s heroism and that of other young people with additional support needs in Scotland, the TADHA awards will be judged by a prestigious panel made up of Rose Fitzpatrick, Deputy Chief Constable, Police Scotland; Lieutenant Colonel Rob Heatly, MBE Royal Marines;, Anne Houston, Former Chief Executive of Children First;, Peter Murray, Assistant Chief Officer, Scotland Fire and Rescue Services; Louise Macdonald, Chief Executive Young Scot and Aaron McHale, Young Campaigner and Haggeye Member.

Sophie continued: “Setting up TADHA is one of the most important and joyful things I have done throughout my career. TADHA will highlight the abilities, rather than the inabilities, that anyone with additional support needs have.

“After all, the true definition of a hero is someone who can stay calm under pressure, in a crisis or an emergency, knows what to do and does it well without panicking. There are no accidental heroes.”

www.tadha.co.uk

Lord Provost launches Fair Trade Awards

Edinburgh’s Lord Provost, Donald Wilson, has launched the Fair Trade Awards 2015. Now in their ninth year, the awards recognise the difference that residents, businesses and schools make in promoting fair trade in Edinburgh.

The Lord Provost will invite nominations (or in the case of schools, applications) in four categories – Achievement Award, Newcomer Award, Faith Community Award and Fair Trade Schools Award – before the closing date of 13 February 2015.

The awards will be presented during Edinburgh’s Fairtrade Fortnight, which runs from 23 February to 8 March 2015.

Lord Provost, Donald Wilson, said: “I am very proud of Edinburgh’s long-standing commitment to fair trade and these awards provide us with an excellent opportunity to praise the generous contribution individuals and businesses are making to fair trade throughout the city.

“I would encourage people to have a think about where they shop or where they eat and whether that business or organisation promotes fair trade – and, if so, get nominating!”

In 2014, the capital saw its fair trade status renewed for the tenth year in a row. last year’s winners included the Fair Business Alliance Ltd, who introduced fair trade plantain crisps to the market, and Gorgie Dalry Parish Church which was recognised for promoting fair trade across the city. Their Saltyard coffee shop serves fair trade hot drinks and snacks and promotes Created Gifts, Tearfund’s fair trade range, while a mural at their entrance demonstrates their support for fair trade to all those who enter.

Awarded in the schools category last year was St George’s Junior School, whose pupils engaged with local shops to stock fair trade products.

Visit the Council’s Fair Trade webpage for further information and to make an online nomination for the 2015 awards.

The award categories in full:

Achievement Award

This award is for any organisation, business or individual based in Edinburgh showing outstanding commitment to fair trade over a long period of time and has enhanced fair trade within the city.

Newcomer Award

This award is for any organisation, business or individual operating with fair trade in Edinburgh for five years or less which has adopted fair trade products as a key part of the business and promotes fair trade in their marketing.

Faith Community Award

This award is for a faith community in Edinburgh that can demonstrate a strong commitment to fair trade and provide evidence of fair trade activities in the faith community.

Fair Trade School Award

This award is for any school that can demonstrate a strong commitment to fair trade activities throughout the school and its community. Each school must apply through the school community, for example, by parent/teacher council, Eco schools team, fair trade group, for consideration. The school can be working towards Fairtrade status but should not yet have received it.

Small Is Beautiful

This new award is for small organisations or business projects based in Edinburgh, which promotes Fair Trade or Fair Trade products.

Edinburgh College student is apprentice of the year

Edinburgh College student named oil and gas apprentice of the year

An apprentice from Edinburgh College is celebrating after been named apprentice of the year by OPITO, the oil and gas industry’s skills organisation. Michael Williamson, 23, beat off competition from students at three other colleges to win the 2014 Apprentice of the Year Award, which honours the top apprentice on OPITO’s UK Upstream Oil & Gas Technician Training Scheme.

Michael is the sixth Edinburgh College student in a row to win the coveted annual award.

Originally from Whalsay on Shetland, Michael is currently an instrument technician apprentice at Edinburgh College. He was selected after demonstrating an outstanding ability and attitude during the four-year national apprenticeship scheme, which has so far seen more than 1,500 young people enter the industry, creating a sustainable pipeline of technicians coming in at a grassroots level.

Split into two phases, the apprenticeship sees students take part in a 21-month full-time course at college, before embarking on a two year worksite placement.

The former mussel farmer, who previously completed an apprenticeship in mechanical engineering with Shetland Island Council Ferries, received his award at a prestigious lunch in Aberdeen to mark the 15th anniversary of the Technician Training Scheme. The milestone event celebrated the roles of leaders and apprentices across the UK oil and gas industry in addressing skills issues.

Michael said “I was quite taken aback by winning the award. I didn’t even expect to be nominated, let alone win, so I was over the moon. I chose to retrain as an instruments technician mainly as a stepping stone into the oil and gas industry, and also because two apprenticeships are better than one!”

“My studies are progressing well, the theory side is a bit challenging but manageable as long as I keep my head down and get through it. I hope to continue to gain experience and knowledge of the industry and progress towards starting my own limited company and be self-employed further down the line.”

Mike Jeffrey, Head of Engineering at the college, said: “We are thrilled that Michael has been recognised with the OPITO Apprentice of the Year award. Edinburgh College is one of three training centres for OPITO in the UK and the consistent quality of our apprentices has now been recognised with this award six times. The college has successfully trained hundreds of apprentices for the oil and gas industry.”

Operators and major contractors have invested more than £120million in the Technician Training Scheme since it was established in 1999 with 13 trainees and four industry sponsors. Since then, the programme has grown to see around 130 new apprentices taken on every year across 15 sponsoring companies, making it one of the biggest industry-led MA programmes in the UK.

The Technician Training Scheme is managed by OPITO in partnership with the Engineering and Construction Industry Training Board (ECITB). The awards were held as part of National Oil & Gas Skills Week, a UK-wide initiative that saw more than 75 companies take part in around 50 events in Aberdeen, Glasgow, Edinburgh, North Shields, Norwich, Great Yarmouth, Lowestoft, London.

John McDonald, managing director of OPITO UK, said: “Skills Week has demonstrated that there are some outstanding companies and individuals working in our sector who are delivering tangible benefits around the skills agenda at both a company-wide, local and national level.

“The high standard of entry we received for the inaugural awards was matched only by the passion and enthusiasm shown by this year’s apprentices for the industry they have chosen as a career.”

Top teachers?

Nominations for the Scottish Education Awards 2015 awards are now open. Celebrating the hard work and success in Scottish education, the awards recognise the achievements of people who dedicate their lives to children and young people.

There are 17 awards available across a range of categories covering all areas of education. New awards for this year include learning for sustainability, making languages come alive and transforming lives through partnerships.

If you know of a school or teacher that deserves to be recognised for their hard work visit the Scottish Education Awards website for more information and to submit a nomination.

Nominations must be submitted by Monday 16 February 2015.

Blooming good reason to celebrate success

The Lord Provost unveiled a plaque last night to mark Edinburgh’s success in the Entente Florale environmental competition earlier this year.

Following Edinburgh’s success in Britain in Bloom, Edinburgh was invited to represent the UK at the prestigious Entente Florale, Europe’s largest environmental competition – over 22,000 cities, towns and villages entered Entente Florale across Europe this year.

The winners were announced on 26 September: Edinburgh was awarded gold for excellence in landscape and horticulture, environment and tourism and involvement while The Grassmarket Community Project also won the special Lucija Cikes Prize for integration of disabled people in to society through green skills.

A host of city organisations contributed to Edinburgh’s success – these were:

City of Edinburgh Council, Historic Scotland, Edinburgh World Heritage Trust, Edinburgh and Lothian Greenspace Trust, Cockburn Association, Water of Leith Conservation Trust, Scottish Wildlife Trust, Friends of Parks groups, Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh, Greenspace Scotland, Marketing Edinburgh, University of Edinburgh, Essential Edinburgh, Hilton Double Tree, Duddingston Field Group, Garvald Group and Grassmarket Community Project.

Pilton group walks off with award!

PILTON COMMUNITY HEALTH PROJECT VOLUNTEERS ‘WALK’ AWAY WITH AN AWARD!

We are delighted to announce that the Pilton Community Health Project walking volunteers have won an award from the Scottish charity Paths for All.

The award for ‘Health Walk Volunteer group of the Year’ will be presented by Shona Robison MSP at the charity’s annual celebration ceremony ‘Celebrating Scotland’s Walking Champions’ tomorrow (Tuesday 4 Novomber) at the Scottish Parliament.

The ceremony recognises the achievements of volunteers from across the country and their contribution to making Scotland more active.

The Pilton Community Health Project walking volunteers have won the award for their dedication and team spirit; this has been key to the success and expansion of the walking programme.

The team consists of eleven highly motivated volunteers who are all passionate about walking and how it can address health inequalities. Without them, the project wouldn’t be able to offer an increasingly wide range of opportunities for local people.

Together they effectively manage the walking groups and help others take steps toward improving their health and wellbeing.

Congratulations to all!

Sharp focus: clean sweep for photography students

Edinburgh College photography students named UK’s best

Edinburgh College has scooped all the top prizes at the British Institute of Professional Photography’s (BIPP) UK Student Awards, beating off competition from the country’s universities and colleges. Two current students and a recent graduate were named the country’s best student photographers, taking first place in the three categories.

BA Professional Photography student Kinga Kocimska won the BIPP National Student of the Year Award, recent BA graduate Jamie Mellor won the Student Open Award for students who are not BIPP members and fellow BA student Sandra Vijandi won the BIPP College Award.

Sandra was also the runner up for the Student of the Year Award and another student, Antonio Castro, came second in the Student Open. Three others were also highly commended in the categories.

Edinburgh College curriculum manager for broadcast media and photography Marjory Crooks said: “We’re delighted that the emerging photography students from Edinburgh College are winning such prestigious awards in the industry. Their future commissions and careers will be greatly enhanced by this as they’re already building fantastic profiles while they’re studying with us.”

Kinga’s winning entry in this year’s UK-wide competition consisted of five images from her second-year portfolio, ‘Deceptive Mind’, which showcased her surreal, witty approach to her photography as well as her technical skill (above).

Sandra took her win and runner-up position for her portfolios ‘Unexpected Journeys’ and ‘Glass Houses’, which demonstrated her flair for fashion photography, featuring stylised, heavily art-directed images (below).

Jamie won for his portfolio ‘Remnants’, featuring shots of eerie hinterland locations (below).

Each winner received a prize of £500.

Kinga said: “I did not expect such an amazing distinction and I’m very pleased that the time and effort I have invested in learning new skills have already started yielding such good results. I’m really grateful for the tuition and development opportunities I have received at Edinburgh College. This award has motivated me even more to continue improving my skills and working hard to gain more experience as a photographer. After all, the biggest challenge of making my way into the photographic industry is still ahead of me.”

These awards continue a winning streak for the college’s photography students that includes five years of multiple successes at the BIPP Scottish Region Image Awards, culminating in 30 awards this year including Student Photographer of the Year and Professional Photographer of the Year. Former student Lee Howell was also runner up in last year’s BIPP Student of the Year Award.

Photography lecturer Jon Lee added: “We’ve been overwhelmed in recent years with the talent of our students and I’m extremely pleased they’re continuing to do so well in these awards. The achievement is down to the hard work of our students and also our staff, who come from a range of commercial photography backgrounds. Many of our part-time staff also still work in the industry, which means our students gain that essential insight into developments in the professional word and ensures they’re prepared when they enter it.”

The college’s BA Professional Photography course currently has 24 students, the HND Professional Photography 1 has 38 and the HND Professional Photography 2 has 34.