Scotland's Colleges Annual Marketing Awards 2007
West Lothian College is in celebration mode after walking away from the Scotland’s Colleges Annual Marketing Awards with the 2007 Gold Award for market research. The College’s winning project highlighted the changing skills required by local technology employers in West Lothian and presented recommendations on how the College could best meet these needs.
The prestigious awards ceremony, which was held at the Dunblane Hydro Hotel, included a gala dinner and remarks from guest speaker, Ruth Wishart, Herald Columnist and BBC Broadcaster. The Scotland’s Colleges Marketing Awards are now in their ninth year and are firmly established as a showcase for marketing excellence in Scotland's colleges, attracting entries nationwide.
Sue Pinder, Principal of West Lothian College, commented on the award win: “I would like to congratulate the College marketing team who have worked very hard on this project. Continuous research into the trends within the local market place and the future of employment demands within Scotland is a key focus of our College and this recent award win provides great recognition of our commitment to local businesses and this community.”
NATIONAL BUSINESS AWARDS FOR SCOTLAND 2006
West Lothian College was delighted to learn it had reached the finalist stage of the ‘Employer of the Year’ category of The National Business Awards for Scotland 2006. This is one of the most prestigious Awards Schemes in Scotland , and the Awards recognise best practices and innovative business processes. Applications are received from companies, large and small, across the country, and for any organisation to reach the finalist stage is a tremendous honour and achievement.
The College had to present a case study to the judges demonstrating how it has achieved excellent results through well-adopted company values, the provision of stimulating and supportive workplaces and the active development of all employees.
SFEU AWARDS 2005
West Lothian College has once again come up trumps at the 'Education Oscars', the annual 'SFEU (Scottish Further Education Unit) Scotland's Colleges Annual Awards 2005'.
College staff gathered at the prestigious event held in Glasgow, to pick up two awards for Customer Service: the 'Highly Commended for External Customer Service to Businesses' and the 'Highly Commended for Internal Customer Service for Support Services to Students' award.
The 'Award for External Customer Service' was awarded in recognition of the College's ability to put the customer first with regard to Management and Training. The College has developed a real ethos of customer focus by understanding the needs of modern day business and delivering tailored programmes to suit individual business needs, particularly in the local area. From adapting training schedules at the drop of a hat and providing leisure events to help staff manage stress, to delivering training courses any time from 8.00am to 10.00pm seven days a week.
The 'Award for Internal Customer Service' was in recognition of the improvement of support to students by the service areas of the College and this award recognises the many ways in which we are striving to make our students feel supported, not just in terms of how their course is delivered but also in terms of making the whole College 'journey' as straightforward as we can - this includes things like access to financial advice, library services, use of the 'Hub', or advice and help with childcare.
The only College to win two awards on the night, West Lothian truly has been putting the 'customer first'.
BUSINESS ENTERPRISE AWARDS 2005
The College’s HRM/Payroll Assistant, Brian Lee, beat off stiff competition from across the UK to scoop the ‘Payroll Professional of the Year’ Award at a ceremony in London in April 2005.
Hosted in association with the International Association of Bookkeepers, the award ceremony is the ‘Oscars’ of the small business community and celebrates the often over-looked ‘behind the scenes’ talent of professionals working throughout the UK.
Brian’s achievement represents a personal as well as a professional journey.
SCOTTISH FURTHER EDUCATION MARKETING AWARDS 2005
On 17 February 2005, the College scooped three prestigious accolades at SFEU’s Scottish FE Marketing Awards - Gold, Silver and the new SFEU ‘Grand Prix’ Award, which celebrates la crème de la crème of the finalists.
The Gold Award was in recognition of the College’s work with design agency ‘The Write People’ on its main 2004-05 prospectus.
The Silver Award was for market research, undertaken by Irwin Stuart Design, which informed the design and content for the main 2004-05 prospectus.
The final surprise on the night came in the form of the SFEU ‘Grand Prix’ award which was presented to the College again for its work on the main prospectus.
Our thanks to the external partners who helped us achieve a prospectus second to none.
SCOTLAND’S HEALTH AT WORK (SHAW) AWARD
The College was awarded the national ‘Bronze’ Award in January 2005 for its ongoing commitment to ensuring staff strike a healthy balance between their ‘work’ life and their leisure time.
Over the course of 2004 an action group of College staff encouraged their colleagues to participate in a series of extra-curricular activities and commit to a range of initiatives including Adult Learners Week, visits from a mobile blood donation unit and a No Smoking campaign.
But the work doesn’t stop here. The College is looking forward to building on this achievement as it works towards the ‘Silver’ Award.
