London Learning Consortium’s Annual Award Celebration event took place on Friday, 22nd of July, in order to recognise the achievements and celebrate the success of our learners, employers, partners, community grants providers, referrals, tutors, and staff during the Academic Year 2021/22.
Everyone attended the ceremony face-to-face last week to celebrate their achievements. The event ran virtually during the pandemic.
The ceremony took place at the Braithwaite Hall in Croydon. This year, LLC introduced 9 award categories. The categories were LLC Teacher of the Year, Subcontracting Partner of the Year, Apprentice of the Year, Adult Learner of the Year, Employer of the Year, Sue Robson Award – Community Grants Provider of the Year, Young Learner of the Year, Referral Partner of the Year and LLC Team Member of the Year.
Commenting on the awards, John Hoare, Vice-Chair of LLCs Board of Non-Executive Directors, said: “Through its dedicated staff, tutors and partners, London Learning Consortium aims to assist its learners to cope with the world of work and for their future”.
Civic Mayor of Croydon, Cllr Alisa Flemming speaking at #LLCAwards22
Stephen Jeffery, Chief Executive Officer, London Learning Consortium, said: “Our work together has demonstrated to me the faith we have in the offer that we provide for Londoners and each other as a staff team. Our various adult and young people programmes such as Adult Education, Community Grants, Traineeships and Apprenticeships enabled us to do our work”.
There were several special guests and speakers that joined the event: The Worshipful Civic Mayor of Croydon, Cllr Alisa Flemming, Labour Member of Parliament for Croydon Central, Sarah Jones, Senior Manager, Programme Delivery at GLA, Laura Dubeck and Headteacher of Hollydale Primary School, Reema Reid.
During the event, Stephen presented a video about what people like about LLC and how they describe it (see below).
LLC Annual Award Categories:
Adult Learner of the Year
Award presented by: Jermaine Sterling
Adult Learning Programmes are funded by the Greater London Authority and European Social Fund and include the achievement of qualifications, to support individuals to progress with their education and also to gain entry into work or progress with their career. The Adult Learner of the Year award is nominated by LLC Tutors who have been working with Adult Learners over the last year and is given to the Adult Learner who is considered to have demonstrated an outstanding commitment in completing their qualification, with consistently high quality in all aspects of their work. Whilst every learner works hard to achieve their goals, some go that little bit further and the learner receiving this award has clearly demonstrated that throughout their course.
Jermaine presented a short video testimonial of Julia, one of the learners nominated in this category.
Winner: Lucy Shelvey
Nominees:
- Julia Sharp
- Frishta Ahmadzai-Habbullah
- Sarah Bradley
Young Learner of the Year
Award presented by: Reema Reid
Traineeships are funded by the Department for Education (formerly known as Education and Skills Funding Agency) and include the achievement of vocational qualifications, English and maths, employability, and a work placement. The award for Young Learner of the Year is nominated by Tutors who have been working with Traineeship Learners over the last year and is given to the Learner who is considered to have demonstrated an outstanding commitment in completing their programme, with consistently high quality in all aspects of their work. Completing a work placement whilst studying takes hard work and commitment and this Trainee has proved that they have what it takes to be an excellent employee in the future.
Winner: Mohammed Sakil Uddin
Nominees:
- Paul Rose
- Izaak Ira
- Katrina Manglite
Apprentice of the Year
Award presented by: John Hoare
Apprenticeships are funded by the Department for Education (formerly known as Education and Skills Funding Agency) or through Employer Levy Funding and consist of paid jobs where the employee learns and gains valuable experiences. Alongside on-the-job training, apprentices spend at least 20% of their working hours completing classroom-based learning LLC which leads to a nationally recognised qualification.
An apprenticeship includes:
- paid employment
- hands-on-experience in a specific sector
- at least 20% off-the-job training
- formal assessment which leads to a nationally recognised qualification
The Apprentice of the Year Award is nominated by LLC Training and Development Consultants who have been working with Apprentices over the last year and is given to the Apprentice who is considered to have demonstrated an outstanding commitment in completing their apprenticeship programme, with consistently high-quality in all aspects of their work.
Winner: Mark Dukes
Nominees:
- Ryan Harrison
LLC Team Member of the Year
Award presented by: Sarah Jones, MP – Labour Member of Parliament for Croydon Central)
This award is all about customer service and is nominated by LLC staff teams and is awarded to the team member who is considered to have consistently provided excellent service to team members/colleagues/learners/external stakeholders as appropriate. Supporting LLC to achieve its vision and mission throughout the critical work that we do within our communities, requires constant dedication, positivity and enthusiasm and the winner of this award has proved that they have continuously delivered outstanding service on behalf of LLC throughout the year.
Winner: Terry Kwok
Sue Robson Award – Community Grants Providers of the Year
Award presented by: Andy Wilson
This award is nominated by LLC staff who have been working with European Social Fund Community Grants Partners over the last year and is given to the Community Grants Partner who is considered to have delivered an outstanding service to their learners, with consistently high quality in all aspects of their delivery. Community Grants provision is vital in enabling some of the communities’ most disadvantaged people to access threshold services to enable them to take the first steps in improving their lives through support with education and employment. This provider has clearly and continuously demonstrated the delivery of an excellent programme as part of our ESF Funded Contract delivered on behalf of the Department for Education (formerly known as Education and Skills Funding Agency).
Andy presented a short video testimonial of Sha from Adam Knights and Associates.
Winner: Grace Eyre Foundation – Coast to Capital
Nominees:
- London South – Building Pathways
- London South – JobPlus Ltd
- Coast 2 Capital – Surrey Lifelong Learning Partnership
LLC Teacher of the Year
Award presented by: Ernesto Argenio
This award is nominated by LLC learners and apprentices and is awarded to the Teacher who is considered to have consistently given excellent service to their apprentice/learner. Supporting learners to achieve their qualifications through juggling their personal circumstances requires constant dedication and enthusiasm and the winner of this award has proved that they have delivered an outstanding service to LLC apprentices/learners throughout the year.
Winner: Avis Blair
Nominees:
- Eudene Sukwah
- Simone Mascoll
- Wendy Foord-Joseph
Subcontracting Partner of the Year
Award presented by: Stephen Jeffery
LLC works with subcontracting partners, to deliver services on our behalf, across our Greater London Authority and Education and Skills Funding Contracts. The award for Subcontracting Partner of the Year is nominated by LLC staff who have been working with Subcontracting Partners over the last year and is given to the Subcontracting Partner who is considered to have delivered an outstanding service to their learners, with consistently high quality in all aspects of their delivery. The provision of outstanding education services is highly challenging and takes a lot of hard work and devotion in supporting the achievement of outcomes for learners. This particular provider, receiving this award has worked with LLC for some time and has continued to deliver an exceptional training programme for each and every one of their learners.
Stephen presented a short video testimonial of Debbie from OrganicLea, the winner in this category.
Winner: OrganicLea
Referral Partner of the Year
Award presented by: Billy Smith, Non-Executive Director on the board at DV8 Sussex
This award is nominated by LLC Staff who have been working with Referral Partners over the last year and is given to the Referral Partner who is considered to have demonstrated an outstanding commitment in supporting their service users to engage with learning and development services provided by LLC. Without the support of our Referral Partners, enabling us to operate from their premises and helping us engage with their service users, we would not be able to reach out to half as many people as we do, enabling us to make a difference to the lives of so many more members of the community. The partner who has been selected to receive this award has worked highly effectively alongside LLC to enable both organisations to deliver outstanding service to the community.
Winner: Connor Nevard – Employer & Partnership Support for Lambeth and Southwark DWP
Nominees:
- Siona Blackford – Ingeus Local Integration Lead – Lambeth & Lewisham Borough
- Emma Gillson – DWP Croydon Borough Partnership Manager
- Anne-Marie Douglas – DWP Lewisham Borough Partnership Manager
Employer of the Year
Award presented by: Jermaine Sterling
This award is nominated by LLC Staff who have been working with Employers over the last year and is given to the Employer who is considered to have demonstrated an outstanding commitment in supporting their staff to engage with learning and development. Without the support of our dedicated employers, we would not be able to deliver the outstanding learning experience that we do – the support we have received from the winning employer has been an excellent example of how workplace learning should be done in partnership.
Jermaine presented a short video testimonial of Atinuke from Optimism Supported Housing, the winner in this category.
Winner: Atinuke Ekundayo-Kehinde – Optimism Supported Housing
Nominees:
- Josh Mansell – Go 2 Games
- Umeshkumar Tank – Vasave Business Solutions
Congratulations once again to all the winners and nominees! We are proud of all our learners for working hard on improving their skills. A big thank you to all our stakeholders, partners, tutors, and team members for their hard work and for supporting our learners to help them achieve their full potential.
If you want to watch the event, please check the video below:
