Awards were presented in seven areas: Outstanding Contribution to the Student Experience; Outstanding Practice in Teaching & Learning; Digital Champion of the Year; Outstanding Curriculum Team of the Year; Outstanding Support Team Member of the Year; Outstanding Engagement & Collaboration; and Outstanding Support Team of the Year.
Welcoming staff to the awards ceremony in Lamont Building in Ballymena, Hugh Crossey, chair of the College’s Governing Body said it was uplifting and inspiring to hear about of the continued commitment of staff to students at the College.
He acknowledged the importance of the College’s ongoing investment in continuing professional development. During the past academic year, staff completed over 16,500 hours of training and attended over 300 courses. Thirty nine staff members completed either CIT or PCGE training.
The award for Outstanding Contribution to the Student Experience was won by Ballymena based Beauty lecturer, Barbara Esler. Nominating her for the award, Barbara’s students said she was an ‘exceptional teacher and dedicated tutor who went to extra lengths to help in whatever way possible to make learning so much easier for everyone’.
Runners up in this category were Eimear Lennon, a Counselling lecturer at the Magherafelt campus and Ally Thomas, a Sports and Tourism lecturer at Newtownabbey.
Craig McNeilly, Electrical Installation lecturer won the award for Outstanding Practice in Teaching & Learning and Counselling lecturer, Michelle Lavery was runner up. Both lecturers are based in Ballymena and their awards recognised their innovative approach to introducing new learning techniques to enhance student experience.
Engineering lecturer, John McClintock who is based in Farm Lodge was named Digital Champion of the Year. The runners up in this category included Andrew Paul, Mark McGinty, both Ballymena based; Angela Dynes, who is library manager at Newtownabbey and Jacqui McAllister, Health and Social Care lecturer at Newtownabbey.
The Special Educational Needs programme team which has staff members at each campus won the award for the Outstanding Curriculum Team of the Year.
The team was commended for their excellent pastoral care, retention rates and engagement with a range of external stakeholders including Careers Service NI and disability employment service who meet and advise students on possible career pathways.
The College’s Counselling team which delivers the Ulster University validated Foundation Degree and Certificate and the Engineering team from Farm Lodge were runners in this category.
One of the four new categories introduced this year was Outstanding Support Team Member of the Year was to acknowledge the significant contribution that support staff make to the College. The winner was Adele Brennan who her colleagues said ‘personifies efficiency and professionalism as MIS Assistant at the Coleraine campus’. Runners up in this category were Fionnuala Devlin, Admissions and Campus Services Assistant in Ballymena and Michelle Bellingham, Marketing and Communications Officer, who is based at the Coleraine campus.
The award for Outstanding Engagement & Collaboration went to the Work Based Learning Engineering team in Newtownabbey in recognition of their engagement and collaboration with Ryobi. The College’s partnership with Ryobi has grown over the last 10 years and there are currently has 34 Ryobi apprentices, from Level 2 through to Level 4 HNC. The College also runs a bespoke training programmes for Ryobi Apprentices as well as providing training to upskill existing staff as the company has developed.
The Outstanding Support Team of the Year award went to the Digital Learning Team for their smooth implementation of several e Learning systems across the College, including Learning Assistant, Turnitin and Lynda.com. As part of these projects, the Digital team visited all campuses to provide training and one-to-one support. They also collaborated with other support teams to produce training resources for the part-time Lecturer's Pay Claim app, Student Services videos and a Health & Safety course and worked with curriculum staff to create interactive content, videos and animations for use in the classroom. Runners up in this category were the Procurement Team and the Process & Systems Transformation team.
