Forth Valley College’s first ever Staff Awards Ceremony unveiled its inaugural winners at a well-attended online event held on the evening of Wednesday 23 June 2021.
Broadcast via College Development Network’s (CDN) virtual platform, the event was hosted by BBC Presenter Amy Irons. Winners were announced in the following categories: Community Award; Innovation Award; Improving Health and Wellbeing Award; Inspiration Award; Team of the Year Award; and Colleague of the Year Award.
There were live reactions from winners to the awards being revealed and the event also featured a keynote speech from College Principal Dr Ken Thomson OBE, who talked about the huge range of initiatives and projects that have been taking place across the College during session 2020/21.
In addition, staff from across the organisation were recognised for achieving a variety of qualifications over the academic year.
FVC Sound Production Lecturer Barry Frame provided entertainment for the evening with covers of Semisonic’s ‘Secret Smile’ along with Ian Whitfield and also ‘Just the Two of Us’ which he recorded and produced with The UK Voice contestant Cameron Ledwidge.
The awards ceremony was developed by a sub-group from the College’s Listening to Employees Forum and organised with support from the Communications and Marketing team.
There were over 70 nominations received across the six award categories and 23 submissions were shortlisted.
Winners were selected by an expert judging panel including members of the College’s Board of Management, College Fellows, and the Forth Valley Student Association President.
The panel found it difficult to choose winners for each of the six categories due to a high number of deserved nominations and they felt every single staff member deserved an award, after the tremendous efforts over the last year during the pandemic.
However, after much deliberation the winners were as follows:
Colleague of the Year
Winner - May Tennant – was the subject of numerous nominations from her co-workers who highlighted the support that she has given them over this very difficult year.
Community
Winner – Hospitality Team – for their excellent community reach and impact, especially the successful delivery of over 1000 free Christmas lunches.
Health and Wellbeing
Winner – Kasia Slapek – for being such a supportive colleague by providing classes and advice outwith working hours, something which was very much appreciated by her peers.
Innovation
Winner – John Dickson – who worked on making sure the Maths team could continue to assess, creating innovative methods of assessment.
Inspiration
Winner – Stewart Ritchie – who focussed on the inspirational element of his work and student engagement.
Team of the Year
Winner – IT Team – for their huge contribution to keep the College running during the pandemic, helping all other teams to function and for their support for both staff and students.
Dr Ken Thomson OBE, Principal of Forth Valley College, said: “Congratulations to all our winners who thoroughly deserve their success after all their tremendous efforts over the last year. I personally am very proud of everyone who was nominated as they have all gone above and beyond in their roles to provide support, advice and expertise to their colleagues and peers.
“I have to say that this recognition shows an exceptional level of commitment to their professionalism and role, as our entire workforce has risen seamlessly to the challenges presented to them during the pandemic lockdown and shown that each and every one of them are winners in my book. A big well done to everyone.”
Mhairi Archibald, Chair of the Listening to Employees Sub-group, said: “Staff from across the organisation were really keen to celebrate the success of their colleagues and to recognise all the good work going on. We thought an annual awards ceremony would be the perfect way to do this and we’ve been really pleased with how many staff have engaged with the event. After a challenging year, this was a chance to look at the positives and acknowledge everything we’ve achieved. We’ve appreciated the chance to take forward our idea and hope this will now become a key highlight in the college calendar.”
