Coleg Cambria winners at weekend Awards Ceremonies

Coleg Cambria is celebrating once again after winning a number of awards over the weekend.

Last night in a glitzy ceremony at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London, hosted by TV personalities Clare Balding and Esther Rantzen, Coleg Cambria Art and Design Lecturer,Marcus Thomas, was awarded the prestigious Pearson Award for FE Teacher/Lecturer of the Year.  Marcus, who is based at the Yale site, has taught at the college for over seventeen years using his own unique techniques to make a significant impact on the most vulnerable to the high achieving students. Students have nothing but praise and gratitude for Marcus; many of them achieving distinctions and progressing to university, feeling they have an advantage over others because of the skills they’ve learned from their teacher.

Friday evening also brought many successes for the college.  At the Wales Care Awards ceremony at City Hall in Cardiff, Coleg Cambria learner Helen Wynne was deservedly awarded the Innovation in Residential Care for Children award for her wonderful work as a child-minder running Blythswood Child-minding Services in Wrexham with her husband, Dean.  Helen started the service after her son Dyfan was born with an extremely rare condition, complex needs, including physical and learning disabilities, hearing and visual impairments. She completed her NVQ Level 5 Children’s Care Learning and Development qualification using the online portfolio Learning Assistant provided by Coleg Cambria in April 2012.  This significant award is one of many Helen was won during her time at the college.

At the high profile Apprenticeship Awards Cymru held at the Celtic Manor Resort, Newport, Coleg Cambria student Ffion Malwala was awarded Jobs Growth Wales Outstanding Achiever of the Year. Through Jobs Growth Wales, Ffion took a position at Daydream Designs as a Graphic Designer and now has a permanent role as the company’s graphic design profits increased by 90% since she joined.  At the same ceremony, Coleg Cambria learner Alex Birbeck, who is an apprentice at Airbus, was presented with the Higher Apprentice of the Year award. Alex opted for an apprenticeship with Airbus over attending university because of the invaluable opportunity to work with experienced engineers who are experts in their field.

Coleg Cambria Principal and Chief Executive, David Jones said:  “We are very proud of the accomplishments of Marcus, Helen, Ffion and Alex at the weekend and send them our heartfelt congratulations.  These achievements highlight our commitment as a college to putting all learners first, inspiring them to engage, learn, develop and achieve successful progression

into further learning, employment or higher education. We were also delighted that so many of our local employer partners were shortlisted for awards, including Airbus and Wrexham ITEC who were category winners too.”