Students celebrate success at awards

More than 140 people attended the Employment and Volunteering Awards to recognise the achievements of students throughout the year.

A number of awards were presented at the ceremony at the City Campus, including the Volunteer of the Year Award, won by Stephen Ross. Stephen has been volunteering with Victim Support since 2008, providing advice and guidance to people in need.

The winner of the Student Employee of the Year was Graeme Gorthy from Metro/National Express. Graeme was nominated because of his flexible approach and ability to work well in a team.

The Student Leadership Award was presented to Charlotte Owen, in recognition of her work at Mouchel. Charlotte was described by her group manager as being an enthusiastic member of the team, who was able to provide practical solutions to problems.

Helene Turley, Employment Engagement Manager, said: “I would like to congratulate all of our winners, who have shown a tremendous amount of dedication to win these awards. Volunteering and gaining work experience, whether it is paid or unpaid, is an excellent way of standing out in the crowd when looking for employment, and it is also very rewarding.

“To put the work of our students into perspective, we worked out in 2009/2010 we had 294 volunteers who gave 17,530 volunteering hours. This equates to an estimated cost of £223,725 if the hours were paid for.”

Other winners included Peter Richards from Alf-Osten Engineering and OS Petersen Ltd who was awarded SPEED WM Entrepreneur of the Year. SPEED WM (Student Placements for Entrepreneurs in Education West Midlands) helps entrepreneurial students to set up their own businesses while they are studying.

Volunteering England Gold Awards were also presented to reward the achievements of student volunteers.

ENDS

Picture: Volunteer of the Year Stephen Ross with Sandra Kelly from Victim Support and Maxime Sharman, Community Manager from the Midcounties Co-operative which sponsored the award.

For media inquiries please contact Vickie Warren in the Media Relations Office on 01902 322736.