A sell-out audience of 400 people from all sections of the IT Training industry attended the IITT’s annual Awards Dinner, held at the Dorchester Hotel in London on 7th February.
Hosted and presented by television broadcaster Fiona Armstrong, the awards night itself was a night of celebration of the rise in standards which was evident in the quality of the training projects carried out by the finalists.
According to Professional Services Director Tony Moss, the standard of this year’s entries was again at an all time high. “Since the Institute started the Awards six years ago, we have witnessed a continual rise in the standard of entries. Any one of the finalists this year probably would have won the award six years ago,” he said.
The winner of the blue riband award – Training Company of the Year – went to SmartForce.
“We are delighted to present the Gold Award this year to the training team at SmartForce," said Colin Steed, chief executive of the Institute. "The company has had a fantastic year and has carried out a whole reengineering of the company. But what really impressed the judges was their excellent staff development programme, which runs throughout the company, from new recruit to chief executive."
“The judges were particularly impressed in how this company has made such creditable progress over the past year with significant staff development and financial results."
Yvonne Mitchell, from News International Newspapers, was presented with the coveted Trainer of the Year Award by Danika Bakalich, from the award sponsors CompTIA. "We had a record number of 34 entries for this award," said Steed, "and this category again was the most difficult to judge for the panel. Any one of the finalists could have won - and deserved to be recognised by their employers. “ Yvonne is an outstanding example to all trainers."
VEGA Group PLC sponsored the award for the ‘training department of the year’, which was won by Centrica – the organisation that incorporates the Automobile Association and Transco (formerly British Gas). VEGA's Martin Blomley said: “Behind every good training manager is an efficient and effective training department.“
He later went on to say: "Producing and delivering effective training is a team effort. It involves training planners, developers and administrators, as well as the learners – and everyone has to be motivated to play their parts professionally if the desired outcomes are to be achieved."
The full award winners are listed below.
Training Company of the Year
Sponsored by Centra
Gold: SmartForce
Silver: PC Coaching
Bronze: Happy Computers
Trainer of the Year
Sponsored by CompTIA
Gold: Yvonne Mitchell, News International Newspapers
Silver: Steve Noxon, Eurostar UK
Bronze: Gina Bees - DHL Systems.
Training Department of the Year
Sponsored by VEGA
Gold: Centrica IT Education & Training
Silver: Corporation of London
Bronze: AON
Internal Training Project of the Year
Sponsored by Parity Solutions
Gold: Herbert Smith
Silver: Scottish Prison Service College
Bronze: AON.
External Training Project of the Year
Sponsored by Computing
Gold: DA Consulting Group & Unilever
Silver: QA & AstraZeneca;
Bronze: PC Coaching & The Miller Group
International Project of the Year
Sponsored by Tata Interactive Systems
Gold: Electric Paper
Silver: SmartForce
Bronze: Global Learning Alliance
Training Manager of the Year
Sponsored by Spring
Gold: Niall Gavin, Sussex Police
e-Learning Course of the Year
Sponsored by Learndirect
Gold: Manchester NHS Agency & LearnECDL
Silver: Transco Learning & Development
Bronze: SmartForce
Education Contribution of the Year
Sponsored by Department for Education & Skills
Winner: Ballyclare High School & Learning Schools Programme
Silver: Bacons College
Colin Corder Award
(for career services to IT training)
Clive Shepherd
