Happy Computers and Cheshire NHS ICT Service both had a double reason to celebrate, last week after scooping two Gold Awards at the Institute of IT Training awards.

In front of a capacity crowd of 450, Happy won the blue riband award of Training Company of the Year and IT Trainer of the Year went to Ed Lepre as the Gold Award winner.

Cheshire NHS ICT Service's internal training team won Training Department of the Year (Public Sector) and the Internal Training Project of the Year.

The Colin Corder Award for an outstanding contribution to IT training went to Brian Sutton, while
Denise Hudson-Lawson, from the Houses of Parliament, Parliamentary ICT, won the prestigious Training Manager of the Year. Freelance Trainer of the Year, went to Julia Emelogu.

Other Gold Award winners were: FDM Group (Training Department), Verridian & Carphone Warehouse (External Training Project), Electronic Data Systems (Blended Learning Project), Etc Venues (Learning Facilities).

Happy Computers is also the first provider to be a fully qualified assessment centre for the Institute of IT Training (IITT). The IT training company has announced a programme of training and assessment for the new Trainer Performance Monitoring & Assessment (TPMA) training standard. Trainers will be able to choose from a half-day assessment, a three day train the trainer course or a two day conversion course.

Colin Steed, chief executive of the IITT said: "Happy (Computers) has a track record of training of the very highest quality and we look forward to working with Happy in further raising training standards in the industry."