When it comes to winning gold you want to shout it from the rooftops. And an award winning teaching team from the Education Training Collective (Etc.) did just that!
The Etc. Prince’s Trust tutors have been named Further Education Team of the Year at the Pearson National Teaching Awards 2020 – securing the gold prize in their category.
With Covid 19 safety measures putting the glittering award ceremony on hold, the team heard the news announced live on BBC’s The One Show.
“We can’t quite believe it, it still doesn’t feel real,” said the Etc.’s Prince’s Trust Head of Department Gillian Hutchinson. “There are so many amazing contenders, just to be among the finalists was a remarkable achievement.”
The Pearson National Teaching Awards are an annual celebration of exceptional teachers, recognising the life changing impact teachers, teaching assistants, head teachers and lecturers can have on young people’s lives.
The awards attracted thousands of applications, which the judges shortlisted into 76 silver winners and ultimately resulted in just 14 gold winners, announced over five nights during the popular teatime TV show.
The Etc. team delivers Prince’s Trust courses at Stockton Riverside College and Redcar and Cleveland College, as well as venues across the Tees Valley, Bishop Auckland and Catterick.
The programmes offer young people aged 16 to 25 the chance to develop their personal skills and motivation, to increase their chances of progressing on to education or work.
For the staff tasked with inspiring the young people, Gillian said: “It is not always an easy job, but the rewards, when you see the learners go on to achieve their own goals, can be massive.
“For the team it is far more than just a job, giving their time, enthusiasm and commitment to every young person.”
To be recognised and now titled a gold winner of one of the awards dubbed “the Oscars” of the education world, Gillian said: “It is fantastic not just for our team, our young people and our college group, but also for all those Further Education workers who teach non-traditional learners.”
The Etc.’s College Principal of Redcar and Cleveland College, Jason Faulkner, who started his own career with the group as a Prince’s Trust Team Leader, said: “We couldn’t be prouder of our Prince’s Trust Team, this is testament to their hard work, dedication and commitment to the young people that they work with.
“This isn’t just a job for our Prince’s Trust team, it is so much more. It is a vocation, one in which making a positive difference to the lives of young people is what they work tirelessly to achieve – and that, for me, is what FE is all about. Seeing potential and supporting the realisation of that potential, while being a key part of the local community.”