College Awards
SFEU Awards 2007
The Award for ‘Partnership Working’ was presented to the College for its
Local Area Partnership. The Partnership involves providing residents local to
the College’s geographical area with easy, and free, access to practical training opportunities. This includes IT courses for residents of local social housing complexes, a variety of sports and health-related opportunities for local schoolchildren, tailored IT courses for parents of these schoolchildren, and life skills courses designed to help in the rehabilitation of some of the area’s most socially disadvantaged residents.
Marketing Network FE First Awards 2007
A ‘Runner-up’ award in the student newsletter category was presented to
Aberdeen College for its fresh and innovative ‘Hot’ publication. The newsletter, aimed at 15-18 year old school pupils, is based on a typical teen-magazine and uses language young people can relate to. Its targeted distribution successfully heightened the College’s profile and contributed to an increase in applications to College courses from specific postcode areas.
Customer Service Excellence Standard In June 2008 the College was successfully assessed for the Customer Service Excellence Standard and was graded as being 100% compliant. The College had held the Standard’s predecessor, Charter Mark for Customer Service, continuously
since 1994.
Scottish Awards for Business Excellence 2007-08
Aberdeen College won the Quality Scotland – Scottish Business in the Community Corporate Citizen Award 2008. The award recognises the College’s work with the community, and in particular its involvement with the Local Area Partnership which was established to encourage neighbours living in the College’s vicinity to take advantage of the learning opportunities
available at the College.
Northern Star Awards 2008
The College was highly commended in the ‘Best Use of ICT’ category for its innovative use of a variety of technologies.
SQA Star Awards 2007
The College’s partnership with the St Machar Parent Support Project received a highly commended in the ‘Partnership Working’ category. The partnership was devised in response to the interest of some parents to gain a qualification in Community Work. The project supports parents by providing transport, study facilities and childcare arrangements. It is the second year in succession that the College has won this category.
Scotland’s Colleges Annual Awards 2007
The College won the ‘Partnership Working’ category for work undertaken by its Local Area Partnership to benefit local communities, including primary school pupils, long-term unemployed and other disadvantaged groups.
The Urquhart Partnership cHeRries Awards 2008
The College’s HR Team was a finalist in the ‘Extraordinary Initiative in Human Resources’ category in recognition of the College’s Administration Development Programme. The Programme enables trainees to undertake and benefit from work placements while studying for HNC Administration and Information Technology.
Skillset Media Academy Status
In December 2007, the College’s Multimedia Centre was awarded Media Academy status by Skillset – the Sector Skills Council for Audio Visual Industries. The Skillset Media Academies are a UK-wide group of industry selected and endorsed ’Centres for Excellence’ in media education and training. The College is now part of the Skillset Creative Loop, a partnership of six Scottish colleges.
Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA)
For the fifth consecutive year, Aberdeen College received the RoSPA
Gold Award for Occupational Health and Safety. In acknowledgement
for achieving the award for five consecutive years the College was
also presented with a gold medal. RoSPA Gold Award winners have
achieved a very high level of performance, demonstrating well
developed occupational health and safety management systems and
culture, outstanding control of risk and very low levels of error and
harm.
AoC Beacon Awards 2007-08
The College received the Becta Award for e-enabling Organisational
Development. The award was presented to the College for its comprehensive range of electronic systems used to deliver the curriculum and to enhance business processes.
Scotland’s Healthy Working Lives Mental Health and Well-being Commendation Award
In October 2008 the College learned that it had been successful in achieving this award. This Commendation Award sets a workplace standard for good practice in promoting positive mental health and well-being, supporting staff with mental health problems in the workplace and reducing barriers to recruiting staff with a history of mental health problems. The College is the first educational establishment in Scotland to receive the award, and is one of only eight Scottish organisations who currently hold the award.
AoC Beacon Awards 2008-09
The College won the FENC Award for Creative Production, Adaptation and Delivery of Learning Resources in November 2008. The award was presented in recognition of the College’s development and innovative use of high quality electronic learning in all areas of programme delivery.