Awards Event to Celebrate Employers’ Contribution to Vocational Success

City College Norwich will be holding a breakfast awards event in The Forum on Wednesday 23 June to recognise and celebrate the role played by employers in supporting vocational success.  The event is being held as part of national Vocational Qualifications (VQ) Day.

VQ Day is a UK-wide celebration of the people who gain vocational qualifications every year.  Now in its third year, VQ Day aims to raise the stature and demonstrate the benefits of practical and vocational qualifications to future learners, employers, opinion formers and the wider public. 

There are many different ways in which local employers work with City College Norwich to support vocational learning – from providing training for their own staff, including through apprenticeships, to helping the college to develop its courses so that they are up to date with latest industry developments, to providing work placements and giving talks and practical demonstrations to students. 

City College Norwich’s VQ Day Awards event will highlight the outstanding contributions made by our local employers to support vocational learning, as well as celebrating individuals’ vocational achievements.  There are 6 awards for employers:
• Support for Apprenticeships Award
• Business Benefits of Learning Award
• Education-Business Links Award
• Higher Level Skills Award
• Skills for Life and Work Award
• Small Businesses Commitment to Learning Award

There are 3 further awards to recognise and celebrate individuals’ achievements:

• Apprentice of the Year Award
• Train to Gain Employee of the Year Award
• Learning in the Workplace Champion Award

Other than for the Learning in Workplace Champion Award, which has been entirely open, the award nominations have been made by the Employer Partnerships team and other staff from City College Norwich.  Winners will be chosen by a panel of judges, 2 out of 3 of whom are independent of the college.

Dick Palmer, Principal, City College Norwich, said: “VQ Day is our chance to celebrate success in vocational qualifications.  Employers play a huge part in this success and so we chose to focus on their contribution through these awards.  The commitment that employers bring to skills and training is not only of benefit to individual employees and students, it is also vital to the local economy and our future prosperity as we work together to make Norfolk truly world class for skills”.

For more information about VQ Day, please visit www.vqday.org