On Wednesday 12 June, Kirklees College hosted its annual student awards ceremony, the College Outstanding Learner Success (COLS) Awards. These awards are funded through the Thomas Armytage Technical School Endowment of 1879 and each winner receives a cash prize in recognition of their outstanding efforts.
During the ceremony, held at the college’s Huddersfield Centre, 24 awards were given out to students from each curriculum area. Each area award honoured one student, whether full-time, apprentice, or adult learner, who was deemed to have gone above and beyond in their studies and contribution to the KC Community. We also had a special recognition award given to Tegan Carter for her assistance to a gentleman who was hit by a vehicle at outside our Huddersfield Centre back in November.
Two special awards were also given out on the night. Rosie Hodgson, who won the Art and Design category, was named overall winner and Zainab Shafiq was given a special recognition award for her work with the Enrichment team to bring to light different accessibility issues through campaigns and activities across college.
Local radio and TV presenter Stephanie Hirst compered the evening and guests were treated to a two-course meal prepared by the college’s Hospitality and Catering students. The college’s Principal and Chief Executive Palvinder Singh gave the opening speech of the night, in which he highlighted the significance of the college’s mission statement ‘Creating Opportunities, Changing Lives’ and expressed his admiration for all the outstanding students, many of whom have overcome significant boundaries to their learning.
In his speech, Palvinder thanked those who had contributed to the evening:
“I would like to thank everybody attending tonight for this special evening. Our staff who have contributed both directly and indirectly to our student’s success. The family and friends here tonight who have supported our students outside of college and are there to help them every step of the way. Finally, the employers we have here tonight who have taken many of our students on and given them the important industry experience to aid in their success once they have moved on from Kirklees College.”
Congratulations to all the students who were nominated and the amazing winners. To find out more about Kirklees College, visit our homepage.