Revealed: Winners of FAB Awards 2021

A WorldSkills UK teacher training project and a leading T Level awarding organisation are among the winners of this year’s Federation of Awarding Bodies awards.

Awarding organisation of the year is NEBOSH, otherwise known as the National Examination Board in Occupational Safety and Health. It offers a series of qualifications in health and safety, as well as environmental management.

End-point assessment organisation (EPAO) of the year was given to City & Guilds, which has won contracts to develop qualifications for the 2021, 2022 and 2023 waves of the government’s new flagship qualifications, T Levels.

Other awards presented tonight included the collaboration of the year award, given to WorldSkills UK’s and NCFE’s Centre of Excellence programme, which seeks to train college and independent provider teachers in the methods used to train the UK’s competitors for the international WorldSkills tournaments.

‘Immensely proud of the industry,’ says FAB chief

Federation chief executive Tom Bewick praised the “abundance of excellent nominations” they received, which were “of a very high standard”.

“I am immensely proud of how our industry has risen to the challenges of the last two years and I have heard and seen so many examples of excellence demonstrated by individuals and teams pulling together to support one another as well as centres, employers and of course learners,” Bewick continued.

He co-hosted the awards with Jackie Weaver, the parish council clerk who hit the headlines in February for her handling of a rowdy meeting.

The awards were judged by former skills minister Anne Milton, Black FE Leadership Group executive member and former Highbury College principal Stella Mbubaegbu, and National Union of Students president Larissa Kennedy.

Milton said the judges were “incredibly impressed at how well awarding organisations have “overcome the significant challenges they faced during the pandemic,” which was only possible “due to the hard work and dedication of so many staff”.

“What shone through all the entries is the commitment to learners and to the sector as a whole,” she said, calling it a “privilege and inspiration for us to be asked to judge”.

“Although not everyone is a winner, they are all worthy of special mention,” she said.

The awards form part of this year’s Federation of Awarding Bodies annual conference, FAB 2021, which is running between 11 and 12 November in Leicester.

The full list of FAB award winners

Awarding Organisation of the Year – Sponsored by Creatio

NEBOSH

EPAO of the year – Sponsored by RM

City and Guilds

Qualification of the year – Sponsored by Coelrind

Open College Network West Midlands with Level 5 Diploma in Retrofit Coordination and Risk Management

Collaboration of the Year – Sponsored by Civica

NCFE and WorldSkills UK : WorldSkills UK Centre of Excellence

Learner of the Year – Sponsored by Eintech

Deepak Ranindran nominated by CMI

Individual of the Year – Sponsored by Gordon Associates

Joint winners: Kelle McQuade and Andrew Walker from Training Qualifications UK

Innovation of the year – Sponsored by Advanced Secure Technologies

CMI with Interview360 and CV360

Exporter of the Year – Sponsored by TestReach

Active IQ