The 11th Walsall Lifelong Learning Awards

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Welcome

• The 11th Walsall Lifelong Learning Awards

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The Walsall Childrens Services Serco Early
Learner Award
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• Nominated by The Childrens Trust, ALIYAH BEGUM
  is just five years old. Whilst mourning the death
  of her beloved grandfather, she has never missed
  a day at school and has a reading age of a 7 year
  old. She is creative, involved in her community,
  and is learning sign language.

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The Walsall Childrens Services Serco Early
Learner Award
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• Nominated by The Childrens Trust, MATTHEW DEAN
  is 12 years old and was bullied at his primary
  school to such an extent that he was running away
  from school and showing very disruptive
  behaviour. His mother worked tirelessly to
  address this problem, even sitting with him
  through his SATS to ensure there was no
  interference from the bullies. He has now moved
  to Joseph Leckie School and is doing tremendously
  well top in French, excellent in maths and
  never misses a day. He is one of the youngest
  volunteers at events at Palfrey Park and is
  developing into an
  exceptional young man.

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The Prospects Services Ltd Young Persons Award
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• Nominated by Walsall College, ANDREW CUTLER lost
  his father at just five years old, leading to a
  unconventional and disruptive life, including
  living in foster care, hostels and the victim of
  bullying leading to his removal from mainstream
  schooling. He enrolled at Walsall College in
  2007, taking on a BTEC course, a first aid course
  and a hairdressing course and excelling at all
  three. During last Summer, he was appointed to
  the post of President of the Student Union, and
  is passionate about being a role model to other
  students. He is
  also a Student Governor
  and his ultimate goal is to
  become an IT consultant.

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The Prospects Services Ltd Young Persons Award
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• Nominated by Walsall Housing Group, SAMANTHA
  HARBINSON is from a large family originally from
  the Goscote Estate in Walsall. She has managed to
  overcome her vulnerability and the social
  barriers that have been placed in her way, and,
  in joining whgs youth engagement programme, she
  has taken part in a number of projects where she
  has shown initiative, drive and been an
  inspiration to other young people. Not least of
  these projects was a five day tall ships
  challenge involving sailing a ship as a team from
  Brixham to Falmouth. She has worked hard at
  school, achieving excellent results
  at GCSE.

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The New Deal for Communities
Senior Learner Award
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• Nominated by Bloxwich Community Partnership, KEN
  DUKES suffered a stroke 16 years ago, leaving him
  with memory loss and borderline blindness. He has
  been attending the Elmore Row Centre in Bloxwich
  every Friday for the last four years without
  fail. He has progressed through photography and
  computer courses, and is always smiling and
  helping others to learn. His nominator describes
  him as a first class student.

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The New Deal for Communities
Senior Learner Award
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• Nominated by The College of Continuing Education,
  MOHINDRA DEVI came to this country aged 18,
  worked and raised a family. It was not until the
  tragedy of losing her adult daughter and having
  to take care of her two year old grandson, that
  she turned to learning to address her language
  barriers. She has been studying for the past two
  years and has passed her Skills for Life exams
  with distinction. She is now undertaking a
  classroom assistants course and volunteering
  work. She is a role model in both her
  community and the
  wider one.

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The Carver PLC Developing Sectors Award
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• Nominated by St Thomas More School, ADAM DICKENS
  AND CHARLOTTE STANTON THE STM GOLF ACAEDMY are
  two young entrepreneurs who have used their
  hobbies and talents to set up their own
  enterprise. Our two young winners play golf to an
  exceptional standard, and with the help of their
  teacher, raised over 3,000 to establish the
  first ever Golf Academy at their school, and in
  the local community in Willenhall. They have
  developed the Academy to such an extent that
  several staff are now employed and it has the
  support of the English Golf Union. By the end of
  this year, they are aiming that over 100 local
  children will have been introduced to the game
  and taken part in
  coaching. What these two
  young people have achieved
  is a real life business venture
  and in regenerating Walsall,
  encouraging business
  entrepreneurs is vital.

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The Carver PLC Developing Sectors Award
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• Nominated by Park Hall Community Association,
  THELMA BYTHEWAY has contributed greatly to the
  voluntary community sector in Walsall as the
  Director of a community association. She has
  worked tirelessly, ensuring the continuity of
  community based provision, and has helped the
  association move towards a new funding structure,
  embracing the changes and improving quality. Her
  steer has helped her community association to
  move forward and engage with a number of external
  organisations to develop the
  range and quality of the educational
  opportunities on offer.

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The Hadens Solicitors Raising
Aspirations Award
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• Nominated by Shelfield Community Academy, CARL
  PALMER AND JEREMY BROWN are a Head of School
  department at a Walsall school and a freelance
  creative director, who have become the driving
  force behind a unique film project to engage
  disaffected students in Walsall at risk of
  permanent exclusion from school. Choosing
  Tomorrow is a provocative thirty minute drama
  which uses contemporary time travel to allow five
  very different students to explore their futures
  negative futures through underachievement or
  lives lived through benefits or positive
  futures through careers
  such as the Police,
  local government or teaching.

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The Hadens Solicitors Raising
Aspirations Award
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• Nominated by The Princes Trust, CHARLOTTE
  KENNEDY is a mother of two small children and a
  budding entrepreneur. In a very difficult
  financial climate, she is determined not just to
  sit around at home or to take a variety of jobs
  that lead nowhere. Her aim is to be a good role
  model to her children and to run her own
  successful commercial and private cleaning
  business. Securing funding from The Princes
  Trust, she has done just that and is fast
  developing her client base.. But what really sets
  this young lady apart is that she grabs every
  opportunity offered to her by
  both hands every training
  opportunity and every piece of
  advice.

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The Performance Through People Skills
for Life Award
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• Nominated by Links to Work, DONALD HEMANS
  communicates through British Sign Language and
  has been with Links to Work for the past two
  years. Wanting to get a job and communicate with
  the wider world, he enrolled on a literacy course
  halfway through the academic year and achieved
  passes at Entry Levels 1,2 and 3. Improving his
  basic skills has enabled our winner to find
  confidence in different work placements, becoming
  more extrovert and self-assured.

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The Performance Through People Skills
for Life Award
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• Nominated by Walsall College, please welcome
  CRAIG JACKSON is a student of the Achieving
  Together course at Walsall College, and surgery
  at an early age resulted in numerous medical side
  effects and motor skills which he deals with to
  this day. He has nevertheless successfully
  achieved the Adult Literacy, Adult Numeracy, and
  Life Skills qualifications, and an excellent
  attendance record. He has also successfully
  completed the Junior Football Organisers course
  and helped organise a football competition for
  local schools, another one of
  which is planned this Spring.

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The Walsall Adult Community College Learning in
the Community Award
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• Nominated by Walsall Caldmore Housing, RICHARD
  TAYLOR has suffered from mental illness since he
  was a teenager and is now working on his
  rehabilitation whilst living in a care home. In
  the past two years, he has developed his IT
  skills editing a newsletter acted as the Chair
  and Secretary for residents meetings been a
  member of the customer care steering group a
  member of an art group and has been part of the
  recruitment panel for the home. As a role model,
  our winner encourages confidence in others and,
  by breaking down barriers
  and misconceptions,
  challenges stigma
  surrounding mental illness.

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The Walsall Adult Community College Learning in
the Community Award
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• Nominated by Walsall Housing Group, JUSTINE
  GARDNER and JULIE EMERY are Community Champions
  as part of the Darlaston Capacity Building
  project. Their role has been to motivate and
  encourage residents to engage in training and
  activities. They needed support themselves to
  undertake this role and have both overcome many
  barriers to succeeding in their role. Both of our
  winners have used these experiences to shape the
  services and capacity building activities they
  offered to the residents of Darlaston, and
  they developed and
  delivered learning and training
  in an open, honest and reliable
  way building trust amongst the
  community.

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The Steps to Work Walsall Learning Champions Award
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• Nominated by Performance Through People, KEVIN
  BROCKLESBY from CASHMORES METALS LTD is an
  operations manager at a local manufacturing firm,
  and has shown an incredible commitment to
  learners in Walsall. Together with his company,
  our winner have given full support to rolling out
  Young Apprenticeships, Modern Apprenticeships and
  the new Diploma programmes within his company. He
  is always on hand by email, phone or personal
  visits and always has time to answer questions,
  talk to learners and staff, and to
  conduct visits for other
  learners.

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The Steps to Work Walsall Learning Champions Award
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• A true hands-on learning champion, DAVID STORRs
  philosophy is that you learn throughout life and
  that without the experience of learning you are
  delivering, the young people of our communities
  will not respect what you are sharing with them.
  An ex-police officer and now Walsall FCs Stadium
  Manager, he undertakes voluntary work in the
  youth sector to a fantastic extent. He has gained
  Coach, Lifeguard and Judge Qualifications in
  Swimming and is a linesman, referee, instructor
  and referee assessor in football. He has
  undertaken these to train others and promote
  learning. He has also
  undertaken a trainers certificate
  in Microsoft Office.

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The Walsall Partnership Collaboration Award
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• Nominated by Black Country Chamber of Commerce,
  STEPS TO WORK (WALSALL) LTD and PREMIER BUSINESS
  PARK, have, for the past 6 months, given local
  unemployed people the opportunity to gain
  practical, hands-on work experience at a local
  business park. A partnership between a charity
  and the business park has given over 20 trainees
  work skills and a platform to market their skills
  to local employers.

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The Walsall Partnership Collaboration Award
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• Nominated by JobCentre Plus, THE EMPLOYABILITY
  TEAM WALSALL COLLEGE A far reaching partnership
  between a major local college, JobCentre Plus and
  a number of local employers has assisted a number
  of Walsalls unemployed residents to gain jobs in
  the Borough by addressing their training
  support needs. The training delivered was
  designed and tailored to the needs of the
  employer whilst offering the beneficiary guidance
  assistance on attending interviews, mock tests,
  completing application forms and helped form an
  understanding of what was required in the
  world of work.

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The Rubery Owen Learning with Technology Award
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• Nominated by St Thomas More School, the winner is
  DAVE GILES - Walsall is making headlines for the
  right reasons at the moment and the new Gigaport
  will place the town at the forefront of the new
  fibre-optic technology revolution. However, the
  jobs created here will need new skills and a
  teacher at a secondary school in Willenhall has
  established a fantastic new Robotics initiative.
  The project is a combination of IT programming,
  maths, science and design skills. It appeals to
  the most gifted and talented but the programming
  can be adapted and relate to
  all children. The aim is to
  develop the Robotics project
  across the whole of Walsall.

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The Black Country Training Group Learning
towards Employment Award
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• Nominated by Links to Work, MATTHEW GATLISH was
  born with cerebral palsy and his motto has always
  been see me, not my wheelchair. He undertook
  many qualifications including HNC Level in
  computing but was unable to secure employment.
  Taking all training and advice offered, he joined
  Links to Work and kept trying to get a job,
  completing applications forms, attending 6
  interviews in one year at one stage and
  graciously accepted the no letters. He then
  attended a 3 day employment training course,
  through Walsall Council,
  and agreed to go on a
  placement. He has now achieved
  his goal and is employed.

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The Black Country Training Group Learning
towards Employment Award
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• Nominated by Aaina Asian Womens Group, NASHIN
  AKBAR is a young lady who has had to overcome
  many obstacles and barriers to achieve her dream
  of becoming a solicitor. These barriers were
  physical, mental, familial and cultural. Her
  chosen career meant that she had to grow into a
  strong independent young woman, whilst at the
  same time look after her extended family and own
  children. Our winner is still studying and her
  final exams are coming up very soon, after which
  she will be qualified as a solicitor. She has
  inspired many other young
  mothers in the community and is
  a role model for her family.

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The Walsall Centre for Independent Living
Overcoming Adversity Award
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• Nominated by Connexions, CHARLENE DAVIES is from
  the gypsy traveller community and for various
  reasons has spent very little time in education.
  With almost non-existent literacy numeracy
  skills, her confidence was at an all time low
  with the death of her father several years ago.
  Joining the YELP project to address her basic
  skills, she then felt confident enough to join
  the Achieving Together course at Walsall College.
  Since then she has had 100 attendance and is now
  working towards Entry Level 1 Literacy Numeracy
  and is gaining vital life
  skills too. Our winner has
  overcome many barriers in
  her determination to learn.

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The Walsall Centre for Independent Living
Overcoming Adversity Award
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• Nominated by Walsall Centre for Independent
  Living, DAVID HARRIS has had past problems with
  alcohol, solvent and drug abuse and has been free
  from these problems for a considerable time. He
  left school with no qualifications, and he is a
  full-time carer for his mother. His determination
  to turn his lifestyle around and to gain
  qualifications has impressed both tutors and
  other learners. He has recently achieved his
  Level 3 Qualification in IT at Walsall Centre for
  Independent Living, and is working towards more.
  He is still working very hard despite the
  constant negative peer pressure he
  receives outside the
  classroom about him wanting to
  better his life.

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The Walsall Centre for Independent Living
Overcoming Adversity Award
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• Nominated by Connexions, ROGEIRO MUFUTA arrived
  in this country at the age of 12 as an orphan,
  having lost both his parents in war-torn Angola.
  Moving into a single person home at 17, he has
  remained in full time education achieving Level 3
  in BTEC Sports. It has not been easy for our
  winner to study, having to live alone and
  independently, travelling to College, and
  learning English. Having learned some coping
  mechanism with his Connexions advisor, he is now
  one of the first to hand in his assignments
  often getting distinctions.
  He has been awarded
  Student of the Year at College
  and is now undergoing
  trials with Premiership football
  team, Fulham.

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The Black Country Training Group Building Better
People Award
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• Nominated by Walsall Construction Training,
  RAYMOND TONKS is a young man who faced the double
  blow in his early years that his ADHD and poor
  eye sight was not diagnosed, as well as losing
  his father in a terrible accident aged five. With
  no male role model in his life and untreated
  medical conditions, he became poorly behaved at
  school and lost confidence. Joining Walsall
  Construction Training in 2007, through a referral
  from his school, Sneyd, gave this young man a
  chance to achieve against all the odds. He is
  completing the Building Craft Occupations and he
  has gone from a young
  person finding it difficult to
  cope to a shining example
  to his peers.

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The Black Country Training Group Building Better
People Award
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• Nominated by The Electric Palace, NATHAN
  MOOREHOUSE was excluded from school and with no
  qualifications, started mixing with older youths
  and getting into more and more trouble. Having
  felt that he wanted to change his life, he began
  an E2E programme with the Electric Palace, until
  a previous conviction saw him being jailed. On
  release, he knew that he had to change for
  himself, for people he had wronged and also for
  his parents who had supported him. Having done
  many qualifications whilst in prison he then
  began Kickstart again at The
  Electric Palace and excelled
  dramatically, moving on to E2e.
  He is now taking a Level 2
  Sports Leadership course.

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The Walsall College Learning in Employment Award
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• PARK HALL COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION STAFF are a group
  of staff from a Walsall Community Association,
  and their commitment to learning has not only
  resulted in personal and professional
  satisfaction for them, but also recognition of
  quality improvement for the Association. This has
  ranged form achieving Levels 3 4 in Advice and
  Guidance and Levels 3 in Playwork and Childrens
  Care Learning Development. The manager of the
  Association has also just recently achieved a
  first-class honours degree. The
  impact of this learning
  has been a Grade 2
  Ofsted inspection and the reaccreditation of the
  Association for the Matrix
  standard.

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The Walsall College Learning in Employment Award
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• Nominated by Performance through People, TEGAN
  HOWKINS arrived at her first hospitality
  placement as a very shy 16 year old. Now, nine
  years later she has completed Apprenticeships and
  an Advanced Apprenticeship., as well as a range
  of technical certificates in the industry. She
  has matured and moved up through the ranks to be
  in the position to manage her own site.
  Occasionally, her nominator believes that her
  belief in her own ability becomes a stumbling
  block and prevents her from reaching as far as
  she could do, so we hope
  that tonights recognition
  of her commitment to
  work based learning,
  will help to motivate her to take
  the next step in her career.

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Congratulations!
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The Chairmans Award
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• Two years ago, the Chairs Award recognised the
  valued support provided by our friends and
  colleagues at the LSC. Thankfully, that support
  continues, I am pleased to say, as strong as
  ever.
• However, over the last two years another partner
  has stepped up to the plate and shown its
  commitment to WLLA by providing valuable
  resources to enable our work to continue and
  flourish.
• By tasking WLLA to co-ordinate the Increasing
  Skills project as part of the Local Area
  Agreement, this organisation has pledged its
  confidence in WLLA to deliver the targets set. I
  dont think they have been disappointed with what
  we have achieved on the Skills project. Suffice
  to say, we have been resourced for a further two
  years to continue the good work already in place.
• In summary, we have a perfect example of
  partnership working for the benefit of all. The
  bond our partnership brings is stronger now
  than it was two years ago. Both organisations
  continue to move forward.
• To this end, and as recognition of the support
  given to WLLA, The Chairs Award
  this year goes to our colleagues and friends at
  The Walsall Partnership.

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Our Sponsors

• Gratefully Acknowledged

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• Main Sponsors

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Category Sponsors

• Black Country Training Group
• Carver PLC
• Hadens
• New Deal for Communities
• Performance Through People
• Prospects Services Ltd

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Category Sponsors

• Rubery Owen Holdings Ltd
• Steps to Work (Walsall) Ltd
• Walsall Adult Community College
• Walsall Centre for Independent Living

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Category Sponsors

• Walsall College
• Walsall Childrens Services Serco
• Walsall Football Club
• Walsall Partnership