MP congratulates SERC on new accolade

Lagan Valley MP Jeffery Donaldson this week praised SERC on winning a prestigious Beacon award for Effective Use of Technology in Further Education. Mr Donaldson is pictured with Dr Michael Malone, SERC Director of Curriculum and Information Services, Michelle Devlin Head of School of Health, Early Years and Adult Education and representatives from the Colleges Pedagogy, Essential Skills and MILT team who designed and developed the winning project.

To celebrate the win, ahead of the national awards ceremony, SERC held a local awards presentation to showcase the areas for which they were recognised for the award.

The National Presentation Awards Ceremony will take place on 10 February in Westminster with Nick Boles MP, Minister of State for Skills, presenting the awards.

Mr Donaldson was guest speaker at the event; he said: “It is a real pleasure to be here today and I would like to congratulate SERC on winning the prestigious Beacon award which recognises the Colleges outstanding work in areas of innovation and excellent practice.”

The College received the Beacon Award in November for a project which helps students gain Essential Skills. The award for Effective Use of Technology in FE, sponsored by Jisc, was given for the BLADES programme, which helps students to gain literacy and numeracy and ICT skills as well as enhancing their digital literacy skills.

It received the prestigious Beacon Award from the Association of Colleges, the membership organisation for further education colleges. The awards celebrate colleges which demonstrate excellent teaching and innovative thinking in the further education sector in creating positive opportunities for both staff and students.

SERC Director of Curriculum and Information Services Dr Michael Malone said, “The College is delighted that the pedagogy mentoring programme has been recognised with such a prestigious award.

The benefits for Essential Skills tutors and their learners is evident with achievement rates increasing by 13%. This award recognises the many ways in which SERC are leading the sector in the use of digital technologies”

Dame Pat Bacon, Chair of the Beacon Awards, said: “SERC is an outstanding representative of the excellent work happening in colleges across the country.

“The staff ought to be very proud of achieving this Award and the students and community should be equally proud that ‘their’ local College continues to deliver to the highest standards.”