Home > News > February 2006 > 07-Feb-2006

Institute of IT Training Awards 2006

A capacity audience of over 400 people attended this year's Institute of IT Training's IT Training Awards held last week at The Dorchester, London.

The event, sponsored by MWB Business Exchange, was hosted and presented by television broadcaster Lucy Alexander.

According to Chair of the judges Professor Peter Ford, the standard of this year's entries was again at an all time high. "Since the Institute started the Awards, we have witnessed a continual rise in the standard and quality of the entries," he said.

The winner of the Training Company of the Year award went to The Training Camp. In their feedback report, the judging panel said that The Training Camp really bring a fresh approach to the IT training market place.

"They have taken a different approach in terms of delivery methodology and product development with a focus on the holistic experience of learning. Scaleable, robust business management systems have allowed Training Camp to expand its operation and reach without significant additional investment in sales or marketing achieving profitable growth at the fastest rate for this industry. It is a worthy winner of the highest accolade in the industry - Training Provider of the Year 2006." Happy Computers took the Silver and last year's winner QA took the Bronze.

Michelle Mook, a former NHS trainer now with Matrix FortyTwo, was presented with the Trainer of the Year award. Colin Steed, chief executive of the Institute of IT Training, said: "We had a record number of entries for this award and this category again was the most difficult to judge for the panel. According to the judges, any one of the finalists could have won - and deserved to be recognised by their employers."

News International won the Training Department of the Year award. The judging panel commented: "News International began the year with a team of 4 trainers delivering training to meet a wide variety of project-driven needs. As well as responding with measurable success to some very business critical training, they have developed their own quality assurance process, e-learning materials and TNA process, while at the same time remaining very business-focused, and in touch with departmental requirements. As a result, against an atmosphere of tight costs, their contribution to the business has been valued and recognised resulting in the team being expanded to 8 members." Centrica took the Silver and Portsmouth City Council won the Bronze.

The e-Learning Project of the Year award was won by Tata Interactive Systems & Zurich Financial Services. The judges reported: "This innovative e-Learning/ knowledge management/ performance support project for Zurich Financial Services was outstanding in the way in which it tackled a critical business need with an innovative integrated approach. It was an extremely well implemented programme that is ground-breaking in terms of its context and scope, and has enormous potential as an architecture into which other content can be incorporated."

The Internal Training Project of the Year award was won by Belfast City Council for a project that tackled the introduction of a new city-wide Leisure Service.

The External Training Project of the Year award was won by The Ultimate People Company & The William Hill Organisation. The judging panel commented: "Using their people, processes and technology approach, Upco developed an outstanding end to end training programme for William Hill software development employees as they moved from a 3rd generation development environment to the world of OO and Java. The extremely comprehensive, work-based programme covered not just the technical, but also the critical people issues which arise in such a transition."

Learning Centre of the Year was awarded to the Pitman Training Centre, EC2, while Staffordshire County Council beat off strong competition to take the Staff Development Programme of the Year award.

Training Manager of the Year was awarded to Julie Cassin, Training Manager of Ernst & Young. The judging panel reported: "Julie has outstanding leadership qualities and has become a vital part of the Ernst & Young operation."

Julia Emelogu won the Freelance Trainer of the Year award. The judging panel commented: "Julia demonstrates drive, passion and professionalism in all areas of training. In so doing, Julia has demonstrated her competence as both a business person and a freelance trainer. She has the utmost respect for and from her clients evidenced by the strength of her client relationships. She is a credit to the freelance trainer profession and is a most worthy winner of the Freelance Trainer of the Year Award 2006."

The Chief Executive's Commendation was awarded to The Cabinet Office & Parity Training. This award is presented on the recommendation of the judging panels for a particularly outstanding project or service which does not fit neatly into any one of the Award Categories.

The Colin Corder Award, presented in recognition of outstanding services to IT training, was won by Bob Mosher. Mosher, Microsoft's Director of Learning and Strategic Evangelism for Learning, was unable to be at the Awards Dinner due to a prior speaking engagement in the US and so accepted the award via a video presentation. He will be presented with his award at the Institute's National Trainer's Conference in May.

The IT Training Award winners on the night are listed below:

Training Company of the Year

• Gold: The Training Camp
• Silver: Happy Computers
• Bronze: QA

Training Department of the Year

• Gold: News International
• Silver: Centrica ICT Education & Training
• Bronze: Portsmouth City Council

Internal Training Project of the Year

• Gold: Belfast City Council
• Silver: East Sussex County Council
• Bronze: National Grid

External Training Project of the Year

• Gold: The Ultimate People Company & William Hill
• Silver: PPI Learning/Computacenter, ODPM & Dept of Transport
• Bronze: QA, Skillsoft & Nestle

e-Learning Project of the Year

• Gold: Tata Interactive Systems & Zurich Financial Services
• Silver: Intuition & NHS
• Bronze: Alpha Airports Group & Skillsoft

Learning Centre of the Year

• Gold: Pitman Training Centre, EC2
• Silver: Pitman Training Centre, High Holborn
• Bronze: Prudential & Skillsoft

Staff Development Programme of the Year

• Gold: Staffordshire County Council
• Silver: EMC Global Education
• Bronze: Mental Health Tribunal for Scotland

Training Manager of the Year

• Gold: Julie Cassin, Ernst & Young
• Silver: Lucie Thomas, University of Glamorgan
• Bronze: Karren Graham, SJ Berwin

Trainer of the Year

• Gold: Michelle Mook, Matrix FortyTwo
• Silver: Andrew Driver, Parity Training
• Bronze: Gary Uffendell, QA

Freelance Trainer of the Year

• Gold: Julia Emelogu

Chief Executive's Commendation

• The Cabinet Office & Parity Training

The Colin Corder Award

• Bob Mosher

More from Training Reference

Visit our awards feature for information and news about UK learning, training and development awards.

Training and development books

Discover books on a variety of training and development topics at the Training Reference Bookshop

Source suppliers

Visit the Training Reference Directory to view supplier details for a wide range of courses, products and services.

Sponsored links

Back to top