NCWE Awards 2005/6

The NCWE Awards aim to encourage and reward organisations that offer exceptional work experience to higher education students. These prestigious awards recognise organisations that have put thought, time and effort into helping students develop employability skills, as well as recognising that employing a student could have discernible benefits to their business.

Anyone can nominate an employer for an award - a student, graduate, careers adviser, or the employer themselves.

This year's awards were held in February at The Brewery in London. Due to the success of previous year's events we had seven categories organisations could be eligible for. The award categories were:

• Best Work Experience Provider - Over 250 Employees - sponsored by George at Asda
• Best Work Experience Provider - 10 - 250 Employees
• Best Work Experience Provider - Under 10 Employees
• Best Public Sector Work Experience Provider
• Best Charitable Sector Work Experience Provider
• Best Work Experience Provider - As nominated by a Student
• Best Work Experience Provider - As nominated by a Careers Adviser/Placement Tutor

Thanks to our major sponsors PricewaterhouseCoopers

Winners

This year awards have finally come to a close, the winners have now been announced and have been presented with their awards and the finalists have received their certificates. NCWE would like to say a huge thank you to all that entered and hope that we will receive another entry from you for next year's awards.

The awards day consisted of lunch at the Brewery in London followed by speeches from Mike Hill (Chief Executive of Graduate Prospects), Liz Rhodes (Director of NCWE) and Dr Steven Hood (GlaxoSmithKline) who was a member of our judging panel. Following this the winners were announced.

The winners (listed below) all received a certificate and a glass award designed by Manchester based designer Jodi Wright. There were also some special awards given to those who we felt should be highly commended or have an honorable recognition for their involvement in work experience to students. All finalists also received a certificate marking their achievement of reaching the final.

Final Results

Best Work experience provider - as Nominated by a student

Winner: Toyota

Nominated by Lyndsey McAndrews, The Nottingham Trent University

Best Work Experience provider - as nominated by as Careers Advisor

Winner: Intel

Nominated by Dorothy James, Placements Manager at University of West of England

Best Work Experience provider - Public sector

Winner: Learning & Skills Council

• Honorable Recognition: BBC
• Highly Commended: Yorkshire Forward

Best Work experience provider - Charitable sector

Winner: Cancer Research UK

Highly Commended: Groundwork Oldham and Rochdale

Best Work Experience provider - Under 10 Employees

Winner: Best Kept Secrets

Highly Commended: Emmerline 4 Re

Best Work Experience provider - 10-250 employees

Winner: CHA

• Highly Commended: Arjo Wiggins
• Highly Commended: Touch Paper Software

Best Work Experience provider - Over 250 employees

Winner: BP plc

• Judges Commendation: National Grid

Over all Best Work Experience provider 2005/06

Winner: Best Kept Secrets

Finally NCWE would like to thank everyone for their support for the work of the NCWE, and the promotion of quality work experience is very much appreciated. We were pleased to see the high response and high quality of the entries that we received for the Awards this year, and they are now a pivotal part of the work of the NCWE, helping organisations to realise and be rewarded for their efforts in employing and developing students.

If you would like to be informed when next years awards have been launched please email workexperience@prospects.ac.uk