College honours its staff

Furness College has honoured its longest-serving staff and awarded those who have made a significant contribution to the college through their work.

Staff who have worked for more than 25 years at both the Channelside and Rating Lane campuses enjoyed a celebratory lunch this week.
They were joined by winners from the first staff awards who were nominated by others for going above and beyond.

Deputy Principal Nicola Cove, who will lead the college as Principal and CEO from September, said the awards provided a great opportunity to celebrate the amazing work being done at college.

“It’s a fantastic opportunity to celebrate excellence of the staff collectively and all the awards and certificates have been crafted by colleagues for colleagues,” she said.

“We have got some amazing initiatives and amazing staff doing great things across college that and the staff awards offer a great chance to take a step back and recognise these things.”

The event was held at the restaurant at the Channelside campus with the college’s catering and hospitality students serving a delicious lunch of carrot and coriander soup served with freshly-made bread as a starter, minced beef and potato pie, mushy peas and pickles for the main and a key lime pie for desert.

Sue Hannan, who received a long service award, said it was lovely to be recognised for her work with young people across Furness.

“I have had the pleasure of working with some brilliant staff and students in that time and continue to enjoy my role as assistant principal,” she said.

“Being treated to lunch, cooked and served by our current fantastic catering students, was a real treat in the working day.”

Golden lanyards were presented to five staff who had made a contribution to one of the college’s values in the past six months.

Ellie Schofield, BEST Administration Assistant, won the award for excellence for her swift work setting up the new Skills Bootcamp flyers under tight deadlines while Keith Holmes, Business Development Lead won the award for support.

Josh Rogers, Learning Resources Developer, picked up the innovation award for his great work putting together the new video for DFN Project SEARCH and Jonny Swift, Lecturer in Engineering, won the community contribution award for his charity work setting up Bags of Love and raising over £6,000 for Barrow Foodbank.

Olivia Walker, Exams Coordinator scooped the ambition award for her work during a busy exams season, being described as the glue that keeps the exams team together, while Sarah Arnott won the respect category for putting on virtual lessons for her students when she couldn’t be there and going above and beyond for her students.

A full list of long-serving members of staff is below:

Andrew Burns
Elaine McAteer
Gaynor Pearson
Helen Gibson
Jacqueline Hawkins
Julie Cooper
Liz Gibson
Maurice Williams
Paula Gibbons
Paula Eddy
Peter Gabriel
Sarah Hewitt
Sue Hannan
Tina Singleton
Vanessa Clark
Zee Walker
Mo Johnson
Carole Dixon
Steve Buckley
Paul Coulthurst
Carol Blendall
Brian Gibson
Nicole Simpson