Joanne Danielle Singh was presented Skills for Business Excellence Award by Tulay Rashid, Assistant Director for Young People’s College and Motivational Tutoring 

A mini Oscar-style ceremony honoured 47 excellent students, four dedicated members of staff and six employers who work in partnership with CONEL. The sixth annual CONEL Excellence Awards took place in front of a packed auditorium on November 27 at the Bernie Grant Arts Centre in South Tottenham.

Joanne Danielle Singh is one of the 47 student stars. She was presented with the Skills for Business Excellence Award. Joanne is currently looking forward to moving on to university. She has struggled with some serious personal challenges and could have dropped out of College. But with the support of her tutor, she has been able to successfully complete her course and is ready for higher education. Her internship in a City bank has helped her to develop her skills and employability. She demonstrated that with commitment and motivation, it has been possible to achieve her objectives, regardless of the circumstances she faced. 

Employer Excellence Awards were presented to St John of God Care Services, Hightrees Residential Care Home, Spitalfields Housing Association and TA Horn. These organisations work with CONEL for vocational training to ensure that their employees have the skills they need to do their jobs effectively and to develop their careers. Several of the College’s partner employers provide valuable feedback for the development of courses.

CONEL’s Principal and Chief Executive, Paul Head, said, “Among the award winners are many students who have made amazing journeys to achieve this success. Their stories tell us how hard they have worked to reach their goals and make their dreams real.” He added, “The CONEL staff who are being honoured here tonight represent the most fantastic group of people that I could have the privilege to lead.”

Members of staff honoured at the event included Rene Petrousse, caretaker at CONEL’s Tottenham Green Centre, who was chosen as Support Staff Member of the Year. Teacher of the Year is Melike Asan and Nihaad Kapdi is Vocational Tutor of the Year. Staff Member of the Year, Gulshen Raif, has worked at the College for 20 years. Her school attained a Grade One in this year’s Ofsted inspection and Gulshen made an important contribution to CONEL achieving the Training Quality Standard, with Excellence in her area of Adult Social Care. This award demonstrates to employers that they can trust CONEL to deliver high quality training to their workforce.

Master of Ceremonies for the evening was Action Jackson, owner of Fixup Seminars. The guest speaker was Leroy Logan MBE of the Metropolitan Police Service, who is Community Engagement Manager at the 2012 Olympic Security Directorate.