Excellence Awards 2022 - closing soon!

You have until Friday to get nominations in for the SERC Excellence Awards 2022!

At SERC we feel it is important to give recognition to students who exemplify excellence, celebrating their achievements, their impact, and their contributions both academically and in their extra-curricular activities. We also feel it is important to recognise our staff who transform the lives of many aspiring professionals and help them on their path to their chosen careers.

The College’s 2022 Excellence Awards will give us the chance to recognise and celebrate the community at SERC. The first award ceremony to take place in 3 years will see a rebranded, revamped and rejuvenated Excellence Awards, which will also feature many new award categories.

Nominations close at 15.30 on Friday 11 November. 

The award information and links to nomination forms are below:

FE Student of the year

FE Student of the year will be awarded to one student per school, per campus, as well as one overall campus winner. Nominees for FE student of the year should demonstrate or have demonstrated;

• A positive contribution to their class
• Good attendance
• Good initiative
• Collaborating well with staff and fellow students

Nominations can also include any other supportive information that demonstrates the student’s exemplary year of excellence, such as their commitment to learning in the face of a challenge or enhancing the student experience.

Please click here for a nomination form for FE Student of the year.

HE Student of the year

HE Student of the year will be awarded to one student per school, per campus, as well as one overall campus winner. This award is open to any student from any course level 4 or higher such as HND's, HNC's, Foundation Degree's, Degree's and HLA's. Nominees for HE student of the year should demonstrate or have demonstrated;

A positive contribution to their class

Good attendance

Good initiative

Collaborating well with staff and fellow students

Good contribution to their employer's workforce (in the case of a HLA submission)

Nominations can also include any other supportive information that demonstrates the student’s exemplary year of excellence, such as their commitment to learning in the face of a challenge or enhancing the student experience.

Please click here for a nomination form for HE Student of the year.

Apprenticeship Student of the year

Apprenticeship Student of the year is open to level 2 and 3 apprentices and will be awarded to one student per school, per campus, as well as one overall campus winner. Nominees for Apprenticeship Student of the year should demonstrate or have demonstrated;

• A positive contribution to their class
• Good attendance
• Good initiative
• Collaborating well with staff and fellow students
• Good contribution their employers work force
• Good feedback from their employer

Nominations can also include any other supportive information that demonstrates the student’s exemplary year of excellence, such as their commitment to learning in the face of a challenge or enhancing the student experience.

Please click here for a nomination form for Apprenticeship Student of the year.

Trainee Student of the year

In addition to having one overall winner per campus this category will also feature three sub category winners-

• Traineeship student of the year
• Skills for Work student of the year (traineeship predecessor)
• Skills for Life and Work student of the year

Each of these sub categories will have one winner per represented school. Nominees for Trainee Student of the year should demonstrate or have demonstrated:

• A positive contribution to their class
• Good attendance
• Good initiative
• Collaborating well with staff and fellow students
• Good contribution during their work placement (if applicable)
• Good feedback from their placement employer (if applicable) 

Nominations can also include any other supportive information that demonstrates the student’s exemplary year of excellence, such as their commitment to learning in the face of a challenge or enhancing the student experience.

Please click here for a nomination form for Trainee Student of the year.

Students’ Union Class Rep of the year

This student will be a current, elected Class Rep and registered as such with SERCSU. This student will have positively fulfilled their role as a Class Rep by:

• Successfully representing their peers and programme of study on a local and departmental level through regular attendance at SU Class Rep meetings and programme meetings.
• They will have made an outstanding effort to communicate, engage and consult with their peers and assured that the student voice was represented to the College.

Please click here for a nomination form for Students' Union Class Rep of the year.

Students’ Union Officer of the year

This student will be a current elected Officer on their campus Students’ Union. They will have made a positive change to the student experience at SERC demonstrated by:

• Developing or contributing to SERCSU campaigns on Equality, Liberation, health and wellbeing or student voice.
• Developed or supported the formation of clubs, societies, and events on their campus.
• Represented the student voice on Internal committees such as the Equality Committee, Health and Safety committee or Higher Education Review Board.
• Is easy to approach and attentive to peers’ needs and comments
• Is passionate about their role and wants the best experience for students on the course.
• Has excelled at their role while balancing other life commitments.

Please click herefor a nomination form for Students' Union Officer of the year.

Excellence in Project Work

This student or students will have demonstrated exemplary skills and ability in their Project-Based Learning assignments. They will have demonstrated excellence in the Transversal Skills, particularly;

• Working with Others (great teamwork)
• Problem Solving & Decision Making 
• Self-Management (i.e. time management, resilience, risk & self-initiative)  
• Work Professionalism (Consistent work on their project up until its completion) 

Please click here for a nomination form for the Excellence in Project Work award.

Student Company of the year

Our student company of the year will be a current SERC Student Company and will have demonstrated excellence in the following categories 

• Innovation 
• Entrepreneurial progression or positive social outcomes
• Business acumen  
• Sustainability   

Please click here for a nomination form for Student Company of the year.

Entrepreneur of the year

Our Entrepreneur of the year will be a student who demonstrates the ability to or is currently excelling in the world of enterprise. They will show excellence in the following categories.

• Business acumen
• Innovation
• Commitment to networking
• Progression of a business or social enterprise idea

Please click here for a nomination form for Entrepreneur of the year.

Eco Committee Member of the year

Being eco-friendly and sustainable is more important than ever. The Eco Committee Member of the year award will recognise a student who exemplifies the progressive thinking and actions required to help the College become more sustainable and greener in everything we do. The Eco Committee Member of the year will have displayed excellence by:

• Working with our Eco Committee  
• Proactively identifying ways that the College can become more sustainable 
• Following through on the work required to turn eco ideas into reality
• Involving and consulting relevant stakeholders in eco projects  
• Supporting and promoting existing Go Green initiatives, such as Suited & Booted or the Zero Shop 

Please click here for a nomination form for Eco Committee Member of the year.

Unsung Hero of the year

This award is open to all staff at SERC, including academic, non-academic, support services, cleaning, and estates staff.

Is there a member of staff who is your unsung hero? Someone without whom you wouldn’t be where you are right now? This member of staff will have gone above and beyond to help you. In short, they have gone the extra mile!

All staff at SERC contribute towards the student experience and this award is to recognise the hard work of all those who exceed expectations to achieve this. This can be any staff member, even if they aren’t associated with a specific school.

Please click here for a nomination form for Unsung Hero of the year.

Lecturer of the year

Developing, training and teaching the next generation of professionals is what we aim to do here at SERC. While preparing our aspiring professionals for the world of work, our team of industry expert lecturers often go above and beyond and it is important to recognise their exceptional impact. The Lecturer of the year will have:

• Helped inspire an individual or a group
• Gone above and beyond the expectation of their students in order to help the class achieve
• Helped a student reach heights they never expected
• Helped to make a student or students experience at the college a great and memorable one

Please click here for a nomination form for Lecturer of the year.

Nomination forms are to be completed no later than 11 February. 

We look forward to the return of a new and improved Excellence Award Ceremony and hope you can join us. The dates for the awards are as follows:      

• 29 March 2022 – Lisburn Sports Hall- Lisburn and Ballynahinch campuses      
• 30 March 2022 – Bangor Sports Hall- Bangor, Newtownards and Holywood campuses        
• 31 March 2022 – Downpatrick Sports Hall – Downpatrick, and Newcastle campuses