News story

IT Training Award Winners Announced

Coventry, UKLearning NewsLPI (Learning and Performance Institute)

The winners of the annual IT Training Awards were announced in front of 400 top industry professionals at a gala Awards ceremony held in London on Thursday evening

The Learning & Development industry turned out in force on Thursday evening (3 February 2011) in support of the IITT’s annual Awards ceremony, the IT Training Awards 2011. A host of leading industry figure heads joined Awards finalists within the Grand Hall at the Dorchester Hotel, London to pay tribute to the learning community’s outstanding achievements.

A couple of standout categories included Training Company of the Year which was won for a second year in a row by Verridian. The category for Training Department of the Year, which was dominated by a host of household names including Boots, British Airways and Bupa, was won by Ricoh UK.

This year’s Learning Technologies Award was one of the most fiercely competitive categories of the night, with a record number of entrants. Toolwire, a global leader in experiential learning solutions, was delighted to being announced as this year’s winner. Reflecting on the achievement, John Valencia, President and CEO of Toolwire said: “Toolwire is extremely proud that the IITT chose to recognise our Immersive Learning Environments for these prestigious awards. These solutions embody our co-creation methodology and significant commitment to instructional design disciplines. We are working hard to combine the latest thinking in instructional design with innovative new learning technologies.”

Also in attendance at the Awards was ChildLine founder Esther Rantzen. Ms Rantzen was on hand to present possibly the most poignant Award of the night which belonged to IITT Chief Executive, Colin Steed. Mr Steed was made an NSPCC Patron in recognition of the IITT’s fundraising efforts, which amounted to over £200,000 for the helpline service.

Commenting on the Institute’s support of ChildLine and the success of the Awards, Steed said: “We are proud to have raised such an amount for ChildLine and would like to thank everyone who has helped us to accomplish it over the last 9 years. That includes the dedicated IITT team, all of the individuals and organisations that have sponsored auction prizes, as well as everyone who has bid on items over the years. It costs £1600 to recruit and train a volunteer ChildLine counsellor and ChildLine needs many more - that has been our motivation. There are now many ChildLine counsellors in place because of the generosity of the IITT Charity Auction participants.

“The Awards continue to be a cherished event for the learning community. The ceremony provides an opportunity for the industry to get together to celebrate and appreciate the fantastic work of so many individuals and organisations.”

A complete list of the Award winners is as follows:

Training Company of the Year – Sponsored by Prometric
Winner: Verridian

Training Department of the Year – Sponsored by Element K
Winner: Ricoh UK

Internal Training Project of the Year – Sponsored by SAS UK
Winner: Simmons & Simmons

External Training Project of the Year - Sponsored by Ricoh Europe (Netherlands) BV
Winner: Redtray & Royal Mail Group

Training Venue of the Year
Winner: The Møller Centre

Trainer of the Year – Sponsored by BCS
Winner: Nadya Nathan, Happy Computers

Training Manager of the Year – Sponsored by Redtray
Winner: Denise Hudson-Lawson, Parliamentary ICT

Staff Development Programme of the Year - Sponsored by The Open University
Winner: Nationwide Building Society

Freelance Trainer of the Year
Winner: Sheena Whyatt, Lightning Training

Training Department of the Year (Public Sector) - Sponsored by 2e2 UK
Winner: Guys & St Thomas NHS Foundation Trust, IT Training Department

Innovation in Training Services Award – Sponsored by Toolwire
Winner: The Open University

The Colin Corder Award – Sponsored by IITT
Winner: Charles Jennings

Learning Technologies Solution of the Year – Sponsored by Microsoft
Winner: Toolwire

Instructional Designer of the Year – Sponsored by IITT
Winner: Michael Watkins, Toolwire

For a full list of Award winners visit: www.thetrainingprofessional.com