IT Training Awards 09 Celebrates Outstanding Achievement
London (UK), March 2009 - The Institute of IT Training Awards for 2009 were presented in early February at a gala dinner held at The Dorchester in London. Despite the bad weather around the country, a capacity audience of over 450 people attended this year's awards. The event included an address by Ann Mogridge, a ChildLine counsellor, who spoke about her counselling work with the ChildLine charity for children in trouble or danger, for which the Institute raised £10,900 in its annual Charity Auction. This brought the total raised by the Institute for the charity to £150,000.
The blue ribbon award for the Training Company of the Year was won by Happy Computers. It was a popular choice with the packed audience. The company also won the IT Trainer of the Year Awards when Chair of Judges Alan Bellinger announced Ed Lepre as the Gold Award winner. Another company scooping up two awards was Cheshire NHS ICT Service, whose internal training team won Training Department of the Year (Public Sector) and the Internal Training Project of the Year.
The Staff Development Programme of the Year award was won by HSBC. The award, sponsored by LLUK, was presented by David Hunter, Chief Executive of LLUK. He told a packed audience: "LLUK, your sector skills council, strongly supports the initiatives of the Institute ensuring that this important sector has trainers and managers with appropriate qualifications and standards, enabling their recognition as true professionals."
The new category of award, recognising best examples of Innovation in Learning Services was won by the US company Toolwire, who had flown in a team from the US for the event.
The Colin Corder Award for an outstanding contribution to IT training went to Brian Sutton. This was an extremely well-received announcement, with Brian walking to the stage to a standing ovation. In his speech announcing the Colin Corder award, Colin Steed, Institute chief executive highlighted Sutton's outstanding contribution to the industry.
In further addressing the audience at the awards ceremony, Colin Steed said: "The annual IT Training Awards honour those individuals and organisations who really shone in the past year, and we are here to celebrate their achievements tonight. Recent economic times have been tough for everyone in IT departments, and particularly for those working for IT training providers."
"But once again the quality of the entries has been higher than ever, which demonstrates that the industry is pushing forward and creating higher-quality, measurable, business-aligned learning solutions. I would like to congratulate everyone who entered the awards, every one of the finalists, and of course those who have won these prestigious awards."
