Springvale Employment and Learning have held their Awards Ceremony in the newly restored St Comgall’s.
Speaking at the ceremony, Clement Athanasiou, Director of Apprenticeships, Careers and Vocational Education Division, Department for the Economy, said: "Today we celebrate the achievements of all the vocational training programme participants and apprentices as they end one stage of learning and move forward on their career pathways.
"My congratulations go to the dedicated team at Springvale Learning, who demonstrate their commitment to delivering for their young people, the local community and our economy on a daily basis."
Springvale also had the pleasure of some special guests at their Awards Ceremony including Sean Grant and John Paul Taggart from Core Impact who gave a very inspirational talk to the guests about how they created their business. They also had a few laughs local comedian Paddy McDonnell took to the stage to tell us his story of how he got to where he is today.
Springvale Learning has been delivering vocational courses and apprenticeships for over 30 years and continues to be a key player in upskilling young people and working with local employers to grow and develop their talented workforce.
This recent award ceremony allowed them to celebrate their rising stars and learners of the year from both the Training for Success/Skills for Life and Work programme and the Apprenticeships NI Programme with young people across their vocational areas, their families, local community and business partners, funders and staff in attendance.
Springvale added that these fully funded courses would not be possible without the funders, which included the Department for the Economy who fund our Training for Success/Skills for life and Work Programme and Apprenticeships NI. The European Social Fund Youth Start programme, UK Community Renewal Youth Start, and TEO Communities in Transition programme.
Excellence and quality are the key drivers behind our ambition for each student. It is the effort, focus and determination of our staff and students which brings us together today."
Jordan Barr Youth Team Project Co-ordinator commented: “Our Youth Start Programme has helped over 60 young people achieve over 250 qualifications between them.
"Our employability elements programme has helped 23 young people undertake qualifications in employability with over 50 per cent entering employment and a further 5 per cent entering training.
"Our work ready programme helped 40 young people under 16 participate in the employability programme and have now been placed in paid work placements.”
Marcus Benkirane Director of Operations at Springvale Learning added: “We pride ourselves on the excellent relationships between staff, students and employers.
"Our core values of inclusion, passion, respect, integrity, quality and success underpin all that we do.
"My focus has been to ensure that Springvale is a student centred organisation, and every effort is made to bring about positive and successful outcomes for all our students and today we are here to celebrate and award our students for their achievements”.
Marcus said that they set high expectations for their students and put in place everything they need to bring about success and positive outcomes.
"Excellence and quality are the key drivers behind our ambition for each student. It is the effort, focus and determination of our staff and students which brings us together today," he continued.
"On behalf of the Board, Management Team and all the staff of Springvale, I would like to congratulate our students on their hard work, dedication and focus and wish them all the best for a successful future!”
A special mention goes out to Thomas McAuley, a young student who started his journey with Springvale as a joiner and is now studying Digital Media which will help him to develop a career in his passion of music.
Springvale are so proud of this young man and decided he deserved an Outstanding Talent Award. Thomas, who taught himself to play the keyboard has taken the media by storm after playing Robert Miles iconic dance tune “Children” on his Keyboard in front of thousands of young people at Féile an Phobail on Monday 9 August. So it was only apt that he closed the Springvales Awards ceremony with a classic from Queen.
If you are a student leaving school this year why not give Springvale a call and visit their state-of-the-art facilities and enrol in one of their vocational courses which span across joinery, plumbing, catering, hairdressing and barbering, beauty, digital media, computer technology, health and social care, business administration, warehousing and storage, retail and customer service and childcare.
