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Double national diversity award nomination for Myerscough

Published
Thursday 23 Feb 2017

Two members of Myerscough College staff have been nominated for a prestigious national diversity award.

VAL AND JULIE.png

Val Senior & Julie Youngs

Next month sees at the annual National Centre for Diversity Grand Awards. The evening will celebrate and reward the dedication of the people who continue to make a significant contribution to improving the culture and practices of their organisation.

Myerscough’s Head of Inclusive Learning, Val Senior, has been shortlisted in the category of Most Inspiring Individual of the Year, while Julie Youngs, former Assistant Principal of Student Support & Development, and now the College’s Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Consultant, is nominated for EDI Lead of the Year.

The winners will be revealed at the ceremony on the March 16th in Leeds.

Over the past year Val has led the Inclusive Learning team at the College to actively improve the quality of learning for people with special educational needs and disabilities, both at Myerscough and other institutions across the country. Working with Education and Training Foundation (ETF), the team has developed tools to assist in the delivery of high quality SEND provision, with the overall aim to develop provision and good practice.

Val and her team are experts in their field and provide high quality leadership as well as development, information, advice and guidance. This ensures that learners with SEND are fully engaged in their studies and have ownership of their learner journey.

The Myerscough College SEND project is one of a number of initiatives the department has undertaken and has been recognised as one where best practice is achieved, resulting in the work of Myerscough being shared with other educational institutions in the post-16 education sector across the country. 

Meanwhile Julie has been instrumental in preparing Myerscough to become a leading provider in equality, diversity and inclusion in the education sector. Myerscough already has already achieved the prestigious Stage 2 'Investors in Diversity' award, a quality mark awarded to establishments who strive to improve Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) practices within their organisation. The College was recently assessed again in a bid to become a Leader in Diversity.

Only a handful of colleges nationally have achieved the Leaders in Diversity kitemark. Those achieving the Investors in Diversity Award are enabled to take a structured and planned approach to embedding EDI at the heart of what they do. The College have set up an active Equality & Diversity Good Practice Group and ED&I is also heavily included in staff CPD (Continuing Professional Development).

The National Centre for Diversity aims to advance fairness for all in the workplace by helping organisations to embed best Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) practices. Their goal is to positively influence beliefs, attitudes, behaviour and conduct towards issues surrounding EDI.

For more details about the awards click here: http://www.nationalcentrefordiversity.com/home/award-ceremonies/ncfd-grand-awards-2017/

by Dave Salmon

DSalmon@myerscough.ac.uk