Grant Taylor, Head of Sector - Essential Skills, and his team (pictured above) has won the Essential Skills Award while Amanda Allan, WCS Student and now staff member, has been named Student Citizen 2016 (pictured below).

Amanda, from Paisley, is studying Science at our Greenock Campus and also working as a technician in the College’s labs.  Her success means this is the second year in a row a West College Scotland student has won this award.

The judges said Amanda’s “determination to succeed and enthusiasm to help and support others has resulted in a wide range of key achievements”. They went on to say how impressed they were with her leadership skills and her many accomplishments.

Twenty-one-year-old Amanda joined the College from school in 2013 and graduated this year with an HNC in Applied Science, while also working and studying for a Modern Apprenticeship as a Laboratory Technician at the College.  She hopes to go on to study Biomedical Science at university.

Amanda is also a passionate ambassador for her subject, regularly volunteering to visit schools and youth groups to encourage young people to consider studying science.  She is especially passionate about engaging nursery and primary school children in science and even designs fun experiments for them.

Commenting on her award, Amanda said:

I am absolutely thrilled to have won this award. I love science, I love learning about it, and I love engaging young people in it.  I have a lot of people to thank for this award, not least the lecturers and staff at West College Scotland who have supported me since I joined.

Sharon Gardiner, who is the Head of Sector for Sciences, said

Amanda is a wonderful asset for our College and a true ambassador for science. Having such a positive role model is fantastic for her fellow students and the school pupils she works with.  Amanda has engaged and enthused so many people. We are very proud of her and we know she will go far.

Our College also won the Essential Skills Award, which was presented Grant. It recognises the introduction at the College of the most imaginative and inspiring ways of allowing students to develop the relevant essential skills which will, eventually, help them get a job.

College Principal, Audrey Cumberford, said:

Everyone at the College is delighted to win these very important awards. We are very proud of all our staff and students involved.

These awards show that we are a College at the very top of its game.