CDN Awards Success for Glasgow Clyde College

Glasgow Clyde College was shortlisted in five categories at this year’s CDN Awards, with the winners announced at a ceremony on 30 November.

Employer Connections Award - Highly Commended

Glasgow Clyde College is the only college in the UK to offer HNC Occupational Therapy Support (OTS). A unique course has been developed for people who are already working within the NHS in support roles, in order for them to achieve a Level 7 CPD course. This aims to enable students completing the course to access registered Allied Health Profession programmes of study at a higher level. NHS staff are placed on ‘bands’ within the organisation and completing this HNC Occupational Therapy Support course allows staff to plan their future progression into higher level roles. 

Glasgow Clyde College worked with NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde to provide a new course specifically to train Health Care Support Workers, with a work-friendly attendance pattern.

The success of this course has led to interest from across the country. This joint working and closer collaboration between NHS and college staff has been invaluable in facilitating the development of a workable, and scalable, model of course delivery, satisfying the training needs of both employer and employees.

Image shows L-R Victoria Parker-Gray, OTC Lecturer and Shirley McCuish, Curriculum Manager, Healthcare and Social Services 

Innovation Award - Highly Commended

Glasgow Clyde College's healthcare department, based at Anniesland Campus, devised a ‘Breastfeeding Awareness’ session for S4-S6 pupils attending local secondary schools. The breastfeeding awareness session is an innovative and inspiring project which aimed to engage with young people to raise awareness of the benefits of breastfeeding. The project promotes the health and wellbeing of the community, ultimately encouraging young people to become advocates for breastfeeding awareness and promote positive health behaviours in their communities. 

Image shows Rosemary Stewart, Curriculum Manager Healthcare (Anniesland Campus)

Skills Development Award - Highly Commended

‘My Stories’ is a cutting-edge technology resource which has been developed to provide a more interactive museum experience at the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum which launched in February 2023. It is an educational resource for schools, colleges and youth groups and was developed to encourage those groups who might not usually visit museums to visit with an enhanced experience. ‘My Stories’ encourages participants to work in small groups using a tablet guide to move around the museum, taking part in tasks, games and challenges as they go. Users then reflect on their experience and identify skills that they demonstrated on their visit.

Glasgow Clyde College Prince’s Trust students had the opportunity to participate in developing the My Stories experience, initially helping to design the contents and materials to make ‘My Stories’ user friendly and test run the programmes to support the ‘My Stories’ experience.  This opportunity helped the museum to develop the resource and also helped the students to develop a range of skills in the process. 

Image shows Thomas Walker, Prince's Trust Team Leader (Langside Campus)

Marketing and Communications Award - Highly Commended

Glasgow Clyde College recruits annually for a programme of short, 18-week, full-time courses starting in January. Recruitment generally starts in October. Good January recruitment can be key to the College meeting funding targets.

The College needs to differentiate the January offering from the August recruitment campaign, particularly once August courses open in January, as the recruitment campaigns end up overlapping. A creative solution was required.

To help the January courses stand out, and knowing that course names can sometimes be a barrier for prospective students, we decided to temporarily change our course titles to align with careers that we know young people want to pursue.

Supported with PR, the updated course names drove increased traffic to the website and resulted in the college exceeding recruitment for the previous year, and leading to it meeting its credit target at an earlier stage of the year than usual. 

Image shows L-R Lynne McInnes, Head of Marketing and Communications and Nicola Meredith, PR and Communications Co-ordinator

Health and Wellbeing Award - Commended

The health and wellbeing of staff and students is a key priority at Glasgow Clyde College. To support this, a Health and Wellbeing Officer post dedicated to targeting the health and wellbeing priorities of staff was introduced. The role was tasked with focusing on developing health and wellbeing resources, as well as an ongoing programme of initiatives across the three college campuses for staff.

The impact of the role has led to a greater programme of activities being made available to staff, and greater engagement in these activities, as well as the development of a dedicated ‘Health and Wellbeing’ intranet page, containing a range of resources.

There is a more proactive and open culture in the College around wellbeing, paving the way for a healthier future, with many sharing their personal stories and supporting each other, making it easier for staff and students to access support when they need it. This programme utilises the assets of the College in terms of facilities and the skills of our students and staff. It also utilises skills of our external partners, many of which offer free or part funded initiatives, culminating in the creation of a comprehensive, and financially sustainable, wellbeing programme.

Image shows Kirsten Amis, Mental Health Lead 

Main image shows (Back) L-R Rosemary Stewart, Victoria Parker-Gray, Lynne McInnes, Nicola Meredith, Thomas Walker, John Rafferty (Deputy Principal), Shirley McCuish. (Front) Julie Wales (CQL Faculty of Health and Wellbeing) and Kirsten Amis.