Shrewsbury Town in the Community’s education students success was recently celebrated in a special evening, aimed at highlighting the achievements of everyone within the education provision over the past academic year.
The awards night, ran by Shrewsbury Town in the Community trustee and former head teacher Ryan Jervis, featured participants from the BTEC in Football and Education, Foundation Degree, BSc (Hons) top-up degree and traineeship programmes who have excelled across the year.
The first part of the night reflected on the work and success of those who studied on Shrewsbury Town in the Community’s new 19-24 year old traineeship programme, offering those who are either unemployed or working less than 16 hours per week the opportunity to gain vital skills and work experience to help an individual work with sport and their local community over the duration of a 10 week programme.
Three of our 2018 traineeship graduates were on hand to collect their certificates and qualifications from Education and Inclusion Development Manager Jade Hibbert, with student Mel Greenwood being named Trainee of the Year for her dedication, hard work and self development over the course of the programme.
Joe Perrins, Functional Skills Leader for the traineeship programme, was also praised on the night for his involvement throughout the programme and dedication to ensuring the trainee’s achieved their qualifications.
The next part of the night saw year 1 and 2 students from the BTEC in Football and Education course acknowledged. The programme provides school leavers with the chance to gain coaching qualifications, represent Shrewsbury Town Football Club in a National Development League and become prepared for their next move, whether that move be into the world of work or onto further education at a higher level.
All of those who had completed their retrospective years on the programme were awarded with their certificates, before individual students were celebrated for their achievements over the year. Gareth Foulkes and Emmanuel Onsong were awarded the Year 1 and Year 2 BTEC student of the year awards respectively, whilst Billy Lanham swooped for the prestigious player’s player of the year award, with Robbie Morris collecting the equally prestigious coach’s player of the year. Captain Nathan Gregson saw his goal tally for the season meant he collected the top goalscorer award, with Nathan Fleetwood rounding up the BTEC section of the awards by being awarded the champagne moment for his assist away at Sunderland.
Those attending the awards were then shown a short video from the recent BTEC tour, which saw students participate in a 5 day trip to Valencia in Spain, where they participated in a number of warm weather training sessions and even saw them beat a local side 1-0 in a friendly game.
The contributions of Foundation Degree student Declan Johnson and volunteer Julie Williams were also recognised, with Jade Hibbert stating, “the trip wouldn’t have been possible without the contributions of these individuals.”
The degree students were next to be acknowledged, with the six first year Foundation Degree students celebrating their success of navigating the fist half of their course, whilst BSc (Hons) Top-Up degree students Harry Warren and Liam Taylor were congratulated on achieving the grades needed to graduate from the University of South Wales with a degree in Football Coaching.
First year foundation degree student John Fletcher was awarded with degree student of the year for his consistent grades and dedication not just to his education but the volunteering and delivery which the students get chance to do throughout the year. Fellow foundation degree student Mark Bull was awarded with an outstanding contribution award for the work he has put in across the year, delivering on a number of projects across Ludlow and South Shropshire, as well as being part of the Foundation Degree led group who launched a 6-week pilot “Kick Cancer” programme in March 2018. Scott Guilbert was awarded with the degree student academic achiever of the year award after gaining the highest grade for the year across all of those studying a degree level course.
The final awards of the night saw second year BTEC student Emmanuel Onsong crowned overall Shrewsbury Town in the Community student of the year, with BTEC head coach and Football Development Officer Jay Denny collecting the coach of the year award.
Education and Inclusion Development Manager Jade Hibbert also collected a special recognition of contribution award for her involvement across all of the education programmes over recent years.
Speaking of the awards, Shrewsbury Town in the Community Education manager Andy Jones said,
“Events like tonight are a great opportunity for us to showcase the hard work and dedication these students have put into their academic work. Moving forward we are looking to emulate the academic success the students have had this year.”
Find out more about our BTEC Football & Education programme here