Due to our strong links with the business community, in particular with our own start-up Business Units on the College campus, we chose to sponsor the Entrepreneur of the Year Award which was very highly contested.

In a competitive category, the winners were GZero with Stavros Alambritis picking up the award on behalf of the company.

Mark Dale, College Principal and CEO, said of the award, “Portland College is proud to have been involved in the Chad Business Awards and congratulate GZero on their achievement. The College is a keen supporter of local businesses, and our Beeches Business Enterprise Units have helped a number of companies start up and continue to progress since their opening in 2010.”

The College has worked very closely with Nottinghamshire Police over the past ten years, and this has culminated in the Police now taking up a permanent presence on the College campus.

PC Mick Cook, who works within the Safer Schools Partnership, will be based in the NewStart Hall on the College campus every Tuesday afternoon between 1.00pm and 3.00pm. He will be available to answer any questions on policing matters, deal with incidents that may occur and educate students about issues within the local community.

In addition to working with Portland College, PC Cook also covers Ashfield School, Quarrydale School, Sutton Centre and Kirkby College along with all the primary feeder schools within the Ashfield North area.

Brian Harrison, Customer Services Manager at the College says, “We have built a great relationship with Nottinghamshire Police over the last decade and have worked in partnership with them on a number of initiatives around keeping our learners safe, both whilst at Portland College and when in the wider community. I am absolutely thrilled that we will now have a permanent Police Post on the college campus where learners and staff may drop in to ask questions and receive information on keeping safe.“

The exhibition also ran over the weekend following the launch, and continues onto 30th September, & 1st and 2nd October 2011. All of the artwork has been produced by our Foundation Learners and the exhibition is completely FREE to attend. Open to all members of the public, it is a fantastic opportunity for our young artists to have their artwork displayed in a professional setting and the feedback from members of the public has so far been fantastic.

Mark Dale, College Principal says, “It is an absolute delight to see the brilliant work our Foundation Learners produce showcased in the magnificent Yard Gallery at Wollaton Hall. The professional setting is fitting to the standard of the artwork produced and I would urge anyone with an interest in art, or simply the work of our students, to attend and perhaps purchase a piece for their own walls!”

For more information about the event, please contact Anna Ashton on 01623 499164.

In-Folio is an online portfolio system that enables learners to record and present their achievements and abilities. The accessible, simple interface allows learners to store, arrange and organise multimedia content in simple online pages and assists greatly with their communication. The learner can then utilise their In-Folio pages as they progress on to further education or as they look for employment.

The judging panel for the awards recognised ‘the exemplary way in which the distributed team, involving a university, a JISC service, and four independent specialist colleges, approached the project’. Set up over four years ago, the team has members from five different organisations: Portland College, JISC TechDis, The Rix Centre, The National College for Young People with Epilepsy and National Star College, each of whom pooled their funding to help develop the system. In-Folio was also selected because of the impact and vision of In-Folio itself as well as its strong and beneficial impact on the ISC sector’s use of learning technology more generally.

Matt Harrison, Assessment and Access Centre Manager at Portland College says “I am delighted that the team’s collaborative hard work and efforts in developing this system have been recognised. The In-Folio system offers learners the chance to record personal achievements in a fully accessible and simple manner, which they can continue to use as they progress in their education and employment and show to parents, peers, educators and potential employers.”

To find out more, visit the In-Folio website or contact Matt Harrison on 01623 499196.

David retires his duties as manager of Portland Print, after originally joining the College in 1972 as a sheltered employee of Portshel Industries, the original name for the workshop. During his four decades within the department, there has been a tremendous amount of change from producing hearing loops and bench electronics upon his commencement of employment, to the current Portland Print, a fully functional design and digital print workshop with a huge range of internal and external clients, and despite these changes in direction, David has been able to adapt and maintain the same quality of work and professionalism.

David’s dedication to customer service and embracing change has seen him progress through the ranks to Workshop Supervisor, Production Manager and ultimately Print Operations Manager, taking full responsibility for the department for over 10 years of his working career at Portland. Under his stewardship, Portland Print has grown into a large business; it is testament to David’s strong leadership that the team is able to satisfy and maintain a large client base despite remaining a small department.

Tracy Raybould, Assistant Principal says, “It has been a real pleasure to work with David and see the Portland Print business progress and flourish under his management. There are not many people that can show the amount of dedication and commitment that David demonstrates and to work alongside him has been a true privilege.”

Throughout his 39 years at Portland, David has remained passionate about his work and it is for this reason that he will be truly missed by all at the College. His retirement plans include spending time with his family together with making the most of his Sky Sports package (!) and continuing as an active member of the Newstead Abbey Angling Club.

Pictured above are (L-R): Mark Dale (College Principal), Brenda Brittain, David Brittain, Chris O’Brien (College Governor), Alan Earnshaw (College Governor), Tracy Raybould (College Assistant Principal)

To rapturous receptions from the large and noisy audience, our Award Winners collected their prizes on the main stage. In total, 25 awards were given out for achievement in a variety of fields, handed out to current learners and students, past students, volunteers and staff members including our Students of the Year, Chris Haines (Foundation Learning) and John Singleton (Employment).

Hosted by College Principal Mark Dale, Awards were presented by our Guest of Honour, Darran Winfield-Stanesby, an ex-student who has built up a huge amount of success as a wheelchair bodybuilder, including a World Title in Power Lifting.

Many congratulations to everyone who has completed their studies at Portland College this year and to the recipients of the many prizes.

The nine team members, drawn from all over the College, had set themselves the challenge of walking up and down the three highest mountains in the UK in just 24 hours.

Months of training and preparation paid off, as the team reached the summits of Ben Nevis, in Scotland, Scafell Pike, in England, and Snowdon, in Wales. Completing the first mountain in the dark and battling against sleep deprivation, exhaustion and altitude, the team travelled more than 450 miles, walked 25 miles and climbed a staggering 10,000 feet in conquering the three mountains. The team completed the challenge in 23 hours and 44 minutes.

Paul Watts, Marketing and Communications Executive and one of the intrepid team, said, “It was the first time that most of us had tackled something as intense as the Three Peaks Challenge. Pulling together as a team and focusing on the key reasons for completing the challenge helped us overcome the most difficult times during the 24 hours. It is an experience that we’ll never forget and we are thrilled to kick-start the fundraising for the new Leisure Centre too.”

Overall, through completing the Three Peaks and other fundraising activities, the team have managed to raise approximately £4,500 with monies still being collected.

If you would like to make a donation following the challenge, all contributions are very gratefully received. Visit the College’s Justgiving site at www.justgiving.com/portlandcollege or contact the Fundraising department on 01623 499164 for more information.

The event is one of only two of its kind in Further Education Colleges in the UK, and has proved highly successful in educating and informing our learners about staying safe and protecting both themselves and their possessions.

In attendance on the day were Nottinghamshire Police, Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service, Trading Standards and Road Safety. Workshops and a variety of activities were held throughout the day for learners to get involved in and speak to the experts about their worries regarding safety. Amongst the workshops available, St John Ambulance demonstrated to students the basics in practical first aid, Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue taught about how they deal with fires and the dangers of hoax calls, and Nottinghamshire Police gave a workshop about the importance of personal safety.

Vicky Sheldon, Curriculum Support Assistant at the College and organiser of the event says, “This event gives our learners the opportunity to see and understand dangers which will help prevent accidents in the future in an engaging and fun way. Some of our learners can be quite vulnerable. Giving them the tools to better protect themselves is vital for their development both here at College and also following their transition upon completing their programme at Portland.”

Taking place between the 17th and 20th April, the games saw three days of sport, including Table Tennis, Powerlifting and Athletics, with Jake competing in the Powerlifting event. After a grueling competition, Jake was awarded the Bronze medal, which is a magnificent achievement and testament to his hard work in the sport during his time at Portland.

Jake, who lives locally and travels into Portland each day to study, said of the achievement, “I was delighted to be invited and even more pleased to lift my way to the bronze medal. I even managed to break my competitive personal best, lifting 80kg and will work hard to continue to develop.”

A talented young sportsman, Jake has also been a major part of the Portland College Table Cricket team which will compete at the National Finals in June, together with playing Wheelchair Basketball at a regional level during his time away from Portland.

Jake’s development as a sportsman and powerlifter has been exceptional, and everyone from College extends their congratulations and best wishes for the future.

The specialist accessible truck has been adapted to allow wheelchair users, amputees and those with lower limb disorders or dwarfism to be able to retrain for a new career within the logistics industry.

The launch took place at West Notts’ Construction and Logistics Skills Academy in Kirkby-in-Ashfield, and Richard says of the pilot scheme; “I enjoyed the chance to try something different and the course can give disabled people another route back to employment.

I never thought I would be able to do any future work in the warehouse industry but being able to use this new forklift has shown that if I choose to return to work in logistics, I can do.”