Double Award win for NLTG Learner

his week eight award winners joined the City & Guilds pride at London Zoo as they were recognised for their outstanding educational achievements with a prestigious City & Guilds Lion Award.

The Lion Awards showcases the very best talent in vocational education today at a glittering annual awards ceremony. This year’s winners, a mixture of tutors, students and one college, were chosen from over 200 nominations. They were joined in celebrating their success by TV presenter Kate Humble, Kirstie Donnelly, MD of City & Guilds UK, Chris Jones CEO of City & Guilds, the people that nominated them as well as a few of the residents of the Zoo.

Kirstie Donnelly MBE, UK Managing Director at City & Guilds said: “The Lion Awards is one of the highlights of my year – I feel incredibly proud to be part of the journey that these inspirational individuals have taken to achieve their goals. They represent everything City & Guilds is about – commitment, passion, leadership and excellence.

“This year’s winners are shaping the future workforce – from young women such as winner Amy Rush who is blazing a path for other women in the UK’s male dominated motor industry through to the committed lecturers ensuring that individuals have the skills to allow them to achieve their potential and that organisations of all shapes and sizes have the expert employees they need to succeed.”

Winners included 20-year-old Polaris Dyas who won the Apprentice of the Year Award and the Outstanding Achiever Award. Polaris overcame personal tragedy following the loss of both of his parents in his final year of school to go on and excel in his business skills apprenticeship and revolutionise working practices at his workplace.

Apprentice of the Year Award & Outstanding Achiever Award: Polaris Dyas, 20 year old from Chester.

Polaris overcome personal tragedy to excel in his business skills apprenticeship following the loss of both of his parents to illness as he finished school. Demonstrating his sheer determination to succeed, Polaris sought out an apprenticeship at a local printing firm following school, quickly becoming a highly respected employee. Using his extensive knowledge of IT he has excelled in his role revolutionising systems at his workplace. Not only is he a valuable asset to the company, he also finished his apprenticeship in just 12 months, 6 months ahead of schedule.

Polaris Dyas: “I wasn’t expecting to win two awards today so that’s absolutely amazing. I’m just really, really pleased that all of this hard work has actually paid off and now I’ve got something amazing to show my kids and my grandkids.

“My message to other learners is never, ever give up because if you do slip once it’s difficult to get back but you can do it. I believe in everybody. You always have that chance.”

The City & Guild’s Lion Awards is one of the most prestigious events in the skills education calendar and is a culmination of our Medals for Excellence awards programme which dates back well over 100 years.  This year over 200 nominations were submitted with the eight deemed to have made the most spectacular achievement receiving a Lion award. The awards not only recognise excellent results but also those who show a true journey of progression throughout the course of their learning, with many of those studying having overcome significant challenges to achieve their goals.