The University’s joint enterprise with St Mirren FC, the Paisley-based Championship team, came top of the league last night scooping a prize in the highly competitive Herald Higher Education Awards 2016.
UWS St Mirren partnership won the accolade for the Outstanding Employer Engagement category for the project that sees the University and the club collaborate to provide practical work-based learning opportunities for students; research projects; catering and hospitality; graduate internships; and support for player rehabilitation.
As part of this initiative, UWS / St Mirren TV and Radio provides work-based learning opportunities for Media, Culture & Society students who create TV and radio programming of all the club’s games for international broadcast.
UWS Commercial Services team delivers match day and event hospitality, as well as providing players’ food around training and match day. St Mirren also uses the University’s sports facilities for pre-season training, for youth matches, and to support player rehabilitation following injury; creating an employer engagement partnership with a real difference.
At an event held in Glasgow last night, colleagues and students involved in the shortlisted initiatives joined their peers from across the sector to await the announcement of the winning entries. Commenting on the University’s success in the employer engagement category, UWS Principal & Vice-Chancellor Professor Craig Mahoney said: “Our work with St Mirren bringing together our students, staff and our community stakeholders is a fantastic example of partnership working – I am delighted at our achievement – a brilliant result to kick off our new academic session and St Mirren’s new season!”
The Herald HE Awards, now in their second year of running, recognise success and achievements across Scotland’s universities and colleges and this year the University was nominated in three highly competitive categories. As well as the winning entry in the Outstanding Employer Engagement, UWS was shortlisted for:
Outstanding Contribution by a Student – John Beattie
John, a graduate of the University’s Politics and Social Policy degree, gained recognition for his extraordinary contribution to the development of his local community in Govan.
Outstanding Contribution to the Local Community – Jenny’s Diary
Jenny’s Diary - an invaluable tool for families and practitioners to help people with learning disability understand their diagnosis of dementia. The projext saw partnership working by UWS School of Health, Nursing & Midwifery, Alzheimer’s Society and Hansel, the leading social care provider based in the West of Scotland.
Principal Mahoney added: "It was a pleasure to see the standard of entrants across all categories. The quality of work being done is astounding and I would like to congratulate everyone for their fantastic submissions!"
