Winners 2010: Ambrose Gillham & Linda Hafez

These two students were our joint 2010 winners of the Outstanding Development Award voted for by both class peers and tutors.

Ambrose Gillham
Ambrose developed in many ways both personally and professionally during his 2 years of study on the foundation courses we offer. He has now been accepted to train to become a Counsellor and will be a student on our Higher Professional Diploma course starting in September 2010.

Linda Hafez
Linda overcame many personal difficulties whist training to become a Counsellor on the HPD in Counselling course but her commitment to her personal and professional development never wavered. Her achievements include:

• Becoming a successful Study Buddy with us and being accepted onto a Teacher Training Programme at Lewisham College; she will begin this training in September 2010.
• Being offered a professional post at her Training Agency on becoming a qualified Counsellor.
• Gaining an overall Distinction Grade in the Higher Professional Diploma this year on qualifying.

Winner 2009: The Whole Diploma Class

Gemma and Jacqui accept the cup

This year the entire HPD in Counselling Class of 2009 were presented with our Outstanding Development Award. This group of 20 students acheived a great deal both as individuals and as a group. Their many successes included:

• Winning acceptance to present 2 Group Research Projects at the BACP National Research Conference held in Portsmouth during May 2009; one of these projects was rated by the attending delegates to be in the top three presentations at the conference.
• 14 students passed the course with an overall Distinction Grade and 6 students passed the course with an overall Merit Grade; phenomenial results.
• 2 students decided to continue with their studies as newly qualified counsellors and were directly accepted by the same University to proceed onto an MA in Counselling & Psychotherapy course of study.
• 4 students were offered part-time/sessional employment at their training placements as they qualified which demonstrates the extremely high levels of professionalism and skill these students had attained during the training process.
• With her Professional Counsellor Qualification under her belt, another student applied for a managerial position in Youth Work (her area of expertese), successfully winning the post. She considerably increased her salary and sphere of responsibilty and will be providing an exciting new multi-disipline service for young people who are experiencing difficulties in their lives.

All 20 students received an LC&CTA Award Certificate which, along with their publicly presented research work can be added to their CVs, thus greatly enhancing their achievement dossier.

Winner 2008: Martin Williams

For his dedicated move toward excellence and for commitment to his studies, dyslexic student Martin Williams won the award in 2008.

Martin’s achievements included:

• Obtaining an overall Merit Grade for his final assessment in the Higher Professional Diploma in Counselling.
• Co-authoring the research paper: ‘Is spirituality an aid to recovery from addiction?’
• Winning a place to present the above mentioned research paper at the BACP National Research Conference in 2008.

Martin now works as a sessional counsellor for the Enrichment Team at Lewisham College.