Faye gets gold

Young Woman Engineer of the Year, Faye Banks, added gold to her growing collection of prestigious awards when she was invited to the House of Commons this week to be presented with the Association of Colleges’ Gold Award for Distinguished Alumni of Further Education Colleges.

Faye with actor Robert Lindsay Faye gets gold gallery

The awards, which are now in their 7th year, recognise and acknowledge the accomplishments of former FE students and the part their colleges have had in setting them on their career path.

Dr John Brennan, Chief Executive of the AoC, said, “Every year we hear inspirational stories from our winners, each of them made possible because of inspirational colleges, which have often provided them with the opportunity to make a fresh starts after initial failure. That is what FE is very much all about, providing the opportunity to set people on the path to success. We now have 37 winners in our hall of fame, from a hugely diverse range of backgrounds, who all owe their success to their experiences in FE colleges. Their achievements represent their own hard work and the support of their colleges. They are people of whom FE and the country as a whole can be proud.”

Faye, who comes from Pontefract, was one of five winners at this year’s event and said she never expected to find herself among the company of such famous people as her fellow-winners, actor Robert Lindsay, Wallace and Gromit animator Nick Park, Paralympic gold medal winning swimmer Giles Long, and Shelim Hussain, leading supplier of meat, poultry and seafood to the catering industry.

Mary Creagh, recently elected MP for Wakefield, was at the event to congratulate Faye and representatives from Wakefield College, Principal Heather MacDonald, Marketing & Publicity Manager Carol Brett, and Programme Manager Engineering, Mike Tyson.

The awards were presented by Waqar Azmi, Chief Diversity Advisor at the Cabinet Office, who described the winners as courageous people who had showed great determination - role models for everyone in this country. He introduced Faye as “a very special lady who left school with no formal qualifications. She made the decision to go to Wakefield College to study engineering and is now working towards a masters degree. I hope this award alters the way women think about the engineering industry, and the way the industry thinks about women, where only 1 in 20 people is female.”

Accepting her award, Faye said, “When I first decided that I wanted to better myself, I knew there was only one place that I wanted to study and that was Wakefield College. It has an outstanding reputation for academic success. The College gave me some fantastic memories but more importantly, the determination to go further with my studies and I was honoured to be asked to return last year as guest speaker at their annual awards ceremony. The benefits I have gained from FE are a fantastic career, and the will to want to continue to better my education.”

The awards event was hosted by Lord Robin Corbert, who described FE as under represented, under valued and under resourced, and said, “This is the 7th year for the AoC has run these awards, which do not simply recognise the achievements of the winners, they acknowledge the impact and support that their former colleges have had on their careers, and on the lives of so many students who participate in FE each year.”

ENDS