Posted: Monday 21 June 2010

Award winning vision for students

Four Kilmarnock College students were recently awarded the Chartered Management Institute (CMI) Student Team of the Year award and received a prize of £400 for their inspired vision of the future business landscape in Ayrshire.

The winning team from Kilmarnock College was comprised of Ross Grant (20) from Moscow, an HNC Business student; HNC Travel student Rita Gray (24) from Sanquhar; Sandra Auld (46), from Galston, a student on the HNC Accounting course and Ross McCrindle (21) from Girvan, Ayrshire, from the CIH Housing Level 4 course. The four students competed against four other further and higher institutions in Ayrshire to win the CMI Challenge, and received their award at a glitzy bash held in the Gailes Hotel, Irvine, Kilmarnock. The group put their individual expertise together to deliver a presentation to a panel of top business managers, offering their vision of what Ayrshire's business landscape will look like in 5, 10 and 20 years from now.

Anne Granger, lecturer in Business Management, commented: "It was a very proud evening to see our team conquer their nerves and deliver their presentation with professionalism, enthusiasm, confidence and humour. Their positive attitude to the challenges facing Ayrshire, their aspirations for the future and their teamwork were applauded by the judging panel, definitely worthy winners.

"The CMI is the only chartered body in the UK that awards management and leadership qualifications to individuals, teams and organisations that are pushing the boundaries of excellence. Winning a CMI award is a great addition to the students' CV as it shows they are capable of producing work at the highest level."

Sandra Auld (46) from Galston said: "Having returned to study as a mature student and retrained, I found the event to be inspiring and I relished the opportunity to be part of a team. I think it shows how innovative Kilmarnock College is, in working in partnership with industries to enable the students to experience this type of challenge and to develop invaluable skills for the workplace. I am going to use my prize money on a special birthday present for my daughter, as she has been my inspiration in returning to college."

Ross McCrindle (21) from Girvan, Ayrshire, added "It was a fantastic lifetime achievement and an excellent contribution towards my CV, which will hopefully open up more job opportunities. The team seemed to gel from the offset and I believe that this was the key to our success. The presentation on the day has certainly improved my confidence in front of large audiences and gave me a huge buzz. I will look forward to, rather than dreading, doing more presentations in the future. I would like to thank my assessors at Kilmarnock College, Anne Granger and Lorna Ferguson, for their continuous help, support and time during our research; we could not have done it without them."

The presentation on the day covered tourism, infrastructure and new and existing Industries. The group put together a PowerPoint presentation for the panel and the judges were impressed with their research, teamwork and the areas of growth the students focused on for Ayrshire's future business landscape.

Picture

Left to right - Students with cheques/prize money (£100 each) Robin Andrews (Director of Estates KC) Rita Gray, Sandra Auld, Anne Granger (Tutor) Ross McCrindle and Ross Grant.

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For more information, contact:
Ross Henderson, Halogen Communications, (T) 0131 202 0120 (F) 0131 225 3757 (E) ross@halogencom.com.

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