STUDENTS and staff at Weymouth College are celebrating after receiving a prestigious award in recognition of their outstanding careers college.

Staff, students and VIPs attended an event in the college’s Hix Restaurant to watch the presentation of the Association of Colleges Beacon Award for Careers Education and Guidance by AoC regional Director Ian Munro to Acting Principal of the college Nigel Evans.

There are only nine Beacon Awards given out each year and this year Weymouth College has scooped two. The other, which is for sport in the curriculum, will be presented next Friday.

The award recognises the work the college have done with giving careers advice and guidance. Together with their partners, Kingston Maurward College, Bournemouth University, Dorset County Council, Weymouth and Portland Borough Council, West Dorset District Council and Bournemouth and Poole College, the college puts on a careers college for Year 9 and 10 students from across Dorset.

More than 2,000 students take part in more than 50 different workshops over the annual two-day event.

Workshops are put on by all sorts of businesses, including Sainsbury’s and Sunseeker, who attended the award presentation event.

Ian Munro from the AoC said that the awards had been running for 20 years. He said that it was very rare that a college won two awards in the same year.

He said: “This is an absolutely truly exceptional achievement.”

Acting principal Nigel Evans has been in the role since November last year. He paid tribute to the staff and students for all their hard work and thanked the events sponsors for all their help and the businesses for their support.

He said: “It’s fantastic.

“This is a proper measure of where we are, acknowledged by independent bodies.”

He said there was a very positive atmosphere around the college campus. He said: “We are really positive about the future.”

He paid a special tribute to Schools Officer Peter Vowles and his team, who work out individual timetables for each student, based on their individual choices.

UCAS Progress sponsor the award and handed over a cheque for £3,000 to the college to continue its careers college work. Representative Gina Bradbury said they had been impressed by the impartiality and inclusivity of the advice given to young people.

She said the college had shown great partnership working to provide young people with the right advice for them. She said many young people had said the careers college was very memorable.

She said: “I’m thrilled to present the award. I’m delighted for them.”

South Dorset parliamentary candidate Richard Drax said the award was ‘fantastic news’.

He said: “This is a highly prestigious award – a national award, which reflects so positively on the Acting Principal Nigel Evans and all his staff who are doing all they can to help young people.”