Doncaster college doing the business in education after winning two major awards

Harrison College won both the SME Business of the Year and Success through Partnerships Awards at the Doncaster Chamber Business Awards.

The college is the only provider in the city of education for post-16s with special needs where the focus is on internships, employment and work skills.

Young people with autism and other learning needs are taught and encouraged to succeed and achieve through challenging, future focused education in collaboration with supportive local employers.

Principal Gemma Peebles, who established the college three years ago, said: “We would have been over the moon to win one award, so to win two is amazing. We were told it is very rare for a business to win two categories on the same night.

“The great thing is that the awards recognise us both as a business and, importantly for our young people, as a collaborator that engenders successful partnerships to support our students.

“We work with some wonderful companies and organisations that, like us, recognise the enormous potential our young people have, how their needs are not being met elsewhere and how they deserve a better education and better opportunities to secure employment and a fulfilling future. We are grateful to our partners and look forward to continuing to work with them, and any new partners who wish to get involved.”

In the SME Business of the Year category, sponsored by ORB Recruitment, judges said Harrison College “demonstrated consistent and stable growth alongside their strategy... The business clearly demonstrated their efforts to effect change in the city through partnerships with enterprise, through charity work and volunteer work and evidenced how they truly change the lives of the children and young adults who enter their building.”

The judges in the Success through Partnerships Award, sponsored by Ellgia, said: “The passion this entry has for the organisation and its partnership work shone through so clearly through both the written entry and the interview. The work put into the partnerships created is outstanding and clearly benefits both parties to each partnership so well. The range of different types of partnerships demonstrated was also extremely impressive and it was easy to see how they contribute to the success of this organisation. An excellent entry.”