Success for Ufi-Supported Organisations at Industry Awards
News by Stephen Hinde, Community Manager for Ufi VocTech Trust
Seven organisations that have been supported by Ufi made it on to the shortlists for Learning Technologies 2020 which had its awards evening on the evening of Wednesday 18th November 2020.
Learning Technologies Awards celebrates the achievements of organisations and individuals using technology to improve education and working lives.
Five of the organisations have received grant funding from Ufi in the past, while two of them are currently being supported through Ufi Ventures.
Desq, who were award a grant from Ufi during VocTech Seed 2018, were joint finalist with Fujitsu in two categories with their Agile & Me platform - a digital learning resource which uses role-play gaming.
iDEA - Inspiring Digital Enterprise Awards, were also nominated in two categories for their free learning platform which allows people to develop their digital skills.
Grimsby Institute of Further Education had three places on the shortlists including Learning Technologies team of the year, and best response to Covid-19.
A joint entry from MyKnowledgeMap and CuppaCare for the best use of mobile learning made it to the shortlist.
Learnerbly and Bodyswaps, who are both being supported by Ufi Ventures to develop their offering, have shown more early promise by each making the shortlists once.
Learnerbly
Rajeeb Dey MBE, CEO of Learnerbly was quick to share the news of their success in being awarded Silver in the Most Innovative New Learning Technologies Product category.
Really proud of the team at Learnerbly for their tireless work being recognised tonight by receiving the Silver Award in the prestigious Learning Technologies Awards for "Most Innovative New Learning Technologies Product."
It was a hotly contested category as we were alongside 12 awesome Finalists whittled down from hundreds of applications!
A big thanks to all our 50+ amazing clients for believing in us and going on a journey together to democratise access to learning and development - building strong learning cultures together.
A well-conceived solution to several related problems
Bodyswaps
Straight behind Learnerbly's Silver award were Bodyswaps who took the Bronze award in the Most Innovative Learning Technologies Product with their Safeguarding VR platform which use Virtual Reality to deliver soft-skills training with an emotive impact.
We can see this project doing a lot of good
iDEA
The Bronze award for Learning Organisation of the Year was awarded to the team at iDEA which is built up of three people, something the judging panel were impressed by:
The judges were impressed by the ability of such a small team of three to create such an amazing reach and impact.
iDEA is an inspiration, especially as they are powering all of their activity through charitable donations.
iDEA’s focus on providing free learning to grow digital skills is deeply impressive and their philanthropy is a benchmark for the e-learning industry.
With a growing user base and even more end user stories, they could be a category winner in the future.
They show the power a small number of people can make in changing the world for the better.
They are certainly ones to watch
MyKnowledgeMap & CuppaCare
The Bronze award for Best use of mobile learning was awarded to this joint entry from MyKnowledgeMap and CuppaCare, who have both received grant funding from Ufi VocTech Trust in the past, with the judges thinking that using mobile for their learning was a no-brainer.
The Learning Technologies Awards Judges said:
A great project that demonstrates not only a clear rationale for the use of mobile devices but also an understanding of how mobile devices are used in an effective way and one that helped the developers reach audiences that wouldn't be reached otherwise.
They were also very mindful about how users could own their data considering they often work with a number of care homes.
The judges found that it would be all but impossible to deliver the learning experience on anything other than a mobile device, which made this entry stand out.
Grimsby Institute of Further Education
Three awards given to Grimsby Institute were:
- Best UK digital transformation of a training programme in response to Covid-19 (Silver)
- Learning technologies team of the year (Gold)
- Learning technologies learning organisation of the year (Gold)
