Educate North Awards postponed until September

The north of England’s prestigious Educate North Awards, due to be held at the Hilton Hotel in Manchester, have been postponed until September 2020.

Awards founded Rob McLoughlin stated: “In light of government advice over Coronavirus and to protect our teams and guests it was essential to make this change.”

“The event is a sell-out and we hope the new date will see nominees and supporters come together to mark the success of this sector at this very difficult time for the North and the country.”

For more details, see the Prolific North news story.

Rob McLoughlin previews the 2020 Budget and reviews the Government’s performance so far


Rob McLoughlin delivered a speech at the opening of new property loan company HS CREDIT on Thursday 5th March which is based inside the new Mercedes Benz complex in Stockport, Greater Manchester.


Rob spoke about the plans by former Chancellor Sajid David and the outlook for the North of England as he previewed the Budget and reviewed the direction of government pointing out some apparent contradictions in policy.


He even encouraged the audience to try the movements from ‘Tragedy’ by the band Steps as he recalled the role Steve Jennings, host and CEO of the new company, played in the creation of two charities which raised millions in the 1990s for young people in the Granada TV region.

Educate North Awards shortlist announced

The full shortlist for April’s Educate North Awards, designed to celebrate the very finest work in higher and further education, has been revealed.

The prizes will be given at the Award Ceremony, held at Manchester’s Hilton Deansgate on 23 April 2020. Tickets are available here.

Business/Industry Collaboration – HE/FE Sector 

  • Kirklees College & Huddersfield Town Education Partner
  • Leeds City College, University Centre Leeds – HE Science Team
  • Tees Valley Logistics Academy – Education Training Collective

Business/Industry Collaboration – University Sector

  • Chester Business School, University of Chester – Centre for Work Related Studies
  • Emile Education & Manchester Met Uni’s Faculty of Education
  • University of Salford & Northern Care Alliance Partnership

Social Mobility Award – HE/FE Sector

  • Greater Manchester Higher – UNi:4U summer school programme
  • Huddersfield New College
  • Liverpool Football College
  • Myerscough College – Croxteth Campus
  • Preston’s College & Mark Taylor – Construction HOS
  • Qube Learning
  • St John Rigby College & GMHigher – The Way Programme
  • University Campus Oldham
  • University Campus Oldham – The Disability Service
  • University Centre Leeds – Community Activity Programme

Social Mobility Award – University Sector

Sponsored by Smooth North West

Judges chose not to release a shortlist for this category. The winner will be announced on the evening.

Business Collaboration & Partnerships Award – HE/FE Sector

  • Cheshire College South & West
  • Leeds City College, University Centre Leeds – HE Science Team
  • Newcastle College Energy Academy
  • Qube Learning
  • University Centre Leeds – Policing Taster Days

Business Collaboration & Partnerships Award – University Sector

Judges chose not to release a shortlist for this category. The winner will be announced on the evening.

Employer Engagement Award – HE/FE Sector

  • Backstage Academy
  • Bishop Burton College
  • Greenhead College
  • Hopwood Hall College
  • Leeds City College, University Centre Leeds – HE Science Team
  • Macclesfield College
  • National Employer Training, part of the Grimsby Institute
  • Tees Valley Logistics Academy – Education Training Collective
  • The Manchester College – Employability and Partnerships Team
  • The Manchester College – Employer Sponsored Programmes

Employer Engagement Award – University Sector

Sponsored by Smooth North East

  • Northumbria Students Union
  • The University of Bradford

External Relations Team of the Year

  • LTE Group – Marketing and External Relations Team
  • Myerscough College – Open Day & Country Fair
  • University Centre Leeds – Community Activity Programme
  • University of Bradford
  • University of Salford, External Relations & Salford Untold

Innovation Award

Sponsored by Voiceworks

  • Grimsby Institute of Further and Higher Education
  • Leeds Beckett University, Carnegie School of Education & Story Makers Company
  • Macclesfield College
  • Manchester Metropolitan University – Third Term Programme
  • Manchester Metropolitan University & David Leathlean – The Joy of Learning’ Project
  • The Manchester College – Stacey Foy & Improving Grammar through Flipped Personalised Digital Delivery
  • University Campus North Lincolnshire, Humber Outreach Project & Trent Valley Gliding Club
  • University of Central Lancashire & Fernandez Foundation Hyderabad – International Midwifery Educator Programme
  • University of Chester & Chester Smart Composite Group – Use of multifunctional structures

Student Experience Award – HE/FE Sector

  • Backstage Academy
  • Hopwood Hall College
  • Huddersfield New College – Talented Athletes Support Programme
  • Liverpool Football College
  • New College Durham – The 42 Day Project
  • Newcastle College – Hot Topic Initiative Pastoral Support Team
  • Newcastle College University Centre
  • Oldham College – Additional Learning Support
  • Oldham College – Supported Internships
  • The Manchester College – How ‘The Deal’ supports Employability

Student Experience Award – University Sector

Sponsored by Communicorp

  • Liverpool Hope Students’ Union & Caitriona and Haris
  • University of Central Lancashire – Graduation July 2019
  • University of Central Lancashire, Faculty of Health and Wellbeing – Foundation Entry Programme
  • University of Cumbria Institute of Health Nursing Team
  • University of Salford – Maker Space
  • University of Salford, Salford Now & Quays News

International Partnership – HE/FE Sector

  • Grimsby Institute
  • NCUK – The University Consortium & British Study Centres
  • South Shields Marine School

International Partnership – University Sector

  • University of Central Lancashire & Fernandez Foundation Hyderabad – International Midwifery Educator Programme
  • University of Chester & Chester Smart Composite Group

Community Engagement Award – Schools

  • AmaSing
  • Pocklington School Foundation
  • Sedbergh School
  • St Peter’s School, York – Public Lecture Series
  • St. Vincent’s School for Sensory Impairment

Community Engagement Award – HE/FE Sector

  • Askham Bryan College & Prince’s Trust – FLEXible Learning Community Engagement programmes
  • Cheshire College South & West and Belong Villages
  • Craven College – Adult, Community and Projects
  • Leeds City College Performing Arts, West Yorkshire Police & Red Ladder Theatre Company – Knife Crime Project
  • Newcastle College – ESOL Development and Integration
  • Oldham Sixth Form College – Essential Life Skills Project
  • Preston’s College – Construction
  • St John Rigby College & GMHigher – The Way Programme
  • University Centre Leeds – Community Activity Programme

Community Engagement Award – University Sector

Sponsored by Heart Yorkshire

  • Liverpool Hope Student Union & Caitriona and Haris
  • Newcastle University Students’ Union
  • Northumbria University – NUSTEM Pop-Up Shops
  • University of Bradford School of Management
  • University of Chester & CHEW – Chester Healthy Eating Workshops
  • University of Cumbria – Institute of Health Nursing Team

Research Project of the Year

Judges chose not to release a shortlist for this category. The winner will be announced on the evening.

Research Team of the Year

Judges chose not to release a shortlist for this category. The winner will be announced on the evening.

Teaching Excellence Award

  • Helen Appleby, Wilberforce College
  • Birkenhead Sixth Form College Staff
  • Burnley College Sixth Form Centre Staff
  • Derek Fredricks, ACORN Academy
  • David Hastings, Wilberforce College
  • Colette Mazzola, Blackpool and The Fylde College
  • Anna Royle, St Margaret Ward Primary School
  • Jimmy Stobbart, Sunderland College
  • Sunderland College Music Staff Team
  • Zac Wilkinson, Preston’s College

UK Leadership Award

  • Chris Andreou, Innersummit Ltd
  • Jayne Clarke, The Pinnacle Learning Trust
  • Emma Forrest-Leigh, Grimsby Institute
  • Professor Zahir Irani, University of Bradford School of Management
  • Rachel Kay, Macclesfield College
  • Mike Kilbride, Birkenhead Sixth Form College
  • Susannah McShane, Coop Academy Woodslee
  • Lisa O’Loughlin, The Manchester College
  • Katie Wheeldon, National Employer Training

UK Apprenticeship Award

  • Macclesfield College
  • Myerscough College
  • Qube Learning
  • The Juice Academy
  • University of Central Lancashire & Lancashire School of Business and Enterprise – Chartered Manager Degree Apprenticeship

Business School of the Year

Judges chose not to release a shortlist for this category. The winner will be announced on the evening.

Students’ Union of the Year

  • Chester Students’ Union
  • Liverpool Hope Students’ Union
  • Newcastle University Students’ Union
  • Northumbria Students’ Union
  • University of Sunderland Students’ Union

Further Education College of the Year

  • Bishop Burton College
  • Burnley College
  • Education Training Collective
  • Grimsby Institute of Further and Higher Education
  • Huddersfield New College
  • Myerscough College
  • Oldham College
  • Preston’s College
  • The Manchester College
  • Tyne Coast College

Entrepreneur of the Year

Sponsored by The Masood Enterprise Centre at the University of Manchester

  • Adrian Brooks, Backstage Academy
  • Annie Guy, Musical Theatre Studio Ltd
  • Dr John A Patterson, St. Vincent’s School for Sensory Impairment

University of the Year

  • Edgehill University
  • Teesside University

Lifetime Achievement Award

Supported by Dr John Kennedy CBE, Patron of The Educate North Awards

Judges chose not to release a shortlist for this category. The winner will be announced on the evening

Caroline Flack (RIP) – BBC 5 LIVE breakfast interview, 17 Feb 2020

‘Social Media is like a congested motorway with often irrational drivers prone to Road Rage’.

Rob McLoughlin was talking to Nicky Campbell following the tragic loss of Caroline Flack, long time host of the controversial Love Island on ITV2.
She took her own life after learning that a criminal case would have continued and was scheduled to have started in March 2020. 
He described her death as an ‘appalling tragedy’.

Rob, a former Director of Granada Television, paid tribute to her talent stating that she made ‘it look easy’ to host complicated live entertainment shows and was trusted as an ITV face.

He revealed that many inside ITV were ‘wounded’ by claims that they had not stood by her when she stepped down from the winter series of the show and had kept the door open for a possible return pending the outcome of the case.

He said that the court case made it complicated for Caroline to continue as host and while people were making connections with other events on the series including 2 suicides, that there were external factors which make this different and stated that ITV were right to cancel the weekend’s editions of the show.

He attacked social media stating that there is often ‘no filter’ and people forget that there are human beings at the end of often horrific abuse.
‘There’s a reason radio stations in the UK and abroad have delay buttons when you open the airwaves and people, especially the young, find it difficult to switch off their social channels’.

The appearance was Rob’s fourth on FIve Live over the last few months. He’s also appeared recently on Good Morning Scotland and on BBC Radio Wales.

A few weeks ago Rob discussed the future of the BBC on Three Counties Radio following the news that Director General Tony Hall was to stand down in the summer of 2020.

House of Commons Speaker at Educate North Awards

The recently appointed Speaker of the House of Commons, Sir Lindsay Hoyle, will be guest of honour at this year’s Educate North Awards, taking place on April 23rd at the Deansgate Hilton Hotel.

Accompanied by his wife, Lady Hoyle, the Speaker – who took over from John Bercow in December 2019 – will present a number of awards on the evening.

You can read more on the Prolific North website.