Training Excellence Rewarded – 2009 BII NITA Winners Announced

Our photo shows all the 2009 BII NITA award winners.
(Back row L-R) Russell Kerr of Blueprint Training Solutions, Vicky Crossingham from St Austell Brewery (Chair of the judges), Lee Wolley from M&B, Becky Little of Punch Taverns, Peter Grieve from Enterprise Inns and BII Chairman Martin Grant.

(Front row L-R) Caroline Bowes of Hilton Worldwide, Kitty McAuley from Blueprint Training Solutions, Dr Khanungnit Garnett of EDU Plus CIC, David Hawbrook of abv Training, Rachel King from Punch Taverns and Victoria Quin from M&B.

The ultimate recognition of training excellence within the licensed retail industry, the BII NITAs attract a huge following and entries are received from all sectors of the industry – restaurant groups, pub companies, breweries, supermarkets, convenience stores, colleges, training companies and individual licensees. Entrants are judged on their own merits irrespective of the size of the organisation or the number of people being trained. They do not have to be BII members or BIIAB approved centres or offering BIIAB qualifications.

BII Director of Marketing Sue Medhurst commented: “Since their launch in 1991, the BII NITAs have recognised and rewarded training excellence within the licensed retail sector. Each NITA award goes to the entry which demonstrates training excellence, and the effective use of resources to achieve measurable results. This year's winners are all excellent programmes that would stand benchmarking outside of the industry and demonstrate good practice for the licensed retail sector as a whole. Congratulations to all of them.”

Winners in six out of the seven categories were announced at the conference (see list below). An award was not presented in the Licensee Trainer of the Year category. Vicky Crossingham, chair of the judges, commented: “Reaching the final stages of the BII NITAs is a great achievement and all of this year’s Licensee Trainer of the Year finalists demonstrated some good and very good practice.

“However, after lengthy discussion, and further review, the judges felt that none had yet achieved their full potential or comprehensively met the very high standard we have set for these awards. Our three finalists show great potential as “ones to watch” for the future but this year there was no clear winner in this category.”

In the Professional Trainer of the Year category judges felt that two awards should be made to recognise the different strengths of independent and corporate professional trainers. Therefore, Independent trainer David Hawbrook FBII of abv Training in Stone, and Corporate Trainer Caroline Bowes of Hilton Hotels in Leeds each received an award in this category.

Judges will now select an overall winner to receive the 2009 ‘Supreme Award’, which will be announced and presented at the BII Annual Lunch on Tuesday 11th May 2010.

Winners By Category

Licensee induction programme award – sponsored by Barcare from The Bateman Group

• Mitchells & Butlers

Licensee trainer of the year award – sponsored by Matthew Clark

• No winner

Innovation in training award – sponsored by Charles Wells Pub Company

• Enterprise Inns

Social responsibilities award – sponsored by J D Wetherspoon

• Punch Taverns

Best industry training initiative to support professionalism – sponsored by Enterprise Inns

• EDU Plus CIC, Banbury

Professional trainer of the year award – sponsored by Greene King Pub Company

Two winners:

• Independent trainer
  David Hawbrook FBII, abv Training, Stone

• Corporate Trainer
  Caroline Bowes, Hilton Hotels, Leeds

Security training award – sponsored by BIIAB and City & Guilds

• Blueprint Training, Edinburgh

Contact

Michelle Luscombe, BII Corporate Communications Manager
Email: michellel@bii.org
Telephone: 01276 417863 or 07795 394660