Be Ambitious Awards 2025

Towards the end of the 2024–25 academic year, A1 students took part in our flagship employability programme, Be Ambitious Week. For the third year running, the programme enabled over 1,000 students to develop their employability and transferable skills by completing either a work placement in a range of sectors, an employer-led project where organisations set real-world briefs for students to complete and present at the end of the week, or an employability workshop.

All students worked extremely hard throughout the week, which was sponsored by local company Stamford Products Ltd, and the standard of work they delivered was highly commended by employers. To celebrate their hard work and participation, our Careers and Employability Team hosted the annual awards event this term.

The event opened with a warm welcome from our Centre Principal, Lisa Richards, who spoke about the significance of the Be Ambitious programme and its role in helping students achieve their goals. She was followed by guest speaker and former student Chloe Clinton, who shared her inspiring journey. While studying at Ashton, Chloe completed a work experience placement with the global technology company Cisco. Her dedication and enthusiasm during the placement led to a permanent role at Cisco, where she continues to work today. Chloe encouraged students to embrace every opportunity for work experience, highlighting how valuable transferable skills can be in shaping their future careers.

Numerous students received nominations by employers and members of staff that supported Be Ambitious week.

The categories and winners were:

Vocational Awards - Health & Social Care

Darcie Holmes

"Darcie also received excellent feedback and worked really well with the patients using her bubbly personality and sense of humour to make them feel well supported and comfortable with her. The patients thought she was wonderful and she really immersed herself in the experience and made the most of it - well done!"

Grace Hannon

"Grace received excellent feedback from placement and demonstrated a mature and professional approach which meant she was able to experience a wide range of tasks and really got involved on the ward. She was so enthusiastic and motivated and it was lovely to receive such good feedback. Well done!"

Vocational Awards - Education

Jamiee-Leigh Cooper

"Jaimee-Leigh has shown outstanding dedication and hard work during her work placement. Her positive attitude and genuine care for the children she worked with have made a significant impact, demonstrating both professionalism and compassion."

Millie Rutland

"Millie has demonstrated exceptional dedication during her placement working with children. Through her hard work and positive attitude, she has developed strong communication skills and a real passion for supporting young learners."

Vocational Awards - Sports Coaching & Development

Zach Hardy

"Zach, the effort you put into your coaching placement was impressive. Coaching students with significant disabilities wasn't easy, but you handled it with true professionalism throughout. Your unwavering commitment to your students and your work was outstanding, well done Zach."

Joe Hampson

"Joe, your hard work during your A1 placement was truly remarkable. Coaching students with high-level disabilities was a significant challenge, but you tackled it head-on. You never complained, showing incredible perseverance and dedication to your students, well done Joe!"

Attitude & Commitment Award Winners

Simra Anwer

"Simra managed to secure a competitive work placement within the healthcare sector. She completed her work experience at Dickenson Road Medical Centre; they described her as 'very attentive and engaging'. These atributes are crucial when working in a medical field- well done Simra for your hard work and efforts during Be Ambitious Week."

Harry Simensky

"Harry was open and eager to learn during his week at GMPF. He was punctual, professional, and pro-active. Harry was set a mini project to deliver a presentation during his placement, which he completed on time, and met all the objectives required. He was confident and professional with his delivery of the presentation. I have had great feedback from each team that Harry worked on."

Creative Award Winners

Daniel Alayo

"Daniel completed his employer-led project with Locala Health & Well-being. The Industry Mentor supporting stated he, 'really thought outside of the box with creating animations designed to make it more comfortable for young people to engage with our sexual health services."

Isabelle Morris

"Isabelle was enthusiastic from the start - always on time and showing a strong interest from day one. She asked questions when needed and took action on the work assigned to her. She also brought a creative side, and we ended up using some of her ideas for our new brand launch — particularly her merchandise design concepts, which we hadn’t considered before."

Design Award Winner

Tom McLauchlan

"Tom came to the team and improved our posters, booklets and other communication literature fantastically. What we had previously was very amateur and Tom upgraded this to the point we can go out to publish it by the end of the week. Tom had never used Canva before but was soon an expert in a very short space of time. He was open to feedback and created more than one mockup design to allow us as a team to make a choice. On a personal level, he was a calming presence in the team who was warm and friendly throughout the week."

Leadership Award Winner

Courtney Thorpe

"Courtney worked in a team supporting the staff and engaging with the children. She was a valued member of the team for the week and was very helpful. She worked independently without the need for constant instruction."

Motivation Award Winners

Toby Turner

"Toby demonstrated strong motivation during his work experience in the Maths department at The Market Weighton School. He approached every task with enthusiasm and professionalism, whether supporting classroom activities, photocopying resources or helping with marking. Toby showed a genuine interest in education and was keen to learn how lessons were planned and delivered. He asked insightful questions and engaged positively with staff and students alike. His proactive attitude and willingness to take on a variety of tasks made him a valuable support throughout the placement. Toby’s commitment and reliability highlighted his strong work ethic."

Ebony Rowbottom

"Ebony demonstrated exceptional motivation and independence throughout the week. She showed a natural aptitude for working in healthcare by assisting with vulnerable patients and handling samples responsibly. Her confidence grew significantly over the course of the placement, and she approached every task with maturity and professionalism well beyond her years. Ebony would be a strong future candidate in the healthcare sector, and we’re pleased to nominate her for this well-deserved recognition."

Project Management Award Winner

Daniel Parvin

"Daniel demonstrated excellent problem-solving skills during the physical set-up of the MP's Office. He showed initiative and practical thinking while assisting with the construction and arrangement of furniture, overcoming challenges quickly and efficiently. His hands-on approach and calm, methodical manner made a real difference to the smooth running of the setup process."

Research Award Winner

Elizabeth Hand

"Elizabeth undertook the challenge to design a quiz around health and social care for our volunteers attending information sessions. This meant researching possible questions and answers. Beth also came up with suggestions on how we could possibly engage with a younger age group when conducting our own research projects by giving examples of subject areas that would engage younger people, for example mental health, sexual health and vaping."

Teamwork Award Winners

Imogen Rose, Lottie Arnthal, Milly Harper

"The team worked really hard during Be Ambitious week and were very organised and dedicated to producing an outstanding presentation. They worked really hard as a team and all contributed to presenting the project to the rest of the class. They were extremely professional and hardworking throughout the week."

Outstanding Achievement Individual Award Winners

Blessing Marasha

"We feel Blessing deserves this award as she displayed all the qualities an employer would look for. She was on time every day (even though she travelled all the way from Rochdale!), she was well dressed, she showed interest & enthusiasm when being shown a task, she asked good questions and listened to the answers. Blessing's personality shone through too, she fitted in well with the team. Even one of our customers commented on how professional Blessing was on the phone when she called him to announce his visitor had arrived - well done Blessing!"

Robin Bintliff

"For great attitude, punctuality, manners, respect, honesty, curiosity and willingness to learn. Robin was punctual, attentive, and interested in every aspect of our work. Robin completed tasks diligently and thoroughly. Despite walking with a stick due to a recent injury, Robin was keen to shadow every aspect of pre-concert liaison, which involved a lot of walking between front of house (several participating schools arriving) and back of house (ensuring conductor, presenter and orchestra were all ready to perform). Robin was polite and interested in everyone who was introduced. Robin was also keen to observe a practical music for wellbeing session in a hospital setting with our musicians. We would like to wish Robin all the very best for the future."

Outstanding Achievement Team Award Winners

Charles Davies, Kai Lowe, Gracve Martin, Isabella Ashworth, Emma McDermott

"This team did a well researched, well presented project and utilised their different talents to research/do different parts of the project. Hayley was so impressed with it that when they finished she said they should have been presenting it to the M&S board and not just her!"

Outstanding Presentation Team Award Winners

Luka Drakopoulos, Nairit Ghose, Zack Makinson, Yousaf Moradi, Saad Sahi, Mikaeel Khan, Syed Ahmed, Joshya Mills

"I was amazed by the students with their presentations, they had clearly put so much effort and time into not only researching Cisco as a company but also into understanding the project's needs and making this look good as a presentation. The had taken note of hints I'd made of things which would be good to include, but also impressed me by insights they'd gained through their research such as Cisco competitors, Cisco events and the Cisco branding. Both presentations of the use of Reddit and LinkedIn really impressed me!"

A huge congratulations to all nominees and award winners!