It's a record
Sussex Downs College is this years winner of the CLA Beacon Award for Creativity in Writing, Art or Design.
The award is one of the prestigious national Beacon Awards organised by the Association of Colleges (AoC) Charitable Trust. It provides recognition for the high standard of teaching and in particular for including copyright education in its music production course.
The college has established its own record label, Hard Pressed Records, to allow students to record their own material and experience genuine working surroundings. It is an integral part of a course that includes a module introducing the importance and value of copyright law.
The Music production team at the college will use the prize money from the award to build a website to promote and publish the students work on the project.
A team from the Eastbourne based college heard comedian Tony Hawks announce that they had won the award at the end of last year at a special event in Birmingham.
In January the college celebrated their success by organising a local presentation on the campus where Sarah Brear, CLA's Senior Business Development Manager for Education, presented the prize - a cheque for £5,000 from the Copyright Licensing Agency.
In her speech Sarah said, “We were really impressed with the quality of the entry from Sussex Downs College and are delighted to present them with the CLA sponsored award.”
A national presentation ceremony was held on 10th February at Westminster where awards were presented to all the winning colleges in the Beacon programme by Siôn Simon MP, Minister of State for Further Education. Mr Simon spoke of his belief that the British Further Education system, is the best in the world. He also added; “I'm delighted to present awards to these colleges, which have demonstrated exemplary practice in the sector”.
More than 130 college representatives and their guests attended the Westminster event including Eastbourne MP Nigel Waterson who was there to acclaim Sussex Downs' success.
This is the third time Sussex Downs College have won a Beacon award having scooped the prize in two other categories previously – definitely a record!
