A BUSINESS and mentoring support centre, operating at the South West College's Enniskillen campus, has been recognised as one of Northern Ireland's best business educators at the highly coveted UTV-Business Eye Awards held recently in Belfast.
Impressing a renowned judging panel, which included UTV's Business Correspondent Jamie Delargy and Business Eye Editor Richard Buckley, the InnoTech Centre was highly commended for its efforts in helping local entrepreneurs turn promising ideas into reality.
Competing in the Business Education category, the Centre also mentors local firms and plays a key role in promoting STEM subjects (Science, Technology Engineering and Maths) to students across the South West Region, and is funded by the Department for Employment and Learning through its Innovation Fund Employer Support Programme.
Fergal Tuffy, Research Lecturer at InnoTech, said the award reflected the Centre's hard work and ambition: "This is a great achievement for the Centre and an acknowledgment of our early success in growing business and education relationships in the South West region. Since officially launching earlier this year, we've hit the ground running and are well on our way to meeting our challenging targets.
"As well as providing critical know-how and resources to local firms and partner organisations, we are committed to helping young people engage with priority skills in a way through real world examples that link into the curriculum. To be recognised as one of Northern Ireland's best business and education link-ups is a great honour and an endorsement of our ambitions" he added.
Launched in early 2009, the InnoTech Centre has delivered 13 STEM events to over 400 primary and secondary pupils in Fermanagh and Tyrone and developed its own bespoke 'Carbon Footprint Programme' to increase awareness of sustainability issues; climate change and help pupils reduce their environmental impact. Complementing existing curriculums, the programme aims to supplement science and geography lessons and encourage learning through a range of hands-on activities and experiments.
