A Birmingham student was recognised for his achievements in education at The Fostering Network’s Fostering Excellence Awards last week. Bishal Chanda, aged 21, received the Fostering Achievement for Education Award.  He first came into his foster carers’ lives at four years old with a range of special needs, but his foster carers advocated for him to attend a mainstream school and supported him throughout. Bishal stayed with his foster carers until he started at Nottingham University where he currently studies Bio Medical Sciences. He still returns home in the holidays.

A Sandwell librarian has won the Public Library Champion of the Year Award for her outstanding work with local people. Julie McKirdy won the award from the Chartered Institute of Library and Information for her 'outstanding frontline work' to make a real difference  to people who use the library. Julie is library supervisor at Thimblemill Library and the award follows the British Empire medal she received from the Queen earlier this year. 

University of North Texas recently presented a $10,000 scholarship to an 8-year-old girl after her adorable video went viral on social media. In the video, Jordin Phipps is seen wearing the university’s t-shirt while she is reciting a motivational mantra that she learned at her local elementary school. In her mantra, she says, “I will start my day in a positive way! I will be respectful with the words that I say. I will pay attention and I will do my best and I will study hard for every test!”

Walsall College Student Engagement Officer, Helen Griffiths has received the 2016 individual Learner Voice Practitioner of the Year, for her outstanding commitment to empowering learners to use their voice and make a real difference within the college. The winners were announced at an awards ceremony, which took place in August and hosted by The Learner Voice Practitioners (LVP) Network.

Severn Trent has welcomed its record breaking new graduate intake to the company, while also starting the search for next year’s batch. The company, which is based in Coventry and which supplies water and waste water services to the Midlands and mid-Wales, has taken on 45 graduates this year, compared to 27 last year, having already welcomed a record 80 new apprentices to the company.

TFEP has teamed up with a small number of high calibre Universities and not-for-profit research institutions in the United States, The Caribbean and Europe to create The Caribbean Training and Research Group (CARI-TaRG). The Group will be able to provide access to the best training and research expertise in all aspects of entrepreneurship to support economic development policies in the Caribbean.