Colin Wood, Technical Training Manager at Mears, a leading social housing repairs and maintenance specialist, has been honoured with an Inspire training award in recognition of his work teaching construction skills to young people in Hackney.
As an independent charity and Education Business Partnership for Hackney, Inspire supports the education, training and development of young people, and awards commendations to people and businesses that help youths achieve their aspirations for the future.
The award, presented to Colin by London Labour Assembly Member Jennette Arnold, was given for his 'enabling of disengaged students to get back on track and creating a nurturing environment to meet the needs of students'. Colin said: "The training is always challenging, but also worthwhile and very rewarding. I was delighted to hear that I had been nominated, and I was amazed to hear that I had won the award."
Inspire's programmes rely on the contributions of local organisations such as Mears which play a vital role in inspiring and supporting Hackney's young people, and offer training with specialists.
"I would like to congratulate Colin on this well-deserved commendation," said Ken Mantock, Mears' director of community and environment, "and for his support of our commitment at Mears to helping the communities in which we work."
Ken continued: "Our partnership with Inspire in Hackney, alongside the training centres that we support at Ealing, Welwyn, Peterborough and Wigan, and the training provisions we offers at our branches, all serve to help us achieve our goal of providing career and skills development opportunities to those who need them the most."