Abingdon Teacher Wins National Tutor of the Year Award

A teacher from Abingdon & Witney College has won a prestigious national industry award in London yesterday (July 4).

Gwyn Williams, 50 from Salisbury, was presented with the BTEC Tutor of the Year 2019 by TV presenter and well-known further education supporter Steph McGovern, at a glamorous ceremony attended by guests in the Great Hall at Westminster.

Mr Williams is part of the Public Services teaching staff faculty at Abingdon & Witney College, which was graded ‘Good’ with ‘Outstanding’ apprenticeships by Ofsted after its last inspection, and currently has the highest achievement rates in South East England for Level 3 qualifications*.

The accolade of BTEC Tutor of the Year 2019 was given to Mr Williams by Pearson, an awarding body for vocational and academic qualifications who have run BTECs for over 30 years.

The BTEC Awards, now in its ninth year, are an annual celebration of skills-based learning, established to acknowledge the achievements of exceptional BTEC students, apprentices, teachers and centres.

There are over 20 categories in which awards can be won, and for the first time they were all open to nominations from around the world. There were more than 700 nominations for the Tutor of the Year award this time around.

Mr Williams has been working at the college for five years, and incredibly only three of these as a full-time teacher, having joined from the Army’s 4th Battalion The Rifles where he was ranked colour sergeant.

Hannah Gibson, one of Mr Williams’ first year Level 3 Public Services students, said: “He is the most supportive tutor we have and he gets the best out of you, whilst building up your confidence and skills.”

Asked what the award means to him, he said, “I feel incredibly honoured to win this award, not to mention shocked and surprised! I love my job and the sector I work in – seeing students develop and progress to university and onto positive careers, to be an influential part of that, is a real privilege.”

Di Batchelor, Principial and CEO of Abingdon & Witney College, said:

“Gwyn is an outstanding and extremely committed lecturer to our students and is held in such high regard by his peers. The aspiration and ambition he has for his students is inspiring and to be recognised on a national scale, and probably beyond, is a fantastic achievement.”

“On top of all that, Gwyn is simply a wonderful individual and as a college we look forward to celebrating this award with him.”

*Latest Government NARTS official achievement rates for colleges in England

(July 2019)