Rotherham College Moulage Wins Beacon Awards

Last week on Wednesday 24th February the staff of Rotherham College’s Media Hair and Make-up Department celebrated their success at winning the Beacon Award last November with their students and key guests from The Edge Foundation, AoC and Rotherham Hospital.

There were speeches congratulating the department and students by Caroline Rowley from the AoC and Jane Samuels from the Edge Foundation followed the presentation of the cheque for £5,000 and the evening was concluded by a delicious four course meal prepared by the Wharncliffe Restaurant students.

The Hair and Media Make-up department stunned judges with their revolutionary course modules where students researched and created moulage effects. Moulage effects are used to simulate the symptoms of illnesses and injuries on state of the art manikins.

The college’s partnership with Rotherham’s local NHS hospital was highly commended, Louise Barnett, Chief Executive at the Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust said “Simulation plays a key role in supporting students gaining skills in a realistic environment which ultimately will help them to be effective technicians and support the delivery of high quality patient care.”

Kelly Carr, Curriculum Leader of Media Make-up said “We were honoured to be nominated and win such a prestigious award and gain recognition for the full team effort, from staff, students and the NHS. The award has opened new avenues already such as working with the NHS, simulated aid developers, Sheffield Hallam University paramedic graduates and Leeds Beckett University who we deliver workshops to.”

The Media Make-up students have also taken part in a mass casualty event in London in partnership with the London Fire Brigade which started on Monday 29th February to test the response skills of emergency services.

The Beacon Award was a great achievement, especially as “it is judged by colleges, so there is intense scrutiny by peers, it is tough and winning is a big deal”, said Caroline Rowley.

Jane Samuels from the Edge Foundation said “This initiative is fabulous, we’ve never seen anything quite like this. What made it stand out was that it met all the criteria and exceeded them.”

If you would like to hear more information about Rotherham College please visit www.rotherham.ac.uk