National News

Belfast learners receive just reward for commitment to learning

On Thursday 4 February 2010, the awards ceremony took place for the first of the NI ULF TSSA Learning project courses, British Sign Language (BSL). The ceremony took place in Belfast at 10am. People in attendance included Learning Organiser and project manager Mark Wilkinson, Translink's Director of Human Resources Mr Gordon Milligan, TSSA ULR Learning team and members of Belfast's Deaf Community and of course the most important people the recipients themselves.

Mark spoke of the morning's events,

"This was not only exciting for the award recipients themselves, but also for me. The awards were the culmination of the hard work, enthusiasm and commitment of the Sign Language learners. This was the first of such ceremonies, and hopefully other Translink staff will see the awards ceremony and be inspired to take part in future courses themselves."

Mark welcomed everyone to the ceremony, and he began by making a speech praising the efforts of the learners, emphasising that he knew how much they had enjoyed learning Sign language. He highlighted the aims of the TSSA/Translink Learning Project that all staff have the chance to benefit from learning opportunities. That staff had attended the BSLcourse in their own time, and had had to arrange for duty swaps proving their strong commitment to learning. Mark explained how important it was for learners to learn for their own self progression as well as for vocational reasons. Majella McAteer from the Deaf Association of N.Ireland "signed" a speech in which she praised the efforts of the learners, and thanked the project for the opportunity to teach hearing people to sign. Majella also emphasised the importance of how the Deaf Community ,as a whole in N.Ireland, felt more confident using public transport knowing that there were front line Translink staff who would be able to communicate with them.

Mr Milligan also congratulated the learners in their achievements and recognising the high level of commitment that they showed in order to pass the course. Mr Milligan went on to say how important he felt that staff pursued learning BSL, not just for their own reasons, but from Translink's perspective of how this would greatly benefit the company in its abilities to provide an even higher level of professional customer service.

The staff who participated in the course received two certificates from Mr Milligan; firstly for Deaf equality awareness and secondly for attaining the first level of Sign language. The staff were happy that their hard work and newly acquired qualifications were recognised and given the appreciation that they fully deserved.

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