Awards ceremony to celebrate ‘route to excellence’

Details have been announced of Northern Ireland’s first ever ceremony to recognise the achievements of private, public and voluntary sector organisations in their route to excellence.

The event – entitled “Celebrating Success” – will be held at the Ramada Hotel on January 28, and is being organised by the Centre for Competitiveness, who are responsible for the promotion and use of the European Foundation for Quality Management Excellence Framework in Northern Ireland.

On the night, those who have achieved success at key levels of the Framework will be celebrated, including those who have achieved the ‘Mark of Excellence’ (those organisations who achieve a score of 400 plus against the excellence model) and companies who have been recognised at both Regional National Awards (the most prestigious business prize available in NI and UK) and European Awards (the best in Europe)

Regional National and European Awards have been running for six years with previous recipients including St Mary’s College, NIE, Sam Mouldings, Nortel and BTNI, who have gone on to win Europe-wide recognition.

Bob Barbour, Chief Executive of the Centre for Competitiveness, commented:

“The ceremony is more than an awards ceremony – it is a celebration of the tremendous success stories of public, private and voluntary sector organisations who have reached the various key stages in the ‘journey to success’ benchmarked internationally.

“We have developed the concept of a ‘journey to success’ with levels of recognition to ensure companies and organisations are praised as they go through the challenging process of attaining the highest level of excellence possible. Excellence, and the commitment to attaining excellence, underpins a healthy, vibrant economy.” (CL)