Gateshead College named best place to work

Staff at Gateshead College are celebrating after scooping a host of awards at the North East’s Best Places to Work 2018 ceremony.

The college beat off stiff competition to be named Best Not-For-Profit company and was also ranked the top company to work for in the North East at The Journal’s inaugural awards which celebrate the region’s best workplaces. The judges praised the college for its inspirational leadership, commitment to staff development and the role it plays in its community.

The awards were launched as part of NCJ Media’s Invest in the North East campaign, a key aim of which is to make the North East a better place in which to live and work. Shortlisted companies included Ubisoft Reflections, Home Group, Muckle LLP, Eversheds Sutherland and Northumbria University, who all place great importance on investing in their staff.

Judges ranked entrants on a range of criteria, including perks and benefits offered to staff, policies to provide a good work-life balance and the role a company plays in its local community. Other factors considered included policies for staff development, ways in which companies ensure staff engagement and how they look after employees’ physical and mental health.

As well as taking the top accolade for being the best place to work, college Principal and Chief Executive Judith Doyle CBE was named Best Boss at the ceremony at The Biscuit Factory.

Judith said “I’m so proud that the college has been recognised as the best place to work here in the North East. Creating an inspiring and fulfilling workplace where people valued directly links to business performance – it’s the right thing to do and makes good business sense.

“We all share a very clear sense of purpose here at Gateshead College and that is to give our students the employment edge, everyone consistently goes the extra mile to ensure that we deliver on this and I’m very proud of the brilliant team that work at the college.
“It was great to be amongst other companies who share these values and the awards demonstrate why the North East is such a vibrant and rewarding place to work and invest.”

These new accolades come on the back of the announcement earlier this year, which saw the college being recognised as the best-performing college in the North East for the fourth year running as well as the second top in the country.