Ellie Green, a Level 2 Foundation Year Access to Higher Education student from Neath College, has been awarded The Worshipful Livery Company of Wales Numeracy Award 2024/2025.
Ellie is a 25-year-old who has returned to education because she decided that she would like to become a midwife. Despite having a job and a young baby, she is very committed to her course. Her lecturers have remarked that her attendance, timekeeping, and attitude are excellent. She responds very well to feedback and contributes significantly in class. She is always happy to help others if needed. She approaches all tasks positively and with good humour. Her organisational skills are very good, and she completes all tasks on time.
Hilary Jones, Lecturer: Foundation, Adult and Community Learning, stated: “When Ellie started, she wasn’t confident in subtraction, multiplication, or division. After attending all her numeracy lessons, she’s able to do them using the methods learnt in class and to help explain the methods to other students who are unsure. She has successfully passed an Agored unit for Whole Numbers and is currently using the methods she learnt and applying them to decimals in preparation for the next assessment.
Foundation Access Co-ordinator at Neath College, Martina Syrovatkova, was delighted at the news and said: “Ellie is a good role model for her peers, friends, and family as she is always positive, very enthusiastic, yet calm and confident in herself. I have great confidence in her and what she is going to achieve in the future.”
“Thank you to the Worshipful Livery Company of Wales for their continued support and for recognising the efforts that Ellie has made in her studies. I have had the pleasure of witnessing first-hand Ellie’s improvement in financial numeracy skills and her dedication to the Foundation Access course. Ellie follows in the footsteps of previous winners, Katryna Hitchin in 2023 and last year’s recipient Abdurahim Nino.”
The Worshipful Livery Company of Wales was initially formed as the Welsh Livery Guild in 1993 by members of the City of London Livery Companies who wished to extend the Livery traditions within Wales, awarding talented students to encourage them to develop their skills in Higher Education and Employment. One of the primary aims of the Company is the promotion of education, arts, science, and technology in Wales. The Company achieves this aim by making Awards to the young people of Wales in order “To Nurture Welsh Talent.” This includes specific awards for those undertaking academic and vocational studies.
The Numeracy Awards recognise individuals who have made significant progress in Financial Literacy skills and enable the recipients to purchase hardware, software, books, etc., to help support continued Financial Literacy improvement.
Ellie plans to use the £500 prize money to help pay off her laptop and purchase a mouse to go with it. She is also thinking ahead and will buy more pens and books for her additional years in education. When in university, Ellie says she will be doing long shifts on placement and will be on her feet quite a lot, so she will also purchase some comfortable shoes to use while working.
When asked what it meant to win, Ellie said: “I am very grateful to have won this award; without the dedication of my tutors, I wouldn’t be doing as well as I am, and this would not have been possible. Being a new mum I was extremely nervous to be coming back to college and starting again. However, I have had the best five months learning something new and really expanding my mind. I’m thankful to everyone involved.”
