Dr Stan Higgins receives Outstanding Achievement award

Picture taken at 2017 award ceremony

Earlier this month we reported that long time CIEC supporter Dr Stan Higgins has been awarded a well-deserved OBE in the New Year’s Honours.  Now we have heard that Stan has been honoured again; this time by the North East Process Industry Cluster (NEPIC) from which he has recently retired as Chief Executive.  He received an Outstanding Achievement award at the annual NEPIC  awards dinner on Friday evening.

Stan speaking at the 2017 NEPIC award ceremony

Recipients are given £2000 to be spent supporting school children in a STEM related project.  CIEC are incredibly proud that Stan has chosen to donate his prize to Children Challenging Industry (CCI).  Stan explained his reason for this in the speech that he gave as he received his award 

“the Children Challenging Industry Primary School Programme is the most effective way to get young people interested in STEM subjects in an industrial context. It really does excite them and we have the evidence to show that”.

As Stan explained to us last time we interviewed him, it is possible for companies to organise their own activity days with local schools.  However, he believes that although these days are likely to be enjoyable for staff and children alike, they are unlikely to have a long term effect upon children’s attitudes to either STEM or industry.  Consequently, he spoke passionately about the importance of industry investing in CCI.

“I would ask more companies in this room to support the Children Challenging Industry programme and still have the benefit of the nice day, but with the real lasting impact that CCI has on both the children and their teachers. In part because there is continued professional follow through when you have gone back to work”.  

Stan was in no doubt that by choosing to invest his prize in CCI it would definitely

“impact on thousands of local children and hundreds of primary school teachers”.

All of us at CIEC are grateful to Stan for his generosity in donating his prize to CCI, as it is only with this kind of financial support that we are able to continue the programme.  We are also delighted that someone that we respect and admire as much as Stan Higgins holds CCI in such high esteem and recognises its long term benefits.

Thank you Stan!