NATS wins award for maths mentoring

A maths mentoring project established and operated for the past five years by the UK’s leading air traffic services provider, NATS has won the ‘Community Service/Development Project 2013’ award in the prestigious International Project Management Association Achievement (IPMA) Awards. This is the first year that the IPMA has given this award.

The award was collected by Project Manager, Richard Scott, at a ceremony held in Dubrovnik on 1 October, at the IPMA World Congress. The NATS project beat international competition from around the world, including a clean water initiative in Guatemala and an IT programme in Nepal.

The maths mentoring project used volunteer mentors from across NATS to help nearly 100 students at the King Richard School in the Paulsgrove district of Portsmouth to improve their understanding and confidence in maths.  The project has been running since 2008 and has raised the Grade A* to C Maths pass rate from 21% to 58% matching the average national rate that went from 55% to 58% in the same period.

The aim was to help the students gain better Maths grades from their predicted D to E grade. However, it’s not just academic skills the NATS volunteers passed on; mentors deployed their professional skills, in terms of supportive personal relations, coaching and teamwork, to show the students there are more options available to them in the future than they might have previously been aware of.

Richard Scott, NATS Maths Mentor Project Manager, said: ““Personally it has been a very rewarding experience. It’s an honour for the team to receive this award and be recognised with other great and worthwhile projects from around the world. No less importantly we’ve had a lot of thanks from the students and teaching staff at the school for the difference we’ve made”.

Frank Wood, GM Programmes, said: “I am really pleased for everyone who has been involved in this project. Winning this award not only recognises NATS commitment to its Corporate Social Responsibility; it also recognises the contribution that NATS people make in our local communities, a huge well done to everybody who was involved, I hope that you feel personally very proud of this achievement.”

The IPMA International Project Achievement Award is annually awarded to the most successful project teams in the world. The award identifies examples of excellent project management and acknowledges innovative projects that drive social and community change.