An Award Winning Week for WWL! — The Women's Work Lab

Well Awards Season has been in full swing and Women’s Work Lab have come back winners!! Not one or twice but THREE times over two different awards ceremonies.

Tuesday November 28 saw the Employment Related Services Association (ERSA) Conference and Awards where we were in the running in three categories. ERSA represents those of us in the employability space and so not only is it lush to be with like-minded people, but it's a big deal to win anything! There were around 500 people in the room that night and every single person is doing wonderful work to support people back into employment.

First up our incredible relationship with Hargreaves Lansdown was recognised as 'Employer Partnership of the Year'! We were gutted Sally, our amazing Director of Learning, couldn't be with us (childcare!) but she was a huge part of this success.

*Samantha, Rachel, Sophia and Camilla from Women’s Work Lab at the awards along with Karen Cooke and Rosie Richards from Hargreaves Lansdown*

Next up the wonderful Samantha Cuffy picked up 'Employer Engagement Practitioner of the Year Award'. Having completed our first ever programme in 2020, Samantha just continues to shine. She's adored by our employer partners and Mums alike; combining her warm and open charm with ninja like organisational skills. We feel so lucky to have her

*Samantha on hearing her name announced!*

We were also mega proud of Sophia Mohammed for being shortlisted for 'Achiever of the Year'. To make the final five is a massive achievement in a hugely competitive category with many very deserving finalists. In the end noone could disagree with Gary Swan from Routes to Work winning. Gary's reaction to winning was pure joy and there was not a dry eye in the house.

Then after all that excitement it was back up to London on Thursday for the Social Enterprise UK Awards. Women’s Work Lab is one of an estimated 100,000 social enterprises in the UK – businesses that trade for a social or environmental purpose and reinvest their profits to take on some of the biggest challenges we face, from unemployment and homelessness to the climate crisis.

With stiff competition from many hundreds of entrants across 15 categories, these awards recognise the very brightest stars in the social enterprise sector. And we won AGAIN!

This truly was an award for the whole team as we were crowned ‘Education, Training & Jobs Social Enterprise of the Year. As you can see from Camilla, Anna and Rachel’s reactions we were pretty chuffed with the result!

Our awesome Operations Director Anna Wheeler did the acceptance honours and quite rightly dedicated it to the 300 Mums we've supported so far. And raised a toast to the next 300!

*Rachel, Anna and Camilla from Women’s Work Lab alongside Cait Kavanagh from Fidelity Insurance who sponsorted the category*

When Rachel and Camilla started the Women's Work Lab in 2019, they purposefully set it up as a community interest company. They have always seen it as belonging to the Mums we support and being recognised alongside so many other social enterprises with a similar ethos was really epic.

The awards this week have helped to round off what's been a monumental 2023 for us. Next year we're due to support c.200 Mums...so time to pack away the sequins and make sure we're back in January with a bang.

Merry Christmas everyone!