Bridgend College wins Silver at the prestigious Heist Awards 2025
21/07/2025Bridgend College is thrilled to have been awarded Silver for Best Event Experience at this year’s Heist Awards. The Awards celebrate excellence in education marketing and communications across the UK, and are hosted annually by Havas People, an organisation that has supported the education sector for over 30 years.
Held at the Royal Armouries Museum in Leeds, the gala awards ceremony was attended by professionals within the Further Education (FE) and Higher Education (HE) sectors. Across all award categories, Bridgend College was one of only five FE colleges in the UK to be shortlisted, and one of only three Welsh institutions, alongside Cardiff Metropolitan University and the University of South Wales.
The College was shortlisted for the award following its pitch at Skills Cymru, Cardiff’s premier skills, career and apprenticeship event. Over 5,000 students attended the 2-day event, including many within the target audience of year 11 and 12 students.
The Marketing Team at the College based the theme of their stand around an American locker room, where students could ‘Unlock their Potential’ at the ‘Bridgend College Locker Room’. The theme resonated with the target age group and had a clear association with an educational environment. The locker room was complete with interactive lockers, selfie yearbook stations, and a custom basketball court floor printed in-house. Aligning with the College’s sustainability objective, the use of technology was a major part of the visitor experience which was achieved through working closely with specialist IT colleagues to program a completely bespoke randomiser for the lockers.
“A genuinely innovative and stand out project that really spoke to the audience. This was a truly creative solution in a literally crowded space.”
Judges comments
Bridgend College was awarded Gold at the Heist Awards 2023 in the same category and wanted to build on that success further. The concept, planning and creative execution for the ‘Bridgend College Locker Room’ was completely generated and managed in-house. Sustainability, accessibility, and bilingualism were all things that were intentionally considered as part of the planning and resulted in a completely unique event experience for visitors.
“It is wonderful to have been recognised at this year’s Heist Awards. The award is testament to the team’s creative vision, innovative thinking and focus on the target audience, which combined to have real impact. Working with colleagues across the College really brought the event experience to life, showing the power of collaboration and teamwork.”
Helen Major, Marketing Manager
