Education website gets rewarded

PRESS RELEASE

Tuesday, 8 November 2005

The British Standards Institution (BSI) has been honoured with an international
award for its education website.

The site, launched in April this year, won the inaugural European Committee for Standardization (CEN) and European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization (CENELEC) PR award for best website contribution.

The free site, www.bsieducation.org[Decommisioned February 2016], uses practical examples and activities for students from the age of 7-19 and their teachers to learn more about standards and the impact they have on every day life and business.

Awards judge Geneviève Feyt, Public Relations & Communications Manager at CENELEC, said, “I was really impressed by BSI’s efforts to make the world of standards more accessible to children and students. This really illustrates their strong commitment to make standardization more visible and understandable to the public at large.”

The award was open to all members of the two European standardization bodies and the criteria used to judge the websites included creativity, design, content, clarity of message, target group and accessibility.

Liz Williams, Education and Communications Executive at BSI who oversaw the development of the website, said, "I'm delighted that the British Standards Education website has been given this award.

"All those involved worked hard to ensure that the materials on the site fit well with the needs of teachers and students, are relevant to subjects taught in UK primary and secondary schools, and that our messages are communicated in an interesting and fun way."

What the judges liked about the BSI Education website:

Innovative – the website is creative, well thought out and clearly aimed at its target audience
Practical - material from the site draws on real examples, can be used in the classroom and adapted to different age categories
Interesting and realistic – the site provides fun activities and games to demonstrate the application of standards in life and business
Design – the site uses an attractive colour scheme to grab and maintain the users attention and present material in an appealing way
Mike Low, Director of BSI British Standards, said, “This is a great achievement for our education team and rewards their determination to bring the benefits and influence standards have on every aspect of our lives, within the reach of children of all ages.”

Ms Feyt added, “Someone once said that standards are grey. Well not anymore, our BSI colleagues showed that they can be colourful.”

- Ends -

Notes to editors

• Award – the award was presented at the CEN/CENELEC annual PR Forum held this year in Ljubljana, Slovenia. The jury was composed of Ruth Siebicke (CEN), Geneviève Feyt (CENELEC), Saso Boscon (SIST) and Bernard Mertens (CENELEC). www.cenorm.be or www.cenelec.org

• Website - the education website launched in April 2005 was funded by the National Standardization Strategic Framework (NSSF). For further information on the NSSF please visit www.nssf.info

• www.bsieducation.org[Decommisioned February 2016] for teachers: the site provides a range of teachers’ notes, lesson plans, cross-curricular links, activity sheets and games relating to British Standards for the age groups 7-11, 11-14, 14-19. It offers a clear and accessible approach to teaching students more about Standards for Design and Technology, Engineering, Manufacturing, Applied Science and other subjects.

• www.bsieducation.org[Decommisioned February 2016] for students: students from 7-19 can access information on standards, play games to test their skill and understanding, and complete activities relevant to their area of interest, age and education level.
• The website is approved by the National Grid for Learning (NGfL)

• BSI – BSI British Standards is the UK’s national standards body, working with government, business and consumers to represent UK interests and facilitate the production of British, European and international standards to meet economic and social needs.

For media information:

Lucy Fulton
Public Relations Officer
Tel: +44 (0) 20 8996 7248
Mob: +44 (0) 7717 451 990
Email: lucy.fulton@bsi-global.com

For further information on British Standards please visit:
www.bsi-global.com/british_standards