On Thursday 13 July 2017, the recently redeveloped Harrogate College website received recognition by being announced as the winner of a prestigious National Heist Award.
Nominated in the “Best Website” category, the new Harrogate College website, part of the Hull College Group, (www.hull-college.ac.uk; www.harrogate.ac.uk; www.goole-college.ac.uk) fought off impressive competition from regional colleges and global university brands to walk away with the Gold Award at a ceremony that took place inside Manchester’s glitzy Principal Hotel.
Judged by a panel of marketing industry experts and presented by Strictly Come Dancing’s Anton du Beke, the Gold Award recognises the creativity of execution, as well as site functionality and the effectiveness of web strategy including the user experience.
Other institutions in the running for the trophy were Pearson College London, University College Birmingham, University of Liverpool, University of South Wales, University of St. Gallen, and previous winners of the title include Goldsmiths University of London in 2016.
Developed with Hull agency Bluestorm, the revamped website clearly demonstrated to the judging panel how it had quickly achieved the objectives set since the launch in August 2016. The prime objective was to support potential students to search for and apply for courses, and at the time of the entry submission, the numbers of student applications had risen by 60% compared to the equivalent period from the year prior.
Matthew Lilley, Hull College Group Director of Marketing said:
We are absolutely delighted to receive this award in recognition of our main website and the hard work of everyone who has been involved in the development.”
We feel the new site really paves the way for education websites and is playing a major role in helping our potential students to search and apply for courses that match their future career aspirations.
Our ‘Career Coach’ web tool is designed to show students the type of qualifications and skills needed to access particular job roles, many of which are available at Harrogate College.
John Basker, Director of Bluestorm said:
It’s a fantastic achievement to claim ‘Gold’ at the prestigious Heist awards, and to do so, we have had to show creativity, technical innovation and that we had created a great user experience.
