Written by Five Autodesk Learning Partners were recognised for their achievements through the annual Autodesk Learning Partner Excellence Awards 2023. The recipients from across the EMEAR region were presented with their awards by Kyra Ward, Director Autodesk Learning Partner program and John Heffron, Finance Director KnowledgePoint, at the Learning Partner Summit event held in Istanbul, Turkey.
Go Beyond ALP 2023: First Option, Egypt
This award was presented to Kamal Shawky of First Option in recognition of the provider’s collaboration with government departments and other stakeholders to provide training to thousands of students and graduates. First Option delivered product training across the Autodesk portfolio spanning from Architecture Engineering & Construction (AEC) and Building Information Modeling (BIM) solutions to manufacturing and the Fusion 360 platform. The initiative has seen First Option qualify university students for the digital transformation of the construction and manufacturing sectors. The initiative supports Egypt Vision 2030, of which digital transformation is a pillar.
AAP Star 2023: Nziza Training Academy, Rwanda
The AAP Star award recognises Learning Partners which are working with academic institutions, educators and students supporting them to leverage Autodesk software. Nziza was selected as the worthy winner of this year’s award for its work to establish a campus-wide and cross-disciplinary collaboration learning environments in Rwanda. The project included handpicking young college graduates and training them on Autodesk tools to a level that they were trusted by the government to be part of delivering the project. The collaborative programme is crucial in helping young people develop the skills employers need.
The winners could not attend the event due to unforeseen circumstances but the award will be presented to Alexandre Nzirorera, CEO, at a later occasion.
Stronger Together 2023: Proddesign Training, Tunisia
This award was presented to Hana Elleuch from Proddesign Training in Tunisia, in recognition of the training provider’s collaborative efforts. Proddesign is currently in the process of launching a digital learning solution that enables real-time communication and collaboration between instructors and their learners. In addition to these efforts, the winner has also been a proactive member of the Autodesk partner community in the past year by regularly sharing insight on the AEC industry to support peers and customers in the Autodesk ecosystem.
Fusion for Education 2023: Modena, South Africa
The Fusion for Education Award recognises a Learning Partner which has put in a particular effort in promoting the Autodesk Fusion 360 platform to the education market. For many years Modena has been passionate in its support for education across South Africa, assisting schools, universities and students in accessing the different support solutions available for education. In the past year Modena has delivered multiple training workshops to the post-secondary sector, run school holiday training in high schools and delivered a pilot project together with the Education Department delivering training to educators that is currently being developed into a national plan. The judges recognised that not only does Modena have very broad engagement with education, it has also focused on Fusion 360 and support to Autodesk to establish the platform as a next generation solution in South Africa. Heather McDade collected the award on behalf of Modena.
ACI of the Year: Ümit Kiliç from UKHOTECH, Turkey
The ACI (Autodesk Certified Instructor) of the year award was given to Ümit Kiliç, an instructor who has trained 100+ students with 100% satisfaction rating in the past and thereby maintained an active ACI badge. One of the projects delivered by Ümit was a workshop on BIM for architects and engineers from Izmir Metropolitan Municipality General Directorate of Construction Affairs, which led to that Metropolitan Municipality and the contractor companies actively using BIM software and workflow in projects. This also included training 200 architects on Autodesk software solutions.
Commenting on the awards, Astrid D. Øie, Autodesk Learning Partner Channel Manager, and Tomas Karlsson, Sr. Manager of Channel Services at KnowledgePoint, jointly said:
The judging panel had a tough job of selecting the recipients of these annual awards. There’s some amazing work going on across the network – but we believe we’ve chosen some worthy recipients. They really have made a difference to the skills landscapes in their countries – supporting many people in achieving their upskilling and reskilling ambitions.
Given the challenges of the pandemic, we’d not been able to come together as a community for the last three years. It was great to be able to recognise the work of these Autodesk learning partners in person.
Astrid D. Øie & Tomas Karlsson
