Eastleigh College, part of South Hampshire College Group, has been announced as Catering College of the Year in the 2025 Public Sector Catering Awards.
The ceremony, which took place on Thursday 24 April at the Hilton Metropole in London, was attended by over 600 guests representing all areas of the sector, such as education, armed forces, healthcare, universities and colleges. Over 100 competitors were in the running across 19 categories, with overall proceedings led by celebrity host and magician Ben Hamlin. Guests also enjoyed a three-course meal and a special raffle in aid of the Clink Charity, which aims to rehabilitate prisoners through nurturing hospitality and catering skills in a customer service environment.
Eastleigh College’s triumph in the Catering College category, sponsored by AroundNoon, recognised the exceptional standard of teaching and delivery in the Hospitality and Catering department, including its extensive range of industry collaborations, excellent career progression stories, and 100% retention rate across all subject levels. The student-led East Avenue Restaurant, also run by the Hospitality and Catering department, is the highest-rated restaurant in the Eastleigh area, with a 4.9-star rating on Tripadvisor.
Richard Carter, Lecturer in Hospitality and Catering at Eastleigh College, attended the event and commented: “We are delighted to receive such a prestigious award and this is a fantastic testimony to the hard work and efforts of our entire team, as well as our amazing students. It’s an honour to be recognised on the national stage in this way and we are committed to building upon this success as a department as we continue through 2025.”
David Foad, Editor of Public Sector Catering Magazine, said: “We have been absolutely blown away by the response we have received to the 2025 Public Sector Catering Awards. Nominations have flooded in and are almost 40% up on last year, which itself was the best ever. It shows that despite the massively challenging environment in which public sector caterers have to operate, they still see huge value in supporting their stand-out teams and individuals in the great job they do. In an industry in which such valuable work is often done with so little recognition, they obviously see the Public Sector Catering Awards as offering a chance to put that right.”
The Public Sector Catering Awards, formerly the Cost Sector Catering Awards, were initially launched in 1995 before a rebrand in 2020 to better reflect the sector that nominees operate in. Now in its 30th year of operation, these awards have a long and decorated Roll of Honours list, recognising industry pioneers from across the UK. 2025 saw a record for most entries received, with a total of 242 entries, proving to be a significant 35% jump on the 179 entries received last year.
For a full list of winners on the night, please click here.
For any further queries, please visit our website at www.shcg.ac.uk or email [email protected].
