East Sussex County Council officer ‘completely surprised’ at British Empire Medal for services to skills, health and employment

Holly Jo Aquilina, who is Employability and Skills Strategy Manager, received the award for services to integrated skills, health and employment.

Holly, who lives in Lewes, said: “I was completely surprised because the sort of work I do, you don’t do it expecting an award. And I think those of us who work in employment and skills, we’re largely invisible. So it was absolutely lovely, a real honour.”

She said she leads an ‘amazing team’ of employment and skills specialists, adding: “When you get this kind of award it’s lovely but you don’t do it on your own.”

Holly said her work is about supporting people who want to improve their skills and, ideally, find them a job that is meaningful for them. She said she has been pushing for the past decade to bring partners together from different organisations to address people’s needs. For example, she would help connect people with health specialists in if they have mental health issues.

“It’s about overcoming wider barriers to work,” said Holly, adding that she encourages people to look at all the factors in people’s lives that might prevent them from working and then brings the right organisations in to help.

“It’s not quite so clear as ‘find a job’,” she said.

Holly started her current role ten years ago, being part of a team of two people. Now, she is in a team of 30 and said she has been able to deliver her role well because of the support of her staff and partner organisations.

“The work has really expanded,” she said. “It’s been a journey of growing this area for East Sussex and making sure that we’re working with lots of different groups.”

Holly is happy to have helped change lives and support thousands of people with improving their skills and moving into work over the past decade. She was also involved in creating Skills East Sussex (SES), a board that brings together a broad range of partners including universities, colleges and the DWP.

She said: “I am most proud of working with my excellent team to create opportunities through work and skills for thousands of local residents to date, and secondly, for bringing partnerships of organisations from different sectors together to collaboratively address the issues of low skills and high unemployment in the county.”