Author: FE Week Reporter

A group of savvy widows have mastered power drilling and car mechanics at college after realising they couldn’t use their husbands’ toolkits. Social group The Jolly Dollies, founded by Yvonne Vann, has been trying out DIY  — plaster boarding and putting up shelves — during taster courses at Weston College’s Construction and Engineering Centre of Excellence […]

Young chemists in Crewe spent a day testing the purity of paracetamol, using an infra-red spectrometer and thin layer chromatography techniques. Two groups of A level chemistry students, including Heidi Falvey, 18, (pictured), took part in ‘spectroscopy in a suitcase’ workshops at South Cheshire College. The sessions were delivered by postgraduate students from the University […]

Olympic cyclist Lucy Martin went back to her roots when she dropped in on a Cheshire college. Lucy talked to sport students at Cronton Sixth-Form College, where she studied A levels four years ago, about the commitment and training required to compete at the highest level. “It was great to go back and see all […]

Outdoor activity students in Wales took their first steps towards becoming walk leaders after a gruelling training expedition. Second–year students at Coleg Gwent’s Usk campus, training for a sports leader L3 BELA award, covered a 45km route in the Black Mountains from Monmouth to Hay–on Wye. The group spent two weeks planning the trek and […]

A London student has scooped the top prize at an awards ceremony for JTL electrical apprentices. Giannini Chambers, 21, was named the capital’s best apprentice at the training charity’s London Regional Awards for electrical installation. The ceremony was held on HMS Belfast. As well as being handed a trophy by Denis Hird, JTL’s chief executive, the […]

Young designers in Durham took over a city centre shop to display sculpture, ceramics, textiles and jewellery. Applied arts for enterprise students at Cleveland College of Art & Design (CCAD) staged a mini-exhibition at the former Durham City visitor centre as part of a project to make creative use of vacant premises. They spent two […]

Two young midland stylists have been awarded a top hairdressing qualification. Louise Davis, 24, and Sarah Harris, 21, who both work at Tanya Harris Hairdressing in Leicester, recently qualified as Wella Master Colour Experts. The duo, who have been studying with Wella at their state-of-the-art studio in London for the past year, now join a […]

A young footballer says his selection to play for England Colleges is the “best birthday” present that his father could have asked for. Jack Stanger, 18, from Sunderland, received the news on his father’s birthday. “When I got the call to tell me I had been selected I was ecstatic,” he said. “It was the best […]

Three catering students from Surrey have made it through the first stages of a competition for young chefs. Sam Hutchinson, Jake Solman-Wood, both 19, and Mathew Clayton, 18, from Carshalton College, are now in the London heats of the 2012/13 Brakes Student Chef Team Challenge. The hospitality and catering students created a meal for four […]