College student footballers have been named Under 19 Team of the Year at the inaugural Birmingham Sports Awards 2013, following a season of trophy success.

The Birmingham Metropolitan College team were unbeaten in their last nine games and scored a hat-trick of wins, becoming West Midlands County Cup Winners, Three County League Champions and National seven-a-side champions.

Team coach Nick Heath said: “We’re all really proud of this award because it recognises the achievements of our 18 players over the last 12 months.

“Week after week, the team demonstrated a desire to play at the highest level and their hard work continued to pay off.”

Staff and students raised more than £500 for charity through a cake-filled coffee morning at their college.

Doncaster College level two and three catering students ran the event at the college’s Waterfront restaurant, in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support.

Contributions to a tombola, cake stalls, along with sweets-in-a-jar and guess-the-name competitions were organised by catering, travel and business students.

Jane Fishwick, assistant director for hospitality, travel, business and accounting said: “We chose Macmillan due to the number of lives affected by cancer.

“We have had two young learners affected in the past two years, as well as lots of family members across the staff and students. Both these students are doing well currently.”

A make-up specialist returned to her college to explain how she laid the foundation of her career.

Lydia Birch-Hampson studied level two and three beauty therapy at South Cheshire College and now works as a product specialist for Chester-based Mac make-up.

She said: “I’ve had a fantastic time after completing my college course and looking back I really appreciate what I learned at college because it has stood me in good stead.” Lydia has also used her skills at national events such as London Fashion Week and the show Dancing on Ice. She added: “Hopefully, they found the demonstrations and talk interesting. I told students the make-up industry is massively competitive, but it’s also very rewarding.”

Beauty and make-up lecturer Maxine Smith said: “Visits like this from former students inspire our current students to set their sights high.”

A West Sussex duo were in the spotlight as they designed the lighting for a promotional video for a group of session musicians.

Northbrook College theatre production students Charlie Howsego and Alex Allen worked on a live remix of Beyoncé’s Crazy in Love and the Beastie Boys’ Intergalactic.

Session guitarist Oli Corrigan, who has worked with Jessie J, said: “I can’t commend the students that worked with us enough.

“Both Alex and Charlie were in full control of the lighting setup we used for the video. They were fantastic team players and worked extremely well with our video production team.

“Charlie and Alex also had some excellent suggestions which were used in the video and they really contributed.” The video, Beyonce and Beastie Boys Live Band Remix HD, has had more than 110,000 YouTube views.

A rising star shone in an international astronomy photographer of year competition, clinching third place for his photo of the Great Nubula.

MidKent College student Samuel Copley, aged 16, from Hoo, Kent, was highly commended in his age group and won £125.

He produced an image of the cloud of gas and dust to the south of the Orion’s Belt constellation.

Samuel said: “I would like to be a professional astronomy photographer but you can’t really make a living out of it.

“It’s more of a hobby-turned-obsession for me so I was very proud to be highly commended in the competition.”

A catering student from the mountains of Nepal has scaled new heights by proving he is the best young chef in North East England.

Darlington College NVQ level three catering and hospitality student Man Thapa scooped first prize in an inter-college competition involving trainees from all over the north east.

The 20-year-old, who is originally from Bokhara, in Nepal, moved to Darlington three-and-a-half years ago, when his father retired from the Gurkhas.

Man captured the judges’ attention with his chicken chasseur, which he had just 90 minutes to prepare.

He said his dream was to one day become head chef in a top London hotel.

It was back to the classroom for a group of budding teachers, who are already helping FE students improve at maths and English.

Twelve people have started teacher-training courses at Canterbury College Teaching Academy. They all hope to become GCSE maths and English teachers in the FE sector.

As part of the course, they are helping teach numeracy and literacy skills to students who are studying other subjects at the college, but only achieved a D grade or less in GCSE maths and English.

Former estate agency accounts manager Victoria Dagg, 26, who is retraining as a maths teacher, said: “I’ve sat in on lessons and have even taken charge of some for short periods.”

Students who did not achieve A to C in maths and English GCSE must now study them alongside their college courses, under new government rules.

Halloween arrived early for media make-up students in Lancashire who have been helping a farmer plan his annual spooky attraction.

Eighteen Hopwood Hall VRQ level three students will create all of the gory special effects make-up for Terry Bork’s Farm of Terror event.

Student Lauron Stirrup, aged 28, said: “We are super excited and can’t wait to start our work experience. It’s going to be amazing.”

This will be the fourth year Terry has run the event. He said: “It’s going to be the biggest yet.

“These students are the most enthusiastic we have ever seen and we can’t wait to see what make-up they produce.”