Guli has recipe for television success

A former Manchester TV and radio production student cooked up a storm on his first job for a new ITV cooking show.

Guglielmo ‘Guli’ Soreca, aged 29, who is originally from Italy but studied at Hopwood Hall College, spent five weeks filming Gino’s Italian Escape with celebrity chef Gino D’Acampo.

Guli, who went on to Leeds University, said: “I learned so much at college and really appreciate my tutors and the opportunities the course gave me.

“When I arrived at university I had a real advantage over many of my peers in terms of both practical skills and organising a production.”

Sarah gets a taste for Eel Pie Island magic

A long-lost mural from a legendary 1960s rhythm and blues venue has been brought back to life by a London art and design student.

The painting of a jazz band was once part of Twickenham’s Eel Pie Island Hotel, which hosted music icons like The Rolling Stones, Rod Stewart and Eric Clapton.

The hotel burned down in 1971, but Richmond upon Thames College student Sarah Blackwell, aged 18, recreated the mural using a black and white photo of the original for an exhibition on the island’s history.

Sarah said: “I’m really pleased with the end result and will be forever grateful that I’ve had my own personal taste of the magic of Eel Pie Island.”

Lecturer wins Person of the Year award

A lecturer who taught the first ever digital marketing course in Northern Ireland has been named Digital Industries Person of the Year.

Kathryn Pyper received the award for her dedication to teaching at Belfast Metropolitan College and the success of her marketing campaigns for the Northern Ireland Tourist Board as part of the CultureTech Festival of digital technology, media, music and art.

Christin Watson, chair of the Charter Institute of Marketing Ireland and a former student of Kathryn, said: “Kathryn is a talented digital marketer. Her passion for the marketing profession is inspiring.”

Kathryn began teaching the digital marketing course in 2010 and since then has seen more than 60 students complete the qualification, with a 100 per cent pass rate this year.

Bags aiming to make it big in Japan

Fashion students from Manchester have bagged themselves the chance to see their designs turned into reality and sold in Japan.

Higher education fashion and textile students at Walsall College were given a month to design a young person’s business bag by Brady Bags, a Walsall brand that is growing in Japan.

Rachael Stanford’s design was chosen as overall winner.

She said: “I was very excited when my design was picked and seeing it come off the production line was an amazing feeling.”

However, Krystal Vidal impressed the company so much she was chosen as a second winner.

She said: “It’s great to be rewarded for the hard work I put in.”

The sample bags are now being shown to Japanese distributors.

Flag honours 89 miners who perished

Doncaster College students have revealed a flag they designed in memory of miners who lost their lives at a nearby colliery.

The flag was raised in a special ceremony by Doncaster Central MP and former cabinet minister Rosie Winterton and former miner Dennis Knowles.

It will fly at the Miners’ Memorial Garden to honour the 89 miners who died at Markham Main pit between 1920 and 1996.

The ceremony was attended by many of the miners’ relatives.

Student Daniella Houghton, said “This was a really emotional experience and it showed just how much our work means to people.”

Mr Knowles asked first year level three diploma in creative media production students to design the flag, which was then created by college visual arts staff.

Mexican feast for students

South Cheshire College said ‘Hola!’ to chilli, fajitas and amigo meatballs at a Mexican taster day staged for staff and students by the college’s catering outlets.

The catering team entered into the Mexican fiesta spirit by wearing somberos and ponchos and decorating the cafes with Mexican flags.

Linda Vickers, crescent café catering supervisor, said: “This was our first taster day of the new college year and the Mexican snacks and dishes went down a treat.”

The Mexican tasters on offer were provided by Abergavenny Fine Food Company

Its regional account manager Zak Workman, who came along to the event, said: “Hopefully, the taster day will encourage staff and students at the College to try and buy different foods in the future.”

Arturo will be stylist for capital shoppers

London student has gone from styling homes to styling celebrity hair after changing career and landing a job at Harrods Salon.

He has now been taken on as junior assistant stylist at the world famous department store’s salon.

“I wanted to be a stylist because I love meeting people, changing people’s opinions about their looks and being creative,” said Arturo.

“It’s a very demanding role, and you have to be 100 per cent professional all the time.

“Everyone is really high-profile and you don’t want to get things wrong… but I completely enjoy it.”

Free meals should go to all ‘poor’ 16 and 17-year-olds

Extending free school meals to full-time 16-to-18 year old FE students is a popular move across the political spectrum. Mark Corney puts the case for this applying to part-time students too.

Everyone is claiming victory over the decision to extend “free meals” to poor 16-to-18 year olds studying at FE colleges.

Costing about £40m per year, this measure will create a level playing field with those staying on in school sixth forms or attending pupil referral units.

Labour MPs are saying they won it, even though Labour’s priority is to extend free childcare for working parents of three and four-year- olds at a cost of £800m, funded through a higher bank levy.

The Liberal Democrats are saying they won it, although the prize they were after is the extra £560m to fund free meals to all children of infant school age.

Meanwhile, the Conservatives agreed to both parts of the package as a quid pro quo for a tax allowance for married couples also likely to cost £600m.

It is a safe bet that DfE will limit free meals to full-time students”

No sooner had the announcement been made, however, FE experts were on social network sites asking how would the £600m free meals package be funded.

The details will have to wait until the Autumn Statement (usually made in early December) but presumably the Chancellor has concluded the country can afford it. The fiscal deficit between April to August this year is £3.8BN lower than a year ago, as higher tax receipts outweigh higher spending.

Furthermore, the deficit looks set to be less than the predicted £120bn for 2013/14.

If, therefore, free meals to poor 16 to 18-year- olds at colleges is funded from new money rather than cuts elsewhere, the measure will end a totally unjustifiable anomaly.

The facts speak for themselves.

Around 75,000 pupils in Year 11 are eligible and claim free school meals.

On leaving secondary education, however, only 20,000 continue to receive them because they stay on in school sixth forms or attend pupil referral units.

Neither the 30,000 at fe colleges nor the 7,500 at sixth form colleges receive free meals.

The remaining 18,000 do not receive them because they are either employed or not in education, employment ot training (Neet).

Extending free meals to 16 to 18-year-olds studying at college from households with income of less than £16,190 per year could mean 100,000 full-time college students receiving free lunches

Around 70,000 young people aged 16 to 17, however, study part-time. Nearly all of them study at college but only a small minority are employed.

From September 2015, the participation age will increase to the 18th birthday. Part-time study without a job of 20 hours or more does not count as participation under the legislation.

So it is a safe bet that Department for Education will limit free meals to full-time students.

Nonetheless, there are obvious problems with defining eligibility for free meals by type of institution or type of provision.

Surely, the Coalition wants colleges to offer non-employed traineeships to 16 and 17-year- olds?

If these young people come from poor households, they must have the right to a free lunch.

Otherwise, another injustice will creep into the system.

No doubt, the Coalition also wants independent providers to deliver traineeships.

Disenfranchising poor 16 to 17-year-olds on traineeships delivered by private providers from free meals would be scandalous.

Traineeships, we know, are not intended for the most disaffected 16 to 17-year-olds, but they are aimed at reducing the Neet category and those who cannot find a job with an apprenticeship.

They will certainly assist 16 to 17-year-olds from some of the poorest households in the country to access training.

More than 5 per cent of all young people eligible for free meals at the end of Year 11 have been Neet for at three months and a further 10 per cent have been so for two months. And past youth cohort studies have shown unemployed 16 and 17-year-olds are more likely to have parents who are unemployed or in low paid jobs than those young people in full-time education.

Free meals should follow the learner rather than the institution or course and disadvantaged 16 and 17-year-olds on traineeships should be eligible for free meals irrespective of the provider.

Mark Corney is an independent policy consultant

 

Nails don’t cut it for engineering Angel, 17

Angel Lynch knew hair and beauty wasn’t right for her — and so she set off on a new path in which she would overcome dyslexia and balance engineering studies with caring for a new-born son, writes Rebecca Cooney.

In a hair and beauty class at Basingstoke College of Technology (BCoT) in 2012, students were getting to know each other by asking the class questions.

When it came to Angel Lynch’s turn, she asked “What’s your favourite car?”

Looking at the sea of blank stares in front of her, Angel realised the course probably wasn’t for her.

Angel already knew her real passion was for engineering. It was something she realised when she was just 12.

“I was really good at electronics — it was the only thing I was really good at,” said Angel, now 17.

“There aren’t a lot of girls in engineering, but getting my hands dirty. suits me.”

She added: “I only lasted a week.

“It wasn’t me at all, I’m not very girly and it was just all about nails — and more nails.

“I wanted to do massage originally, but you had to do a whole year of just beauty first, and I thought I could stick it out, but it really was not for me, it just wasn’t my environment.”

She dropped the beauty course and set out to pursue her dream of studying engineering, and has now happily enrolled on a combination of mechanics, engineering and management courses.

“It was hard work, but it was 100 per cent worth it,” said Angel, from Basingstoke.

But first she had to deal with the birth of her son, Charlie, and before that, a diagnosis of dyslexia.

“It did make sense when I found out about the dyslexia, even though it was a bit of a surprise,” said Angel.

“There wasn’t really a lot they could do to help me because I was so late on through the school, so I didn’t get any GCSEs in the end. It was a bit of a scary position to be in.”

Angel started the hair and beauty course, first at her school sixth form, then at BCoT, before deciding she had nothing to lose and so pursued her engineering dream.

She spoke with BCoT engineering tutors, who accepted her on to their course.

“They didn’t seem bothered about my GCSEs, so I enrolled on the level two course in electronic engineering, as well as English and maths,” she said.

At first, Angel struggled with the workload, but just as she was finding her feet, her life changed dramatically.

“I found out I was pregnant in October, so I hadn’t been on the course for long,” she said.

“I was really ill throughout my pregnancy, and I didn’t think I was going to be able to finish the course.

“But I went to my tutors and told them what was going on.

“They were great, they changed my timetable and I asked them to give me the work and activities I was supposed to do early, so I could do a lot of work at home.”

The help, and Angel’s own determination to succeed, saw her complete her studies.

Baby Charlie was born in June and Angel is now back at college, studying level two mechanics, level three engineering and level four management.

“At the moment, I’m trying to decide between mechanics and electronics. I was thinking if I do mechanics I’d like to go and work for Volkswagen because they’re just a company that really interests me,” said Angel, whose favourite car, incidentally, is a VW Golf.