Lifelong Aston Villa fan Jamie Irvin is constantly dipping into his club’s colours.

The 20-year-old, Walsall College student has just finished a painting and decorating apprenticeship at the Premier League club’s football ground and is now a permanent member of staff.

“It’s a dream come true,” he said. “At the beginning I was taking pictures all the time and sending them to my friends, saying ‘guess where I work?’

“Once I was painting the boot room and the players walked in and said hello. I was gobsmacked.

“It’s nice to be proud of my job; it’s one of the first things that I tell people. I feel privileged to be here.”

But it hasn’t all been fun and games. His first job as an apprentice was to paint a yellow strip on more than 4,700 of the stadium’s steps.

He started his training a year ago. “After three years at college, I felt ready to start working but there was still so much that I needed to learn to improve my long-term career prospects, so an apprenticeship seemed like the ideal route,” he said.

A friend persuaded him to join him at college to study decorating but pulled out at the last minute.

“The joke’s on him, because he’s a bigger Villa fan than me,” Jamie said. “He couldn’t believe it when I got the job.”

Jamie, who can see Villa’s stadium from his home, said he didn’t get on too well at school. “I got distracted too easily and got bored being stuck in a classroom. But the course at college was really good for me because it was 80 per cent practical and 20 per cent theory.”

Tom Fantini, head of facilities at the football ground, said: “We took Jamie on at a grass roots level and built on the skills that he’d developed at college. We were impressed with his work ethic and commitment to learn from his peers.”

Jamie hopes to set up his own business at some time. “Doing an apprenticeship has helped me to get my dream job quicker than I thought was possible. I love coming to work every day, and at Aston Villa I’ll also have the chance to learn other trades and continue to develop my career.”

He reckons that one of the best perks of his job — other than two free season tickets — is working on match days. “My dad and mum come to the games and they always take the mick — is that what you call work?”

Santa is home for the holidays in a Northamptonshire college’s winter wonderland.

For the past six weeks construction, horticulture, floristry and animal welfare students at Moulton College’s commercial garden centre have been designing and building a thatched cottage and sleigh for Father Christmas, plus a stable for his reindeer.

“From the original idea of making this a special Christmas event for visitors to the garden centre, the students drew up the plans for a winter wonderland and Victorian market,” said Simon Millar, the garden centre’s commercial manager.

“Commercial experience is a vital element of all courses at the college and this has brought together planning, team work, budgeting and resource management.”

Students also built a ski slope with a
chairlift for the elves, a life-size Rudolph to keep an eye on the present-filled sleigh and giant snowmen. Hand-made wreaths, decorations and hampers will be on sale at the Victorian market.

West Midland sport students have been selected to compete at international level in football and ice hockey.

Savvas Panayiotou, 17, who plays for Solihull College’s football academy, has
been chosen to play for Cyprus’s under-19 national team. Savvas, who has already represented his country in matches against Poland and Hungary, will start training with the team soon.

Marc Skinner, head of the football academy at the college, said: “We are extremely fortunate and proud to have Savvas playing for Solihull. His ability to change direction at blistering speed is an asset that will frighten any defender and we fully expect him to progress to a high standard.”

Meanwhile, Saffron Allen, 16, competed in the world ice hockey champs in Shanghai, China, and now hopes to get a place in the Team GB Winter Olympics squad.

Greater Manchester students brushed up on their street art skills for a BBC television show.

The One Show enlisted the help of Hopwood Hall College art students for a programme on the street artist Walter Kershaw, famous for his murals of Trafford Park during the 1980s and 1990s.

The BBC filmed their progress over two days as the nine students re-created images on the outside of a house in Rochdale, including one of a Lancaster bomber.

“Although it was freezing, it was a great experience,” said fine art student Jeigar Stead, 17, from Littleborough. “It was really interesting to work on such a large painting — we have done big drawings before… but nothing quite this big.”

Mr Kershaw also visited during filming. Mike Simpson, the college’s programme manager for art and performing art, said the artist was very impressed with what the students produced. “He said the colours were fantastic. He gave them advice on shading — and a top tip of putting antifreeze in their paint.”

A Somerset college has become the first in the country to launch its own television channel.

CUTV is the brainchild of Weston College music curriculum manager Paul Raymond and his son Corry, 19, who is studying a Btec in media production.

An interview with Manic Street Preachers’ record producer Greg Haver will be one of the first programmes, produced and directed by students, to be transmitted.

“This is a brilliant opportunity and resource for students to come up with programme ideas and put them into action,” Mr Raymond said.

“We’ve got four DCLR cameras that have revolutionised filming so the programmes will have a very professional feel.

“Each film will have a bank of information and pictures if people want to see how it’s been put together, and will be shown on all campuses and available on the internet.”

North Somerset Liberal Democrat councillor and keen historian John Crockford-Hawley will present a Your Weston show on local historical landmarks.

When the Coventry Foodbank Warehouse was inundated with tins and jars of food after appearing on a BBC documentary, 12 students from the Peter Jones Enterprise Academy at City College Coventry stepped in to lend a hand.

“It made us realise how lucky we are to be looking forward to a Christmas with good food and presents,” said student Will Macarthur, 20.

The students have also set up a collection point for the Foodbank at the college.

Angela Lamb, business enterprise manager at the academy and a lifelong resident of Coventry, said she is “always saddened” by the numbers of people in the city who are struggling.”

“Volunteering at the Foodbank provides the perfect way for our students to make a real and valuable difference to the lives of many in our city, at the same time as fulfilling their charity challenge.”

Budding builders are learning new skills at a £10m training centre that’s just opened for young apprentices in Basildon.

More than 300 employed apprentices and 200 FE students are now enjoying state-of-the-art facilities for their courses in building services from ventilation, plumbing and electrical installation to refrigeration and air conditioning.

The charity Prospects Learning Foundation, which set up the Group Training Association (GTA) centre, celebrated its launch with a spectacular opening ceremony attended by leaders of the National Apprenticeship Service and the Education Funding Agency .

Neil Bates, the foundation’s chief executive, said the new campus is attracting the interest of national employers who want to invest in the skills of young people.

“When apprentice numbers for 16 to 18-year-olds in construction and engineering have been falling nationally, the opening of a GTA in Basildon is a timely and positive reminder of the value that GTAs can bring to the skills agenda on a not-for-profit basis.”