Sheffield College expects to place around ninety 16 to 24 year olds into apprenticeship vacancies as part of the National Apprenticeship Week campaign. The week long promotion highlights the benefits of apprenticeships for the young people involved as well as for the employer and wider community. Sheffield Live! reporter Azz Mohammed spoke to Matt Green of Bryan Bond Architects and their first apprentice, Olivia Eades.
Sheffield College floristry apprentice, Alicia Holdsworth, is putting her vocational talent to the test by competing in the WorldSkills UK Floristry Competition. Holdsworth came first in the heats and is now heading into the national finals. Azz Mohammed reports for Sheffield Live!
Sheffield College Students Union elected its new officers for 2016/17 with more candidates standing than ever before. The Union, which was relaunched in 2012, confirmed the election of eleven officers whose roles include student support and representation on the College’s governing body. Sheffield Live! reporter Azz Mohammed spoke to Amy Smith, new president of Sheffield College Students Union.
Two multi-million pound buildings have opened at Sheffield College this term, which aim to boost young people’s employment prospectives in areas such as engineering and the creative industries. The new building, now fully open to students, includes a theatre, recording studios and a new television studio. Principal of The Sheffield College, Heather Smith told Sheffield Live how she felt to have the buildings open.
A turf cutting ceremony was held to celebrate construction work beginning on an extension to the Hillsborough College which will be specialising in Journalism and the creative industries.
Sheffield City College have started work on a new Technical, Engineering and Design Centre on their Olive Grove site. The project which is called TED is aiming to make Sheffield the place to come to if you want to study any of the three disciplines.
JB Gill, former member of the band JLS today helped launch Sheffield Colleges new Show Business School. Speaking to Sheffield Live!, JB Gill shared his thoughts on who the course might appeal to.
“The course is obviously going to help people who want to be artists, dancers or singers, but it’s also going to be an opportunity for people who don’t want to do that; those who want to manage the artists or want to work on stage in a theatre. There’s so much here for people to tap into”.
Today also marks National NVQ day, an annual celebration of vocational qualifications. Earmarking such qualifications as the one gained through the show business school, Julie Byrne, Principal of Sheffield City College spoke of their importance and where they can lead.
Courses, like this one are absolutely vital to employment growth and lead onto careers or university, and we know that employers value vocational qualifications as much as academic ones”
Gill’s enthusiasm for the course was something which resonated with students as they gathered after the session for a photo call. Queen Uwacu, 22, said “I was really impressed by the fact that JB is giving something back. That’s really important when you’re a celebrity who a lot of young people look up to”.
Aimed at assisting young people interested in breaking into the entertainment industry, the show business school offers a two year course working towards a vocational Extended Diploma equivalent to 3 A-Levels. Modules including event management, music production and public relations will be primarily taught by college business lecturers, but will also feature a number of guest lectures including at least two master classes a year from Gill himself.
JB Gill was on site this afternoon to host an hour-long Q&A session to share his knowledge and insider expertise on what to expect from the entertainment industry,telling themhis own experiences which have led to him claiming Brit and MOBO awards along the way.
Full details regarding course content and entry requirements can be found on the Sheffield College website http://www.sheffcol.ac.uk/
JB Gill speaks to Sheffield Live! Sam Newton