News and events

Weston College celebrated the attendance of Her Royal Highness the Princess Royal who visited its state-of-the-art Health and Active Living Skills Centre at Loxton Campus on Thursday, March 30th, 2023.

HRH The Princess Royal was greeted by His Majesty’s Lord-Lieutenant of Somerset, Mr. Mohammed Saddiq and joined Weston College’s Principal and Chief Executive, Sir Paul Phillips CBE on a tour of the impressive facilities.

The visit included a demonstration of an inclusive sports session with Special Education Needs learners, and the College’s Football Academy students' strength and conditioning class. The tour also offered an opportunity to meet groups of Health and Social Care learners who were taking part in a nutrition and food science session, plus a chance to meet Apprenticeship students showcasing a range of medical scenarios on medical mannequins. The students explained to HRH The Princess Royal that the medical mannequins helped them to practice and improve their skills before working with real patients, so preparing them to be competent and confident healthcare professionals.

During the visit, The Princess Royal also met key members of the College leadership team and the Chair of Governors, Andrew Leighton-Price, as well as local dignitaries including Chair, North Somerset Council, Councillor Karin Haverson, Mayor, Weston-super-Mare, Councillor Sonia Russe and Member of Parliament for Weston-super-Mare, Mr. John Penrose.

Weston College’s Health and Active Living Skills Centre is a multi-million flagship facility which is inspiring and educating new generations of students and enabling the upskilling of people already in the healthcare and sport industries.

The Centre brings together the College’s health and social care, sports therapy, and active living courses into one facility, which is benefiting students, businesses, and the wider community. It features a state-of-the-art training hospital ward, science laboratories, a full size 3G pitch, a full-size rugby pitch, a multi-gym, and a sports hall.

The event concluded with The Princess Royal unveiling a plaque to officially open the Weston College Health and Active Living Skills Centre, and it is hoped that the Centre will continue to thrive and support learners, businesses, and the community for many years to come.

Commenting on the visit Sir Paul Phillips CBE, said:

“I feel both honoured and privileged to welcome and share this impressive development with The Princess Royal; this is her fourth visit to the College, The Princess Royal opened Loxton Campus in 2008, South West Skills Campus in 2018, and then the redevelopment of the Winter Gardens in 2021.

“I am very proud to see where the Weston College Group is today, and how we continue to contribute to the regeneration of Weston-super-Mare through the creation of inspiring facilities for both leaners and the community.

“We have worked with key business partners to ensure that the Health and Active Living Skills Centre is tackling the current skills shortage in the sector and address the longer-term issues that affect our health service and the health of the local population.”

The West of England Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) through the Local Growth Fund, administered by the West of England Combined Authority contributed £5.4 million towards the project.

Visit Somerset have given four of our Travel and Tourism learners the very exciting opportunity to work with a prestigious animation firm on a new concept alongside Noah’s Ark Animal Park in Wraxall. Weston College has had a strong partnership with Visit Somerset for a number of years and so have recruited these learners for a week of work experience, shadowing the team and helping with content creation for the project.

The team at Visit Somerset, consisting of John Turner (CEO), Toby Jones (Digital Manager), Maisy Hatcher (Social Media Manager) & Libby James (Content Manager), held Dragon’s Den style interviews with the interested participants. The learners were encouraged to pitch themselves as a viable candidate for this placement opportunity; some even printed off their CVs for the interviewer's consideration.

Lynsey McKinstry, Business Partnership Manager at Weston College, commented: “Originally, 3 students were going to be considered but after the team from Visit Somerset met with everyone, they extended the opportunity to 4 learners due to their commitment on pitching for a place.

“Not only did the students deliver exceptional interviews, it was also a great experience for the two apprentices currently finishing their end point assessments.

“It’s incredible seeing these exciting projects open doors for our learners and allow them to experience first-hand what their future career may entail. We look forward to hearing how the students get on at Noah’s Ark and more exciting opportunities that will support not only the Travel and Tourism learners but across all our divisions where possible.”

Hannah Carstensen, the learner’s tutor, told us: “The learners have had a fantastic few days and have been able to put their Marketing knowledge from the classroom into practice. Hearing all the lovely comments from the Visit Somerset team has been so wonderful. Working with Visit Somerset will create so many opportunities for our Travel and Tourism learners moving forwards.”

John Turner, CEO of Visit Somerset, said: “The Visit Somerset team are honoured to have the opportunity to work alongside the Travel & Tourism students at Weston College, giving the students more knowledge of how tourist attractions function and market to their target audiences. As the lucky four students embark on their journey with Visit Somerset at Noah’s Ark Zoo Farm, the students will shadow the Visit Somerset team to help them understand aspects of marketing. We’re very much looking forward to seeing the success of the project!”

Weston College and Visit Somerset are also proud to announce an extension of their already strong relationship, in a three-year partnership scheme to allow more students to gain access to these wonderful opportunities, and allow them to develop their employability skills for the future. Keep your eyes out for further news on this exciting venture!

Ethan, one of our Level 3 Creative Media Production and Technology students has received some brilliant feedback during his work placement with SLX, an event production company based in Avonmouth.  

Ethan has dived headfirst into the experience, impressing the employer with his brilliant time-management skills, eagerness, communication and confidence. SLX had some extremely positive feedback for Ethan, expressing that he is a dream to manage and now a valued member of staff! 

SLX specialise in sound, lighting and video for live events and broadcasting and as part of Ethan’s placement he has been working alongside the lighting team, preparing equipment ready to be hired for events. This includes carrying out visual inspections, PAT testing, fixing equipment and making the equipment available at the highest quality. Ethan enjoys working amongst a supportive team who allow him to grow his technical skills and knowledge. 

After speaking to Ethan, he expressed, “the placement has helped me develop my skills massively. After college, I plan to go straight into the live events industry, hopefully with SLX. After being lucky enough to work on Wachet Music Festival in August 2022, this has given me further drive for the live events industry. I hope to progress onto being a lighting designer”. 

Ethan has so far thoroughly enjoyed his experience on the Media course at Weston College, relaying that the support from tutors have been second to none and they have been very pivotal in planning his next steps for the future. He advises anyone interested in studying on the course to take all the opportunities given to them by the lecturers and to get involved with anything that is thrown at them.  

Ethan believes work placements are really important and allow you to create vital connections within the industry. With creative industries being more difficult to get into, getting your name out there as soon as possible really broadens your options for the future.  

At Weston College, our mantra is ‘careers, not courses’. Not only do we want students to engage in as many educational opportunities as possible, but we also want to support them in developing and building a future career. Engaging with our Career Excellence Hubs allows students to take part in their chosen study programme filled with lots of career-boosting benefits, preparing them to be career-ready by the time they leave us.

Find out more about our Level 3 Creative Media and production course and Careers Excellence Hubs here.