News and events
We aim to keep you up-to-date with the very latest Weston College news and events. Take a look below at what's going on at the College!
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Latest events at Weston College
Latest news and developments at Weston College
UCW Engineering Degree Apprentice, Jared Newnham, has been named the Institution of Engineering and Technology’s (IET) Apprentice winner.
At age 20, Ministry of Defence Aerospace Engineering Degree Apprentice, Jared, is currently undertaking a placement as an Airworthiness Certification Manager, where he is responsible for increasing air system operational capabilities through risk reduction and type design change embodiment. As part of his apprenticeship, Jared created a robust, regulatory compliant procedure that has been used for multiple complex technical queries and is being rolled out to all projects within the Delivery Team.
Jared’s apprenticeship is delivered through University Centre Weston (UCW) in partnership with UWE, Bristol. The course offers apprentices just like Jared the opportunity to combine full-time paid work with part-time academic study. All engineering courses at UCW are delivered in the fantastic facilities on offer at our South West Skills Campus. This ensures students like Jared have access to the highest of industry-standard facilities, in order to learn and develop inside and outside of the classroom.
In addition to his main duties, Jared has become a keen advocate for engineering within the local community, coordinating an outreach event to promote careers to sixth form students and mentoring struggling classmates. Outside of work, Jared has a keen interest in exploring the outdoors through hikes and amateur astronomy.
On receiving the award, Jared said: “I can’t believe that I’ve been chosen as the IET’s Apprentice winner for 2022. There are so many apprentices doing great things across engineering so to be given this award makes me really proud.
“For anyone thinking about taking up a career in STEM, I would definitely recommend looking into apprenticeships. My placement with the Ministry of Defence has led to so many incredible opportunities which I will look back on fondly and which will hopefully lead to a long and enjoyable career.”
The IET Achievement Awards exist to recognise individuals from all over the world who have made exceptional contributions to the advancement of engineering, technology and science in any sector. This can be through research and development in their respective technical field or through their leadership of an enterprise.
Professor Bob Cryan, IET President said: “This is a fantastic achievement for Jared who has been making great waves in the world of engineering despite being so early on in his career. It is inspiring to see that Jared is using his passion for STEM to help teach others about the opportunities available to them, increasing awareness amongst members of his local community.
“Each of the award finalists demonstrated an exceptional level of skill and knowledge, spanning beyond their roles which made judging extremely difficult. All have taken on challenging projects and thanks to their creativity and resolve, have had a positive impact in their companies. I wish all of them the best of luck for a rewarding engineering career ahead.”
The Achievement Awards are part of the IET’s Awards and Scholarships programme, which celebrate excellence and research in the sector and encourage the next generation of engineers and technicians. All IET awards seek to inspire and reward engineering excellence, including apprentices at the start of their careers, through to reputable, established professional engineers and technicians.
Amazing work Jared!
Weston College continues to buck the national trend when it comes to apprenticeships, having successfully achieved more than 300 apprenticeship enrolments in just 50 days!
The campaign which aimed to counter youth unemployment, and provide new opportunities for people looking to take the next step in their career, proved to be highly successful; with opportunities created across sectors.
Companies of all sizes pledged to get involved, from global heavyweights such as GKN, to national organisations like the NHS, as well up and coming businesses, like Apache Construction.
Jayne Pashley, Apprenticeship Co-ordinator at North Somerset Council, has hired an apprentice through the campaign, she said: “ At North Somerset Council we love apprenticeships. For us, they offer a fantastic way of not only recruiting new talent, but also unlocking the future of our workforce, which we believe is key in business growth.
“The team at Weston College have supported us from start to finish, and have made the whole process really easy. I would highly recommend apprenticeships.
“We look forward to developing our apprentices and hopefully supporting many more in the future.”
John Mackeldon, Hewlett Packard Enterprise agreed, saying: “The whole apprenticeship process has been really easy, and our new apprentice has brought fresh ideas and energy to the team which has been really important in our business.”
Sir Paul Phillips, Principal and Chief Executive of Weston College, added: “We continue to lead the way when it comes to apprenticeships. Apprenticeships offer everyone involved tangible benefits, from vital experience for the apprentice to employers accessing talented individuals.
“Every year we set bigger challenges, and every year we deliver. To create so many opportunities in such a short period of time, truly is incredible, so I’d like to thank our local business community who have got behind the campaign and pledged to support our community, by offering residents the opportunity to retrain, upskill or get their first taste of employment.
“Something I have been especially pleased to see, is the fact that we are working with employers of all sizes through apprenticeships – including over 300 new SMEs in 2022.
“It isn’t too late to pledge to take on an apprentice, we offer apprenticeship opportunities all year round, so we can help you with your recruitment whenever you are ready to offer an apprenticeship.”
Last week, three of our wonderful Digital learners competed in the National WorldSkills Finals in computing, hosted in Middlesborough.
We were able to sit down with two of the competitors, Fin and Skylar, who told us all about their journey, training and success in WorldSkills; Skylar achieved Silver in the competition!
Both learners expressed an interest in WorldSkills after seeing the success of the previous cohort of Weston College learners who competed, including Jack Kimmins who won gold! They also each explained that it was a great way to work on their own skills to apply to their degree courses.
The whole competition spanned over a long period of time, with the qualifiers being in July. The qualifying round was a day with an issued web development task, with a time limit to complete it. Once the learners had confirmation they had passed this round, they began to revise until the finals, which took place this month (November).
Skylar explained the competition days: “The competition was very challenging. It was a set of five modules spread over three days, based up at Middlesbrough College in their new MC Digital building. The five modules included everything website development, from design work to client side scripting to server side scripting. As well as a speed round where time was of the essence. I felt very prepared due to the wealth of knowledge of previous competitors as well as the practise resource is we were given to help train us for the real briefs.”
While Skylar said that the JavaScript and PHP aspects were the best part of her day, Finley highlighted the speed module on the final day as his best part: “The smaller tasks within the short timeframe was quite fun and was a challenge to think of solutions without spending too much time on a single section given the time restraints.”
However, the competition days were not without their difficulties. Both learners touched on the aspect they found the most challenging; for Finley it was PHP module where he felt he could have benefit from more revision in that area, and Skylar found the design round the trickiest.
Despite the difficulties, all the participants did incredibly well, with Skylar achieving Silver overall! This is such a wonderful achievement, and she was absolutely thrilled, saying “It felt absolutely amazing to achieve silver in the website development competition. Knowing that I am the second-best student website developer in the UK feels absolutely amazing.
I found out the results through a virtual medal ceremony, live streamed by Steph McGovern from her studio where they announced all the winners of the competitions. I just couldn’t believe it when my name was called out!”
Both Skylar and Finley were very enthusiastic about the prospect of competing again next year, Finley commenting, “I am already looking forwards to the sign-ups. I entered this year, unsure if it was the correct choice, but after attending and reaching the finals, its been an amazing experience. I am excited to attend again!”
If you are considering following in their footsteps and entering WorldSkills, here is the first-hand advice from those who just competed: “Just go for it – you won’t know how far you can go or the extent of your knowledge unless you try, and it’s such a great learning experience. Even if you don’t get through to the finals, it’ll still look great on your CV!”
Both learners expressed huge gratitude to their teachers and tutors at University Centre Weston, Jason Hill, Jack Kimmins and Jack Cole, who have been so supportive throughout the whole process, including numerous training sessions.
Many congratulations to everyone involved!
