News and events

Nine Graduating 3rd year BA Graphic Design learners recently presented an exhibition of their work at ‘New Designers’ at Business Design centre in London. Some had previously completed a range of level 3 qualifications with Weston College, such as Graphic Design Extended Diploma, and Computing Extended Diploma.

The ‘New Designers’ event invites 2500 hand-picked graduate design talents from around the UK to present their work at the longest running and leading design showcase over a period of two weeks. UCW’s learners had the chance to show off their best designing work at the prestigious event, even with the possibility of winning awards.

The event also provides the chance for graduates to connect with big employers like Sky, looking to recruit. As well as employers, there are also buyers looking to source the most innovative craft and design. This networking event is a great opportunity to display potential career roles to the graduates, begin helping them make decisions in what their future goals are, and how to reach them!

Graphic Design degrees can have a broad array of careers available to graduates, but more than half of graduates in employment in the UK got a job in graphic design in the first six months after graduation.

Vicki King, the Higher Education Graphic Design Co-ordinator commented: "The learner's work came together in a super professional looking stand - we could not be more proud!”

She continued: “One of the key benefits of this event is learning how to represent themselves, something which all students grew to excel at during the exhibition."

Congratulations to everyone involved for this wonderful achievement!

Rebecca is currently completing her Digital and Technical Solutions course, as an apprentice, and has recently competed in the Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS) Championships.

The MOS Championship is an extension of the MOS certification programme, launched in 2010 to assess learner’s knowledge to prepare them for university and the workplace. The championship welcomes students from all over the world to compete head-to-head to win the title of MOS Champion.

Rebecca had previously completed the Excel course on the programme, so was familiar with MOS, and heard Weston College were running and had beat the MOS Course Week challenge but hadn’t heard of the full Championship at the time.

Completing the week challenge was motivation for Rebecca to then complete the Word Associate Course on the 23rd May, and whilst doing this, selected the option to enter the championship if she scored high enough on the associate course, not thinking she would ever reach the next stage. The associate course was to be carried out online, so Rebecca finished the projects, each of which containing 5-7 individual tasks to showcase her advanced skills on Word, and scored high enough on the course to be entered into the championship!

The final took place on the 15th June, and Rebecca completed the hour long exam in just 20 minutes! The exam ended up being slightly easier than she was expecting, but she believed this was due to rigorous revision of practice exams and questions on the lead up and on the day.

Overall, out of 30 competitors, Rebecca placed in sixth, with a score of 95%!

Rebecca commented: “If you’re reading this and thinking of entering next year, practice as much as you can; LinkedIn learning have a huge range of courses that are really helpful for practicing and have loads of training material.”

She continued: “The whole experience has been wonderful, and I never thought I’d get the chance to compete in a competition like this. I’m thrilled with my final score, and the skills I’ve gained from partaking are highly valuable; I’ll carry them with me all throughout my apprenticeship and future career.”

Congratulations, Rebecca!