Last week, our Uniformed Protective Services (UPS) learners received an extremely impactful guest lecture from Firefighter Richard Welch, the Lambeth Borough Commander at the time of the Grenfell Tower fire.  

Our UPS learners often aim to work in the armed forces, whether this is as a Police Officer, a Firefighter, in the Royal Army, or the Royal Navy. These are dedicated and highly disciplined careers and any first-hand experience provides our learners with a more in-depth understanding of the impact that their work can have on the community. 

Richard Welch began by outlining his experiences and progression within the Fire and Rescue profession. Richard joined the London Fire Brigade in 1996, progressing through many roles around London before finally becoming the Assistant Chief Fire Officer for Service Delivery Support at Avon Fire and Rescue Service. 

During the time of Grenfell Tower, Richard was the Lambeth Borough Commander and the head of response to this major incident. He outlined his experience from the night of the Grenfell Tower fire on the 14th June 2017 to the learners, including the procedure and protocol the firefighters followed, the number of citizens they managed to rescue, the horrendous conditions inside of the tower, and how quickly the fire spread throughout the building. 

Steve Brawley, one of our Protective Services lecturers, recognised the powerful impact of this employer engagement experience for both the learners and the staff, saying “students who, for some, are months away from their own progression into the uniformed protective services, got to hear first-hand insights into the responses and experiences of Firefighters during one of the most challenging national Major Incidents of recent times.” 

Nicola Stent, another Protective Services lecturer, also expressed her gratitude to Richard Welch, saying “I was incredibly moved by the first-hand accounts Richard shared with our learners and am so proud of the engagement, co-operation and mature questions from our learners.  

The bravery demonstrated from the emergency responders on the scene at Grenfell Tower was heroic. We are so very grateful for Richard’s insight and personal strategies of how to cope in such adverse circumstances.” 

The learners came away from the guest lecture feeling that their ambitions to enter a protective service career and make a difference was achievable and realistic with lots of advice on how to succeed and thrive in any upcoming challenges. 

Thank you to Richard Welch for taking the time to share his first-hand experiences of this horrific incident and the heroic and courageous risks him and his team take within their profession. 

If you’re interested in applying to one of our Protective Services courses, click here.

Within our Sixth Form, our learners can choose a career-enhancing pathway alongside their core A Level subjects which will not only bolster their CV’s and UCAS applications, but will also provide them with more transferrable skills and preparation for the future. These can range from Business Enterprise and Extended Project Qualification (EPQ), to Bio-Medical and many more. 

Some also choose the Social Action pathway where they get the chance to organise community events to raise money and awareness for charities of their choosing. Two of our learners, Aleks and Aleks, recently organised a 7-mile charity walk to raise money for the Rainbow Trust Charity. 

Rainbow Trust is a charity for supporting families with seriously ill children to provide emotional and practical support. They provide each family with an expert Family Support Worker to help them with the possibility of loss and cope with daily struggles, giving them the chance to discuss fears and anxieties, diagnoses and treatments, and even organise memorable activities for not only the sick children but also their families.  

Aleks and Aleks saw this charity as important as it focuses not only on the seriously ill children, but also their suffering families which people don’t often consider, saying “they make families more confident with the fact that their children are going through a terminal illness which is just as important”. 

In order to raise awareness and money towards this fantastic cause, they created posters with links and QR codes to their JustGiving page, putting them all over the Sixth Form and social media to gain as much traction as possible. So far, Aleks and Aleks have raised around £80 with a goal of £120.  

The walk proved to be an achievable event to raise money and get people involved and consisted of both Sixth Form and Protective Services learners. Aleks said, “we do loads of different campaigns and tasks to help our community and to give back, and we thought a walk would help us get as much recognition as possible”. Our Media and Communications learners also interviewed them to provide more publicity of the event.  

Thank you to Nicola Stent and Anne Draper, the Social Action Pathway lecturers, for assisting Aleks and Aleks in making this event possible and promoting it to other students around the college. 

Well done to Aleks and Aleks for your fantastic efforts in organising this 7-mile walk for the Rainbow Trust, you should be proud. 

If you wish to check out Aleks and Aleks JustGiving page, click here. 

If you’re interested in applying to join our Sixth Form in September, click here.

@westoncollege

Our Social Action students, Aleks and Aleks, have been working hard to organise a 7 mile charity walk for the Rainbow Trust Charity 🌈🌈 This is an amazing event that they've independently organised, getting many other students across the college involved to raise money and awareness for this amazing charity ⭐ To find out more, visit our website!

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Work experience is an integral part of our learners' educational journey as it gives them the chance to experience a real-world working environment with hands-on experience which will give them a better understanding of their future career path. 

One of our Sixth Form learners, Ryan, has exceeded expectations by landing a placement in Belize in Central America with his stepdad working with two organisations, Defence Infrastructure Organisation Belize (DIO), and the British Army Training Support Unit Belize (BATSUB). This placement is a fantastic opportunity that will give Ryan invaluable experience and transferrable skills that he can use in the future. 

Ryan is currently in his second year of A Levels at our Sixth Form, studying Maths, Further Maths, Physics, and is even teaching himself AS Sociology at home. Ryan has also received a conditional offer from the University of Nottingham to study an integrated master's degree in Theoretical Astrophysics. He is an outstanding student that works extremely hard to not only succeed academically but also prepare for his future. 

For his work experience, Ryan will be working for two organisations; DIO which is responsible for managing overseas defence estates (barracks, bases, camps, etc), and for BATSUB which is a training establishment for short term jungle training of British troops.  

During this week, he will be working on the installation of underground electrical cables in trenches, feeder pillars and Distribution Substations, conducting building refurbishment on technical and domestic accommodation, and conducting statutory and reactive maintenance. 

Ryan is confident that this placement will benefit him massively, saying “learning to experience a workplace environment and completing non-academic tasks will give me much needed experience for any future job.  

I will gain exclusive insight into military careers and manual labour (trade/skilled labour) but also cultural insight into life in Belize (should I wish to take a gap year there with family). I will learn key skills including communication, risk management (dynamic and planned), and teamwork.  

I consider myself extremely lucky to have these opportunities available to me. I’ve lived in many places around the country as a service child and have experienced a large variety of different school environments. I think this has allowed me to develop my adaptability which will benefit me in my role.” 

Due to his familiarity with Belize, Ryan confirmed that he is comfortable with completing his work experience there and is feeling excited to work in such a professional environment, being given responsibilities and important tasks that will provide him with invaluable, hands-on experience and transferrable skills that he can use in his future career. 

Thank you to Ryan for sharing his story and we wish you all the best for your upcoming work experience.  

If you’re interested in applying to join our Sixth Form in September, click here.