Weston College has been shortlisted as a potential national winner for Access to Higher Education Centre of the Year at the AIM Empowering Futures Awards 2023.

The AIM Empowering Futures Awards celebrate the achievements of end-point assessment organisations, AIM-recognised centres and employers in the past year.

These inaugural awards will take place during their Empowering Futures Conference on 9 November at the East Midlands Conference Centre, Nottingham.

AIM Qualifications and Assessment Group’s Chief Executive Officer, Kevern Kerswell, said:

“We’re delighted that for these inaugural awards, we have received so many entries dedicated to celebrating the achievements of AIM’s centres and partners. All the entries are of a really high standard and demonstrate great commitment to supporting and empowering individuals to go on to do amazing things. Congratulations to all finalists. We look forward to celebrating their success as an industry on the 9th of November.”

Weston College’s Access to Higher Education (HE) courses are designed to give learners the skills and qualifications they need to apply for university. It is a well-established, with consistently high pass rates. Programmes start twice a year in September and January and pathways include Animal Science, Business, Criminology, Medical Sciences, Nursing and Midwifery, Social Sciences and Teaching. You can find out about our courses the financial support available, and a video of student experiences on the Access courses here: Access to Higher Education | Weston College.

A delegation from Shanghai Zhiwai Education Technology who are based in China, comprising of Dr. Peter Chen, Joe Jiao, and Ms. Eve Li, recently visited Weston College to explore a multifaceted collaboration. This visit focused on discussing potential partnership opportunities, including joint-college programs, student initiatives, teacher training, curriculum development, and the establishment of the ISAR-Weston Sino-UK Vocational Education Integration Centre.

The discussions between representatives of both institutions covered a wide spectrum of potential collaboration areas, emphasising the mutual commitment to advancing educational opportunities and fostering cross-cultural exchange.

Principal Jacqui Ford, representing Weston College, and Dr. Peter Chen, on behalf of Shanghai Zhiwai Education Technology, formalised their commitment to these collaborative efforts by signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). The signing of this MoU symbolises their shared intent to work closely together on these partnership projects, further strengthening the bonds between the institutions.

This promising collaboration signifies a meaningful step towards fostering international cooperation in the field of education, ultimately benefiting students, educators, and the communities they serve.

Both institutions are excited about the potential of this partnership and look forward to realising the numerous opportunities it holds for advancing education and cultural exchange between the United Kingdom and China.

At Weston College, we’re always trying to raise awareness for important causes. That’s why we’re very pleased to announce that our Level 3 Media learners recently teamed up with Meningitis Now, a leading charity in the UK for raising awareness and supporting people with meningitis. They have invested tens of millions of pounds in research surrounding the illness, playing a critical part in life-saving vaccines.

Our students were tasked with creating Instagram Reels and TikTok videos to help Meningitis Now with their annual awareness campaign. To do this, our learners travelled to their headquarters in Stroud. Here they met with survivors of meningitis and carefully interviewed them to record their experience, allowing them to recount their stories.

After this, the students went to Bristol to meet with more people who have suffered as a result of Meningitis, including a mother who sadly lost her child to the illness.

Inclusion was a key part of the brief given to learners, as an important part of an awareness campaign is ensuring that the message can be received by as many people as possible. To help with this aim, students used a Makaton interpreter to help subtitle their reels. Makaton is a type of sign language used by over 100,000 children and adults as a communication aid for people who have difficulty communicating and understanding concepts.

This employer project forms part of the Creative Arts Careers Excellence Hub. The College has fourteen sector-specific Career Excellence Hubs, which evidence our dedication to supporting both employers and learners in achieving their future goals. By creating a seamless connection between industry and education, we enable learners to acquire not only the essential skills and knowledge but also the professional networks necessary to excel in their chosen fields.

Well done to all of these learners for raising awareness of such an important issue in a creative way. We wish all of these students the best for the rest of their course!