News and events

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Weston College music students received career advice from some of the industry’s biggest names at the recent BBC Music Introducing Live show.

Thousands of visitors flocked to the two-day event at the Tobacco Docks in London, which featured live performances and hundreds of prominent industry speakers.

These included artists, presenters, DJs, record label executives and retailers – among them Jo Whiley, Example, Kano, Joel Zimmerman (better known as ‘deadmau5’ and Gabrielle Aplin.

College students heard talks from a wide range of industry experts. They gave advice on breaking into, and working, in the music industry – whether that’s live events, songwriting, as an artist or A&R (‘artist and repertoire’ reps find and sign new artists to a label).

Students also got the opportunity to network with key figures and try out the latest technologies and even perform on the ‘open mic stage’. Level 3 Music Performance and Production student, Connor Hammond, made the most of the opportunity, performing two of his original tracks for the audience.

Another Weston College student, Ant Watts, was even featured on to the event’s highlights show reel (from 00.05-00.07).

Ant, who was filmed testing out one of the latest electronic Yamaha drum kits, said: “I found the BBC Introducing Live event really inspiring. It helped me understand the ‘ins and outs’ of the music industry, and gave me the opportunity to meet all of the great organisations that will help me in the future.”

BBC Music Introducing is a BBC Radio platform that discovers and supports unsigned and ‘under-the-radar’ UK talent. It gives artists airtime on local and national BBC radio stations, and the opportunity to play Introducing stages at festivals such as Glastonbury, Reading and Leeds and Radio 1’s Big Weekend.

Weston College will provide education in 19 prisons across England after successfully bidding for three major contracts.

Since 2012, the College has operated in nine prisons across the South West.

Following a revamp of the procurement process, it retained contracts for the South West, and was also selected as the provider for the South East region. The three contracts, worth £15.7 million per year, cover Avon and South Dorset, Devon and North Dorset and Kent, Surrey and Sussex. They begin on April 1. The Weston College brand will now appear in the educational facilities in all 19 prisons.

Dr Paul Phillips CBE, Principal and Chief Executive of the Weston College Group, said: “It speaks volumes for the results we achieved under the previous system, that we have been selected to deliver education in an additional ten prisons.

“Our dedicated team of staff work tirelessly to change the lives of the prison learners, and improve their prospects of employment on release.

“This is a major endorsement from the Ministry of Justice of those efforts, and we’re extremely proud to be one of just four national providers of prison education across England.

“That said, delivering education in prison is always challenging and we’ll continue to work with prison governors, staff, partners and employers to ensure the quality of our provision remains as high as possible.”

The new Prison Education Framework (PEF), which replaces the Offender Learning and Skills Service (OLASS), will provide a core curriculum of education in each prison. The providers – including Weston College – will deliver the curriculum in the prisons.

The reforms are designed to enable providers to be more flexible and creative in giving individuals the skills they need to unlock their potential, gain employment and become assets to their communities.

Weston College delivers a wide range of courses in the prison, including catering, English, maths, customer service, art, carpentry, plastering and bricklaying.

College lecturers recently held a series of successful MasterChef-style competitions in prisons across the south west. Prison learners were taught a range of catering skills before putting them to the test and cooking a meal of their own. Prison governors then chose the winner after sampling the dishes.