<p>Our very own Tom Collier has been awarded Regional <a href="https://www.weston.ac.uk/what-can-i-study/courses-16-18-year-olds/t-lev… Level</a> Student of the year at Lloyds Banking Group in the South West and is off to London this July where the national winner will be announced!</p><p>Tom is studying one of our <a href="https://www.weston.ac.uk/what-can-i-study/courses-16-18-year-olds/compu… T Levels</a> and conducted his 315-hour industry placement at Lloyds Bank, which he says has been the highlight of his T Level experience as he gained real life industry knowledge.</p><p>One of Tom’s most accomplishing moments of his placement was presenting his work to data colleagues within Lloyd's bank. Before beginning his placement, Tom says he would never have thought he was capable of doing this. However, with his increased industry confidence and enhanced digital skills in areas like data visualisation, he has been able to do things he never would have imagined being able to.</p><p>Following his work placement, Tom has been offered a degree apprenticeship at Lloyds Bank. He says he feels optimistic about the opportunity because he will be working within the team that he has already built up a rapport with and will have the knowledge necessary to complete the tasks assigned to him.</p><p>Tom's future aspiration is to progress into a Master's degree for data science - which is his passion. He would love to work with Lloyds Bank for this and will be building strong connections to the data science team and other colleagues beforehand.</p><p>Whilst in London this summer, Tom is excited about networking, getting to know other company members, and talking about the work he will be doing next year as a degree apprentice at Lloyds Bank.</p><p>The combination of completing an industry work placement and the theory covered in the course has been really helpful in setting Tom in the right direction with his digital career journey – therefore he highly recommends <a href="https://www.weston.ac.uk/what-can-i-study/courses-16-18-year-olds/t-lev… Levels</a>!</p>

<p data-pm-slice="1 1 []">Twisted Web, a leading website design agency, recently collaborated with our digital course learners as part of the Digital Career Excellence Hub at the College. This innovative partnership provided a unique opportunity for students to engage in real-world projects tailored by Twisted Web, drawing inspiration from the agency's recent accomplishments. Through collaborative group work, learners tackled live project briefs that enhanced their skills.</p><p>Learners worked in groups to complete live project briefs, which were created by Twisted Web, and based on projects that they had completed recently.</p><p>Alan Burnell, Adult Curriculum Coordinator for Computing and Digital Technologies at Weston College, said: “It was great to welcome Twisted Web to the college, to work closely with our computing and digital learners.</p><p>"Working with Twisted Web is a game-changer for our students. They tackled real-world tasks brilliantly, growing in knowledge, skills, and confidence. This collaboration between education and industry is really important at Weston College, and we look forward to working closely with them in the future.”</p><p>Ross Gudge from Twisted Web, added: “It’s been our pleasure to work with the Weston College computing faculty and being able to engage with the students on their various courses.</p><p>“The response from all learners was really positive, and we were impressed with their work as well as their attitude, and ability to take on board constructive feedback and identify opportunities to improve - it is a good sign for the future.</p><p>“We saw real talent across each of the different groups that we worked with, and we are confident that they will have successful careers after they have completed their course.”</p><p data-pm-slice="1 1 []">The College is committed to fostering connections between industry and education, and proudly hosts fourteen sector-specific Career Excellence Hubs. This initiative underscores our dedication to supporting both employers and learners in achieving their future goals. By seamlessly integrating practical experiences into the academic journey, we empower learners to acquire essential skills, knowledge, and professional networks, positioning them for success in their chosen fields.<span style="color:#00B0F0;font-family:&quot;MS Reference Sans Serif&quot;,sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p>A big thank you to Twisted Web for supporting our learners!</p><p><a href="https://www.weston.ac.uk/what-can-i-study/courses-16-18-year-olds/compu… you would like to find out more about our Digital courses, please click here.</a></p><p><strong style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:transparent;border-width:0px;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(56, 74, 77);font-family:&quot;Hco Gotham&quot;, &quot;Open Sans&quot;, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;orphans:2;outline:0px;padding:0px;text-align:start;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">If you are passionate about education and are looking for an opportunity to join the staff team at a leading college, then look at the latest job vacancies available at Weston College </strong><a class="ProsemirrorEditor-link" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:transparent;border-width:0px;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(16, 108, 177);font-family:&quot;Hco Gotham&quot;, &quot;Open Sans&quot;, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:500;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;orphans:2;outline:0px;padding:0px;text-align:start;text-decoration:none;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;" href="https://www.weston.ac.uk/jobs?utm_source=main-menu&amp;utm_medium=main-… style="background-color:transparent;border-width:0px;box-sizing:border-box;font-size:18px;margin:0px;outline:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;">here</strong></a><strong style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:transparent;border-width:0px;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(56, 74, 77);font-family:&quot;Hco Gotham&quot;, &quot;Open Sans&quot;, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;orphans:2;outline:0px;padding:0px;text-align:start;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">. You can find all the latest job opportunities that Weston College has to offer, with a commitment to providing quality education for learners and a focus on continuous professional development for staff, Weston College is an excellent place to work and grow in your career.</strong></p>

<p>We recently caught up with Maria, a talented second year student currently studying T Level Production Design and Development.</p><p>Maria began her journey at Weston college with the T Level Computing and Digital technical progression programme which provided her the opportunity to develop skills such as teamworking, basic python coding and website deigning. Maria stated that the level two technical progression programme helped ‘develop her skills and understanding of programming’ and ‘gave her an insight about the technical and non-technical skills that she needed to develop further’.</p><p>Moving onto the T Level Digital Production Design and Development Maria continued her excellence, especially when completing her industry placement. Her determination and passion drove her to be the first student to complete all the industry placement hours working on PHP development systems. Her hard work was reflected with excellent feedback from her industry placement employer.</p><p>Maria decided on studying a T Level due to the 315 hours of industry placement offered, which she realised would allow her to gain knowledge and experience to help her continue into either a skilled job, higher apprenticeship or university. Maria found her T Level ‘fun, and not as difficult or stressful as it might seem’, she also thoroughly enjoyed when she got to create her own website from scratch.</p><p>The Digital Production Design and Development T Level, is a two year course based at Knightstone campus. The T Level is designed and developed in collaboration with employers, which allows students to have a mixture of classroom learning and work-based experience to help build technical skills to kick start your career into the digital sector. Studying this course means you will be apart of our computing and IT career excellence hub, as well as provided with the opportunity to join our esports academy!</p><p>Throughout the T Level Maria has grown in both confidence and knowledge, and her tutor is confident she will continue this trend and become an invaluable member of any team within the industry. After completing her course, Maria hopes to take a gap year to develop her skills further and the progress onto a higher apprenticeship!</p><p>We wish you the best of luck Maria!</p>