A Weston College and University Centre Weston (UCW) graduate is in the running to win the prestigious Association of Colleges (AoC) Higher Education Student of the Year Award.

Henry Green has made the final three for the prize, and will find out if he wins when the winner is announced during the annual AoC conference in mid-November.

Henry, from Burnham-on-Sea, completed the Level 2 Extended Certificate and Level 3 BTEC Extended Diploma in Travel and Tourism at Weston College before progressing to a Foundation Degree in Tourism Management and Top-up Degree in Business Management with Sustainability at UCW.

The 22-year-old graduated this summer with an upper second class (2:1) honours degree having impressed his lecturers throughout his time at Weston College and UCW.

As well as being a dedicated and popular student, Henry was nominated for the award in recognition of his achievements whilst having a diagnosis of autism.

He took every opportunity to make the most out of his studies, including attending trips to the United States and Belgium and working as a student ambassador at open days and other events.

He also discussed how to support students on the autism spectrum during staff development sessions, and even took the time to speak to students on UCW’s Inclusive Practice Degree about how they too could develop their professional practice.

Henry also undertook a number of work placements as part of his studies, including at Weston’s Helicopter Museum, and has written articles about autism for a number of publications.

He said: “Weston College provided me with a positive and encouraging environment, this helped me to achieve all of the things that I did. The most important thing about my time at Weston College is that it gave me self-belief, I mostly struggled to mix with my peers and lacked confidence in my own abilities.

“I have been very lucky to be surrounded by the right people who have helped me along the way, and I hope achieving my degree encourages other people with disabilities that they can too.

“It hasn’t been an easy journey, so being considered for an award at the end of it is a welcome surprise.” Dr Paul Phillips CBE, the Principal and Chief Executive of the Weston College Group, added: “Henry is a humble young man who does not appreciate how inspiring he is to those around him.

“He won a UCW Faculty Student of the Year award last year and we will all be keeping our fingers crossed that he wins this AoC prize as well.

“He is a wonderful example of someone who has met the challenges of life head on and would be a very worthy winner.”

Henry’s shortlisting is the latest in a number of successes for Weston College at the AoC Awards, with the organisation having recently won prizes for its dedication to improving learner mental health and wellbeing and to recognise its commitment to supporting students with learning difficulties and disabilities.

Join us, find your perfect course here:

• Weston College
• UCW
• Find out about the next open evening here

Our Health and Social Care students can now practise clinical procedures under lifelike conditions thanks to the arrival of four new residents at the new Health and Active Living Skills Centre.

The state-of-the-art medical mannequins – known as ‘Nursing Anne’ and produced by Laerdal – are the latest addition to the new centre’s impressive simulation hospital ward.

It is the first nursing simulator to cover every aspect of modern nursing education, from basic assessments and critical thinking to advanced interventions. These interactive dummies will allow students to train for the multitude they could encounter in an actual hospital ward.

As well as looking lifelike, the dummies can be programmed to say specific phrases and react to learners’ actions in order to improve team performance within a risk-free environment. Learners can also take temperatures, and blood pressure and heart readings from the dummies, and observe vital signs using the monitors.

All of these can be operated remotely for realistic emergency simulations for assessment situations.

Darren, from Laerdal, who provided training for staff to use the simulators, added: “The aim here is to improve healthcare education and build a safe place to practically practise and troubleshoot, which is imperative before applying skills to a real person.

“These sophisticated simulators are more than just plastic. Compared to the older dummies, these provide a more realistic interaction for students which gives them a better representation of a real-life situation.”

Click here for more information on the Nursing Anne Simulators

Click here for more information on the Health and Active Living Skills Centre

Click here for more information on Health and Social Care courses

Blog by Simon Werkshagen – Head of Commercial Construction Training and Logistics Centre

Weston College’s Construction Training Centre (CTC) has been open for almost three months now and (touch wood!) everything has so far gone to plan.

Footfall from day one has been tremendous, with hundreds of industry workers making use of the new facilities for various practical and class-based training. (By the way, if you haven’t yet heard about the CTC, take a look at my previous two blogs here and here.)

Our scaffolding training, which is run in partnership with Simian, has proved hugely popular. We’ve also just been awarded Construction Industry Scaffolders Record Scheme (CISRS) accreditation for delivery of Level 1, 2 and Advanced Scaffolder courses. This means we can deliver an ever-expanding range of courses required for workers to gain these industry-standard cards and qualifications.

In terms of plant training, the centre’s also been accredited as an awarding body for widely recognised NPORS qualifications, and we’ll shortly be inspected by CPCS, which will – hopefully – lead to us being given accreditation to run those courses too. Following these approvals, plant operations training will be available from August – you can book your place now.

Aside from enabling us to provide industry-recognised courses, these accreditations also act as seals of approval for our new facility and help enhance its reputation among the wider construction industry.

On a similar theme, we’ve also been hosting weekly ‘business breakfasts’, which are essentially informal meetings with groups of employers and prospective learners. As well as allowing us show off the new centre, these events help us forge new partnerships with organisations and businesses operating in the construction industry and promote courses among employers.

With plant courses due to start, this area of training has been top of the agenda recently and, last month, myself and colleagues from our Weston-based partner, Plantforce, attended the PlantWorx trade show in Peterborough.

Aside from the dreadful weather it was an outstanding event, which enabled us to build contacts, and forge some, potentially, very exciting relationships.

As someone who has long been fascinated by the use of technology in plant operations, I was also thrilled to get the opportunity to try out an excavator training simulator.

And, as I used this impressive piece of equipment to perform various tasks around the virtual construction site, I realised that there’s a gap in the market for a new training course.

At present, you can take a basic excavator course and earn your beginners ‘ticket’ – or licence – the following week. However, this will not guarantee you to work on a ‘tier 1’ contract (directly for a client), which requires significantly more expertise in operating the equipment.

By providing simulated training after the basic course, we can bridge the gap that currently exists, by teaching people how to use the various pieces of technology that are required for higher level contracts.

To cut a long story short, our ‘Site-ready Operator’ course has now been finalised and due to be delivered in the centre’s new simulator suite.

If you’d like to find out more about the Construction Training Centre, visit www.contruction-training-centre.co.uk or please drop me an email (simon.werkshagen@weston.ac.uk) or give me a call on 01934 421266.