‘Kick Start’ will be held at Weston-super-Mare’s Winter Gardens and will be open for job seekers to visit from 12:00 noon to 2.30pm.

Job seekers from in and around the area are invited to network with employers or companies who may have jobs or apprenticeships available or who would consider offering work experience or have opportunities for volunteering.

In addition to networking, there will be a ‘Speed Dating’ session, during which employers will conduct five-minute initial interviews with job seekers who can showcase their skills and hopefully impress the employers enough that they want to arrange to meet them again or offer them an opportunity.

Job seekers are advised to come ‘dressed to impress’ and bring along their CV.

Sue Estcourt, Weston College’s Employment Support & Outreach Coordinator, said: “This will be a great opportunity for job seekers to network with a variety of organisations as well as gaining some valuable interview practice.

“Taking part in work experience or volunteering can provide an excellent ‘kick start’ to any career, giving an opportunity to showcase existing skills as well as an opportunity to develop new skills and get noticed as a potential new employee. It is also a good chance for job seekers to consider working within different vocational areas.”

Weston College has teamed up with Weston-super-Mare Helicopter Museum to help renovate Weston Airfield’s dilapidated pilots’ block.

College students, their lecturer Steve Harris and curriculum manager Shaun Canniford volunteered to plaster the 1930s building that has laid in a derelict state since 1993.

“The Helicopter Museum approached us with this project and we were more than happy to help,” Shaun said.

“This development has enabled us to give our students the opportunity to take the skills that they have learned in the workshop and apply them in a commercial environment. Taking into account the significance of the building to the local community, it was important that the College contributed to this project.”

The project is being funded by the Coastal Communities Fund, who have earmarked £138,000 for the development, and the plaster was donated by CRS Building Suppliers, a local business that is based next to the museum in a building that was once part of the airfield complex.

Nick Burrough, Branch Manager at CRS Building Supplies, said: “This is a local project and the College and CRS both share the same vision of supporting the local community to help it grow, expand and develop.”

Alison Page, Project Manager of the redevelopment, said: “This regeneration will help Weston-super-Mare retain its links to a long history of aviation, and is about giving that history back to the local people.

“So much of our aviation history is already gone, and we want to bring it all back in to the room it started in.”

The development will finish in 2016 and open to the public as Weston Aviation Museum.

On Friday 4th December the Helicopter Museum will be holding a social event for anyone with a link to Weston-super-Mare’s aviation past.

For more information on the social event or to volunteer at the site, contact Alison on 07341 836097.

Weston College is widely known as an outstanding provider of education, but it also has been successfully changing the face of Weston-super-Mare for decades by transforming underused and unloved buildings into award-winning facilities.

Take a look at the below images to see how the College has changed over the years, and find out about the many successful building projects it has completed…

Knightstone Campus

Opened in 1970, the College’s Knightstone Campus was the first College building to be constructed. Built in a typically brutalist style, the College has invested significantly over the years to modernise the building, creating a new entrance atrium in 1998.

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After

Loxton Campus

The College’s second campus, which includes its Sixth Form Centre, was built on the site of the former Broadoak Sixth Form College. The site was renovated and reopened in 2008.

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After

South West Skills Campus

The South West Skills Campus started life as Bushacre Business park. The College moved into the former Clarks shoe factory initially, and as provision grew the site expanded into the roadside industrial units and Renault garage. This renovation earned the College a nomination for two building excellence awards.

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Weston College Conference Centre

Built in 1892, the Hans Price-designed Conference Centre was refurbished from a derelict state in 2012, winning the Somerset Trust ‘Building of the Year’ award and earning a nomination for an English Heritage Angel Award in the process.

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After

Law and Professional Services Academy

Weston College bought the former Arosfa Hotel in January 2016 and spent millions of pounds on much-needed renovation work to the row of Victorian terraced houses. The building opened for teaching and student accommodation in September the same year.

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Winter Gardens Pavilion

The College reopened the Winter Gardens Pavilion to the public in September 2018. The public now benefits from updated facilities, a new modern British restaurant and a new cafe.

Click here for more before and after pictures of the Winter Gardens Pavilion.

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