Weston College's Futsal team has beaten two university teams in the FA Female Futsal Cup.

Futsal is a format of football usually played indoors with a smaller ball which has 30% reduced bounce. It is a ‘5 a side game’ but with very different rules to the traditional ‘5 a side’. It is a sport all the greats grew up playing, such as Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi. The FA Female Futsal Cup is a national tournament that is held once a year by The Football Association.

Weston's Academy of Sport entered a team which had to get past two university teams in the regional qualifiers on Sat 20th January. They won the qualifiers by beating both Exeter University and Plymouth University, with Felicity Hind, Level 2 Sport student, and Desni Darch, Level 3 art and design student, both scoring.

Coach Sarah Adams said “Having won the FA cup previously as a player it was great to give the students the opportunity to experience the buzz of this tournament and fall in love with the sport. Opportunities for futsal are increasing year on year for females and these talented girls have really put Weston College on the map nationally in terms of female futsal.

"This is the first time the College has entered this competition, the students preformed incredibly well competing against experienced adult teams. We never imaged they would get as far as the last 16 and be so close to reaching the quarter finals."

Student Felicity Hind said: “This tournament gave me an insight into an elite competition level that I would have otherwise never had the opportunity to be a part of. It was great to challenge myself by playing against adults and quality, experienced players and I am really proud to have represented the college in the last 16 stages.

"It has made me much more confident, I now have better knowledge of a new sport and can't wait to play it again.”

A Weston College-led proposal to create the West of England Institute of Technology (IoT) has been shortlisted by the Department for Education (DfE).  If approved, the proposal will see up to £14m of government funding awarded to establish the IoT, designed to support the DfE ambition to create a network of Institutes of Technology. The West of England IoT aims to directly enhance the delivery of employer-led science, technology, engineering and maths provision to meet current and future workforce demands. 

The West of England IoT is a Weston College-led consortium of education providers and key employers across the South West.  It includes the University of the West of England, Bath College, Gloucestershire College, and Yeovil College as well as a network of key local employers, including GKN Aerospace, Airbus, GE Aviation, Renishaw, Weston Area Health Trust and St Monica Trust.

This IoT will bring together industry, education and research to design and deliver flexible higher-level technical learning to equip young people and those already in work with the skills to fully exploit new technologies and digital innovation to increase productivity and position the region as the ‘creators and makers’ of the future. 

Capitalising on respective partners’ areas of academic and industry expertise, the IoT will provide training solutions to support the continued growth of regional excellence, where industry and academia work together to develop a sustainable pipeline of skilled labour to meet current, emerging and future demand.  The IoT seeks to widen participation in targeted science, technology, engineering and maths higher education to ensure the region has the skills to drive and deliver resilient, inclusive and sustainable economic growth now and for the future.

It aims to support regional industry as it prepares to respond to regional, national and global skills needs, and prepare the current and future workforce to embrace and maximise the impact of digital innovation on key industry sectors that have regional and national impact on economic growth.

Dr Paul Phillips, Principal and Chief Executive of the Weston College Group, said: “We are thrilled to have got through to this stage and recognise that this project has the potential to significantly influence skills development on both a regional and national basis.”

He went on to say that the next stage would now involve detailed meetings with everyone involved in the process matched by rigorous timelines and financial analysis.

Professor Steve West, Vice-Chancellor, President and Chief Executive Officer of the University of the West of England commented: “UWE, Bristol is delighted to be supporting a very strong bid for an Institute of Technology that engages further education partners and employers from across our region.

"Clearly the strength of an innovative and collaborative bid focusing on developing the skills we need for the future has captured the attention of the Government. We look forward to moving to the next stage of our application where we would hope to secure the backing of ministers.”

A catering team based at HMP Guys Marsh in Dorset has been shortlisted for the final of this year’s BBC Points West 'Cookery Team of the Year'. 

Nominated for their fantastic daily contributions as well as the variety of projects they are involved in, the team was visited by the BBC cameras last week to film a slot for Tuesday 12th June’s BBC Points West news, and tutors from the prison will attend the finals the following evening.

The annual awards are for catering teams who have gone above and beyond in providing a particularly great service to their community. The HMP Guys Marsh team was nominated for working within a particularly challenging prison community, providing a great daily service, and for their innovative engagement in wider prison community projects.

The team is made up of Weston College catering tutor Luke Trott and a group of prison learners who are working towards their NVQ L2 Diploma in Catering and Hospitality. The offenders achieve this nationally recognised qualification while working in the prison kitchen, where they often cook bespoke lunches for prison-wide events. 

Throughout 2017 and 2018, the team cooked a range of meals celebrating different faiths, catered for regular family days for visiting relatives, and held a weekly Ready, Steady Cook challenge. Local restaurants visited the prison to meet with learners and sample the food from the challenge events, leading to at least one of the learners being offered a job placement upon release.

The team uses fresh produce grown on site by their peers on horticulture courses, learning about the benefits of using locally sourced goods. They also have to budget many of the dishes and ensure that the daily food served is nutritious, healthy and inclusive of all faiths and beliefs.

We wish them luck at Wednesday’s ceremony where they are up against two other worthy contenders, and look forward to continuing to sample their fantastic work over the coming months and years.