Praise for College's stars of the future

A group of hospitality degree students who excelled on the College's year-long industrial placement scheme have reached the final of the annual Young Guns competition.

The contest, organised by the Catering Forum, is designed to reward the stars of the future in the hospitality sector from colleges and universities across the UK, who have excelled during their placement year.

Serina Bahrey, Raul Castro Lopez and Charlotte Whittaker all made the final shortlist of 10 students, after being put forward by the College’s Industrial Placement team.

They attended a special dinner in London where the overall winner was chosen, and although our representatives did not triumph on this occasion, the judges were still full of praise for their efforts.

Organiser Emma Meacock said: "The judges all agreed that the ten finalists were of an exceptionally high standard - it was a very close final with much debate amongst the judges, and a decision was not reached until after 4pm.

"I would like to reiterate how impressed the judges were, all of whom are very senior personnel in their organisations. All the judges stated that if they had current vacancies they would certainly consider employing all of the ten finalists."

Serina was nominated after spending a year at the Crowne Plaza resort in South Carolina, USA, Raul worked at the Hesperia Madrid luxury hotel and Charlotte spent her placement at the Moat House Acton Trussell, near Stafford.

The nominees all had to fill out an application form, outlining what they did on their placement and what they got out of it, then at the ceremony they were then quizzed individually by ten judges in turn, before the overall winner was chosen.

As a result of the contest, the judges have set up a mentoring scheme, where each of the ten finalists will be matched up with one of the judges, who will guide them with their career decisions over the next year.

College Industrial Placement Co-ordinator Tracy Haupt said: "Charlotte, Serina and Raul have done an excellent job in reaching the finals of this prestigious competition, which recognises the achievements of the most outstanding placement students across the UK. We're all proud of them and know they’ll be very successful in their future careers."