Students enjoy working at resorts

A group of students from the College's Further Education programmes in hospitality, tourism, hairdressing, beauty therapy and sport recently spent three weeks working overseas as part of the Leonardo programme.

The group of 60 students worked in Cyprus, Portugal, Spain and France, in roles related to their courses.

In Portugal and Cyprus, hospitality students worked in hotels, restaurants and bars, sports students had jobs in sports centres, hotel gyms and on organised activities, and travel and tourism students worked on reception, in travel agencies and organising excursions.

A further group of hospitality students worked in restaurants and patisseries in Marseille, hairdressing students worked at a salon in Nice and students from the BTEC National Diploma travel and tourism course worked as holiday reps in Spain.

The students' flights and accommodation were paid for, and they were also given a small allowance as part of their package, meaning there was no cost to them for taking part.

Tourism lecturer Bev Lord said: "All of the students have said it was one of the best experiences of their lives. For many of them, it was their first time living and working independently - they had to cook for themselves, manage their own money and get themselves to work on time each day. They all made new friends and have really grown in confidence."

Student Charlene Gallagher, who went to Spain as a children's holiday rep, impressed her bosses so much that she has now been asked to stay on for the rest of the summer as a rep at another resort owned by the same firm.

And among those showing this year's participants the ropes was former College student Rachel Tanner, who was working for the firm this year, having been with them on a Leonardo placement last time.

Bev added: "It gave students something extra to aim for over and above the rest of their course here. They had to apply to take part, and it was quite a stringent process they went through, which will be a big advantage for them when they apply for future jobs or courses."

Around half of the students who went abroad on the programme will be returning to the College next year for degree-level courses, while many of the others have already got jobs in the industry.

The College has just received approval to take part in the Leonardo scheme again next summer, where up to 68 students will be able to take part, including, for the first time, students on health and social care programmes.