BPC teamed up with Harvest Fine foods to showcase the college catering courses and apprenticeships at the recent ‘Skills Showcase’. The event, held at Queen Elizabeth’s School on the 28th March, gave staff from BPC and Harvest the opportunity to present the benefits of a career in catering and how much cooking is a life skill. On hand to showcase the college courses were Barry Dawson - Catering Apprenticeship manager, Gary Kilminster - Catering Apprenticeship Co-ordinator and Terry Tomlinson, a 2nd year Catering Apprenticeship Student and Apprenticeship ambassador. Phil Clark from Harvest Fine Foods was on hand to inform students on what a food service does and how it operates. Harvest also provided ingredients for a chicken and red pepper risotto, while tilda rice supplied risotto rice. This went down very well with the students with many wanting to take the recipe to try at home. Students also enjoyed guessing what was in the Food ‘Feely’ box and many were very protective of their answers!

17 local businesses and organisations gave up their time, experience and knowledge to share with over 250 year 10 students from the school in an exciting, diverse and innovative manner. The objective was to showcase the importance of raising awareness into helping ready our youngsters for future employment. With many schools now unable to offer their students the opportunity to take part in work experience they are looking for new creative ways of ensuring that their students still benefit from meeting and gaining experience from local employers.

For the opening ceremony Karen Arnold (Chief Executive – Enterprise & Skills Company) delivered a very passionate and motivational speech to the students. Before the day started she asked that they relish the day, giving recognition to the employers for their time, which was volunteered and a good range of skills that for any student would prove extremely beneficial. 

The Skills Showcase gives the chance to raise student’s awareness of the essential skills that underpin success in education, employment, lifelong learning and personal development. Without work experience students could potentially see out their whole education without meeting local employers and having the opportunity to sample different industries.