Career Ready students celebrate graduation from Cardiff and Vale College
Cardiff and Vale College has played host 15 students as they celebrated their graduation from the Career Read programme with friends, parents, mentors and tutors.
The graduation ceremony was held in The Classroom, the College’s landmark modern European restaurant with views across Cardiff at its City Centre Campus. Students were presented with a certificate for competing the programme, presented by former Wales international and current captain of the Gwent Dragons, T Rhys Thomas.
Awards were also presented. Obaaya Mensah won Career Ready Student of the Year, Year 1, while Jamie Lamb was awarded Career Ready Student of the Year for Year 2. Earlier this year, Jamie also won AstraZeneca Technology Student of the Year.
IT student Jamie, who is 18 and from Penarth, said: “The Career Ready programme has been absolutely great – I had a lot of experiences that were very positive for me and I got a lot out of it. Today’s award was a real surprise; I really didn’t expect it.”
Ben Cottam, Head of External Affairs at FSB Wales, won the Outstanding Contribution Award for his support of the Career Ready programme at CAVC.
Another Career Ready Graduate, 19-year-old Business learner Megan Harrington’s journey from Barry Island to an internship at Freshfields in London, one of the world’s leading law firms, earlier won the UK Career Ready Student of the Year. Freshfields have been taking Career Ready interns for 11 years and described Megan as the most conscientious they have ever had.
“Career Ready changed my life – I really enjoyed the experience,” Megan said. “I’d always wanted to go into law but I didn’t have the confidence but Career Ready gave me that confidence and the belief that I could do it. I’m now going to the University of Greenwich to study for a degree.”
Career Ready is a UK-wide charity linking employers with schools and colleges to open up the world of work to young people aged 16-19. Learners at CAVC can apply to join the programme to run alongside their course and receive mentoring, masterclasses, workplace visits and internships.
This year the students have benefited from visiting the Royal Bank of Scotland in Canary Wharf, and last week they were invited to the annual CBI Wales lunch at St David’s Hotel.
Career Ready Chief Executive Anne Spackman said: “Cardiff and Vale College was an early adopter of the then Career Academies programme. It’s been one of the pioneering colleges which saw the benefits of an employer-led careers programme and has become a great role model for other schools and colleges as they are urged down the same path by Ofsted and the government.”
CAVC’s Career Ready Co-ordinator, Tracy Bird, added: “The Career Ready programme here in Cardiff has produced some of the most talented learners in the country and we are hugely proud of every one of them. We hope to build on those successes to grow the programme across departments to ensure that all of our learners have the same valuable experience which they can take with them throughout their careers.”
ENDS
Notes to editors
- Photo shows the Career Ready Graduates
- Cardiff and Vale College is one of the top companies for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion in the National Centre for Diversity’s 2016 Top 100 Index
- Cardiff and Vale College was awarded College of the Year at the 2015 Insider Business and Education Partnership Awards
- Apply now to join CAVC in Sept 2016: visit for details
- Why not follow the latest updates from Cardiff and Vale College on Facebook or Twitter @cavc?
For more information contact:
Chris Baker
Communications Officer
Tel: 01446 725003. Mob: 07932 770938
Responses