B&FC students to take part in community improvement projects to gain vital work experience

Blackpool and The Fylde College (B&FC) students will be working on a wide variety of community projects this year following a successful engagement event with local charities.

B&FC Sustainability Manager Pam Reynolds invited various community groups into College last month to see if students could help them complete a project or provide volunteers for an event. 

The College has around 18,000 students with various skills and abilities and the projects will provide them with the opportunity to gain some important work experience.

Pam said: “The event gave the College an opportunity to listen to the community and find out how we can support local charities through student volunteering, internal projects and external work placements.

“We had requests for students to do things like designing web apps and building bridges to providing IT training, marketing design and business administration. 

“The choice of projects from this event has been massive and I’m sure our students can’t wait to get cracking.”

The event was the first of its kind run by the College and allowed staff to explore opportunities which will be beneficial for students, as well as the groups involved.

Sarah Parsloe, from the African Vision Malawi charity, said: “The community engagement forum was very useful and informative.”

Andy Gillett, BBO Projects officer at the Advice Lancashire Partnership, added: “It was a worthwhile event. I found it really useful.”

College staff will now integrate the agreed projects into the workplace requirements of their students’ curriculums to begin work as soon as required.