‘When I Am’ Winners Announced

The winners of the Derby College ‘When I Am’ skills competitions have been unveiled in the latest episode of the innovative online television series available to watch at www.derbytelegraph.co.uk/wheniam.

Under the banner ‘When I Am’ - skills competitions were held at the College’s Roundhouse campus in Pride Park.

Students and apprentices in the Catering and Hospitality, Construction and Engineering academies took part in skills challenge competitions throughout the week – vying for the title of Learner of the Year in each area.

Their progress was filmed by the Local Digital Company and posted online with the story unfolding over 13 weeks – concluding in an exciting final today.

Nine students in teams of three entered the Engineering competition – designing and then launching rockets.

The winning team was Team Orbit and Learner of the Year was Engineering student Daniella Johnson (17).

She said: “The competition was great fun and I was really pleased to have won.

“Engineering is something I’ve always been interested in. My sister Nikita and I were both part of the skills challenge. We both took Design and Technology at GCSE at Da Vinci Community College and have loved making and fixing things right since we were little.”

The Construction competition started with ten apprentices from a wide range of businesses in the Derby area who were set a brickwork challenge.

The winner was Luke Dudden (19) who works for Bloor Homes. Second was Richard Goodwin (22) from CJ Goodwin and third was Dan Cliffe (23) from Pat Cliffe Construction.

Luke said: “This has been a great experience and I hope to do more competitions in the future. I think we all did very well and showed the quality of work that you can achieve by combining theory with practical work under the apprenticeship scheme.”

The Catering and Hospitality competition involved six Derby College catering and hospitality students and two apprentices from local eateries, the Silk Mill and Exeter Arms.

The first round focused on preparing a chicken dish with the three finalists then set the challenge of cooking a serving a dish using Sea Bass and then creating a desert of their choice.

The winner was Laura Borland (19), closely followed by Chloe Kelsall (17) and Amy Day (16).

Laura made pan fried Sea Bass with sable potatoes, steamed broccoli and garlic oil followed by a lemon and raspberry marbled tart and Chantilly cream.

She said: “My aim is to be a food critic so you never know, it may be me as one of the judges on Masterchef one day. I will make sure that I remember this experience and show compassion to the competitiors!”

Derby College has been joined in the campaign by a host of companies who have sponsored the ‘When I Am’ campaign. Business leaders judged the young people’s work and agreed the competition winners.

Training Strategies were the main sponsor. Construction Skills People and Hodgkinson Builders supported and judged the Construction competition. Vivid Experience and Bespoke Inns have been involved in the Catering and Hospitality competition. Meanwhile Anoki and Mercia Image judged the Engineering competition.

The awards were presented by Derby College Chief Executive Mandie Stravino and Michael Nichol from the National Apprenticeship Service.

Mr Nichol said: “This has been an innovative campaign and it has been wonderful to the see the results of these young people’s hard work.

“It is important that we highlight the worth of apprenticeships to young people, their parents and to employers in new and exciting ways.”

Derby College works with a wide range of employers to recruit young people into apprenticeship vacancies at their businesses.

A wide range of apprenticeship vacancies are currently available. Please visit www.derby-college.ac.uk

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