Tag: creative
On Wednesday 21 September, Capital City College Group (CCCG) and Central District Alliance (CDA) came together to celebrate the launch of the Mayor of London Academy Hubs in the Digital and Hospitality industries. The Hubs are a key part of the Mayor’s Academy Hub programme – a £44 million initiative to support the capital’s recovery from the pandemic.
They were joined by London’s Deputy Mayor for Planning, Regeneration and Skills, Jules Pipe, and employer partners who are working with the Group and CDA to deliver the Academy Hubs’ work.
Supporting Londoners into work for the first time or into higher paid and more secure work – especially from under-represented groups such as minority ethnic communities, women and disabled people – is a key priority for London’s Mayor, Sadiq Khan. The Digital and Hospitality Hubs will work with employers to train Londoners for work in those industries, helping them meet their staffing and recruitment challenges.
Having strong Digital and Hospitality sectors will be critical to London’s recovery. For example, the hospitality industry employs around 400,000 people in London, but the lack of suitable and trained staff means there are too many vacancies which is costing the sector billions in lost revenue.
CDA is the Business Improvement District for Holborn and Clerkenwell. Its footprint, which spans Holborn and Clerkenwell, is also home to a world-leading tech cluster, including household names such as Google, TikTok, Snapchat and LinkedIn. These employers – alongside hundreds of others in the CDA district and across the city – can provide a range of jobs and career opportunities for Londoners and so CCCG, working collaboratively with CDA, will establish partnerships to facilitate these new roles.
However, 210,000 people are currently unemployed in London and a further 1,080,000 adults – some 21.7% of the working age population – are economically inactive. So, the Academy Hubs’ role will be to unlock the valuable contribution that businesses can bring and enable more socially-excluded Londoners to gain employment.
As Jules Pipe explained at the event: “The inequalities that were already present in London were laid bare by the pandemic. Over 750,000 working people in London are still paid less than the London Living Wage and more than a quarter of Londoners are living in poverty once their housing costs are taken into account.
“We’re committed to using the skills funding that we have at our disposal to support Londoners – particularly the most disadvantaged and those most impacted by the pandemic – to acquire the skills they need to progress in life and get into good work.
“I’d like to congratulate all the partners for the leadership shown by the CDA and Capital City College Group for making this possible.”
Also speaking at the event, Alexander Jan, Chair of Central District Alliance (CDA) said: “We want to ensure sustainable and inclusive economic growth, which means delivering skills and employment opportunities for our communities.
“We need some big ideas and collective action, and we very much believe that connecting and encouraging people back into the labour market and to help people who are looking for work gain the skills they need to do so, is at the heart of that approach.
“We and our members are delighted to be working with Capital City College Group, to help provide long-term unemployed people with opportunities to gain good quality jobs and helping them gain the skills they need to do so.”
Westminster Kingsway College is part of Capital City College Group and already runs a wide range of courses in the hospitality and digital sectors. The Group is therefore ideally placed to support even more Londoners into these exciting industries. To illustrate the transformative effect that skills training can have, current and former students from the college also spoke at the event about their experiences.
Opeoluwa Odutayo studied Culinary Arts at Westminster Kingsway College, before setting up Ice Cream and Ting, which produces ice creams with Caribbean and African flavours, including Plantain, Hibiscus, and Avocado and Strawberry.
She said: “My teachers at Westminster Kingsway College helped me with advice and boosted my confidence. I worked at events and did internships at four different restaurants to gain experience and at the end of my course, I won the overall best student award. My mum was so proud of me!”
The college also exposes students to industries that they will be working in when they have qualified – helping them gain contacts and eventually secure good quality work.
Student in Hospitality Archie Smitton said: “Working at events with the college helps me get contacts in the industry and work out where in the industry I want to work.
“Last year I did work experience in a Peruvian restaurant in Green Park and a modern English restaurant in Soho and later this year I’m going to Lisbon for two weeks’ work experience. I’m really looking forward to learning a different language and working in a different country.”
The Hubs have already started work – holding taster sessions and introductory courses hosted by industry experts. These have been in, for example, culinary skills, coding for women, digital marketing, cyber security and user experience (UX) design.
In addition, the Digital Hub will be running internship programmes which will come with additional support including employability training, ongoing support, advice, and guidance on getting the most out of the programme, as well as support for interns to build their network and prepare for their next steps.
And the Hospitality Hub is working with Westminster TalentServe (Westminster City Council’s new recruitment service for its hospitality and leisure businesses) to provide all the training to people who are referred to the service.
You can find out more about the Digital and Hospitality hubs and all our Mayor of London Skills Academies here.
Westminster Kingsway College student Bella Morley hopes to become the biggest star in fashion to come out of Croydon since supermodel Kate Moss.
The aspiring designer travels from her home in south London to the college’s King’s Cross Centre every day, where she is studying for a Fashion and Textiles Level 3 Diploma.
Bella, 18, said: “I’ve always been very creative and interested in fashion from a young age. I really like the art and design aspect of it and the course at WestKing really appealed to me.”
Bella explained how one day she will be learning about textile design and printing, and the next she’ll be creating her own fashion collections and gaining the skills to make her own clothes.
“I enjoy fashion illustration and experimenting with different textiles and printing techniques to create imagery, learning different sewing techniques and using lots of different materials,” she said.
“I didn’t know any of these things before. I had an interest in it, but never really went into it in any depth. It was completely alien to me, but now it just comes naturally.”
Bella initially studied A Levels at sixth form but soon realised that she preferred the practical side of a more vocational course.
She said: “The course is more focused on what I want to do and more hands on. At school it’s more about learning by writing about it, but personally I find it easier to learn when I’m doing something.
“The facilities at the college are much better than other places I’ve been. You’re really free to use them as you like, which I’d not really experienced before. I like having that creative freedom.”
While at WestKing, Bella has joined in various activities including an art session at Central St Martins where she will be studying for a BA (Hons) Fashion Communication in September.
“The teaching has been really great. All of my teachers have been lovely and really helpful. I could call them on any day to get help with my work. There’s a lot of guidance and support to develop your ideas,” said Bella.
“I definitely want to do something in the fashion and design industry. I don’t think I could do anything else.”
If you have creative and artistic flair and like Bella maybe want to work in fashion, apply now for our Art, Design and Fashion courses here.
Students showcased their creative talents when they exhibited a “stunning and thought-provoking” collection of work at an Art, Design and Media Show at Westminster Kingsway College.
The show featuring students’ final year project work filled the atrium of the college’s King’s Cross Centre and attracted viewings from creative professionals, teachers, staff, parents and students.
It featured a collection of paintings, drawings, textiles, sculptures, photographs and digital designs created by Art and Design, Fashion and Textiles, Creative Media Production and Animation and Games Design students.
Art and Design students’ work included designs and illustrations for books, vinyl record covers and product packaging. There were also character drawings, paintings and sculptures made of wood and plastic and other materials including some created using 3D printing.
Fashion and Textiles students exhibited various colourful fabric prints and garments alongside the materials they used to make them and photographs of students wearing the finished outfits.
Animation and Games Design students gave demonstrations and displayed large prints of screenshots of many of the games they had created, while Creative Media Production students displayed digitally manipulated prints and sculptures including some that incorporated video.
Grace Jackson, Head of School for Creative, Digital Media and Arts, said: “After many tribulations of multiple lockdowns it is great to see the students stunning and thought-provoking work on display at the college.
“The exhibition really shows their dedication. They have each shown to their creative specialism and the breadth of their knowledge and skills they have gained while studying at WestKing, from traditional methods to modern digital techniques.
“It was amazing to have a celebration of the students and their fantastic work with their friends, family and industry professionals. I am so proud of every one of them and I wish them all the best in the next step of their journey.”
Explore your artistic and creative side and express yourself at WestKing this September. Apply now for Art, Design and Fashion courses here and Digital Media and Creative Computing courses here.
