Gower College Third Year Acting Company will be presenting the play '13' at Swansea Grand Theatre on 11th-13th March.

Tickets are just £8 so make sure to book yours!

The Vanilla Pod has a special "St David's Day" dinner menu planned for Wednesday 6th March, to celebrate "A Taste of Wales".  Dinner will be served at 6.00 and the cost is £20 per head.

Amongst the delicacies on the menu are Mussels in Welsh Cider, Cawl Cennin, Welsh Rarebit souffle, Welsh Black beef, Patagonia Pie with Welsh fudge cream, and a selection of Welsh cheeses.  The meal will end with petit fours in the form of Welsh cakes - what else?

Nine Gower College Swansea students have received offers to study at Oxford or Cambridge – an outstanding number from one institution.

Two former pupils of Bishopston Comprehensive School are heading for Oxford, Olivia Cormack to read English at Lady Margaret Hall and Oli Lloyd-Parry to read Medicine at Lincoln College.

The other candidates applied to Cambridge colleges.  Two have received acceptances from Jesus College - Natalie Reeve, a former Bishopston pupil, to read English, and Hannah Whitehouse, formerly of Penyrheol Comprehensive School, to read Law.  Another former Penyrheol pupil, Katie Barrowman, plans to read History at Selwyn College.   Having progressed to college from St John Lloyd Catholic Comprehensive School, Llanelli, Emma Pope now plans to read Psychological and Behavioural Sciences at Homerton College.  Also heading for Homerton is Sophie Eynon, to read Geography.  Sophie is another former pupil of Bishopson Comprehensive, as are Angharad Devereux and Katy Surman, both of whom have received offers from Churchill College, Angharad to read Human, Social and Political Sciences and Katy to study Medicine.

Mark Jones, the college Principal, commented:  “We are delighted that Gower College Swansea has maintained its strong tradition of preparing students for the Oxbridge colleges and other top institutions throughout the UK at a time when we know this is an area of concern in Wales.   Over 1,000 students have submitted applications to universities and specialist colleges this year and at least 400 are holding offers from Russell or 1994 Group universities.  This is a tribute to the hard work of the students and to the commitment of our exceptional staff.”   

Gower College Swansea has been involved in a really successful project, in partnership with the City and County of Swansea, Pen-y-Bryn Special School and Step Ahead Centre.  The aim of the project was to  aid the transition of young people with Additional Learning Needs from school into further education.

The project covered a number of key areas of focus to aid transition, particularly curriculum delivery on the college campus for learners still at school, improved liaison between school and college and also inclusion at networking and training events.   

As a result, partners have been able to connect and support young people in moving on for further success in further education.

Further information available at http://www.swansea.gov.uk/index.cfm?articleid=56476

Information on 1Stop Swansea - for parents and carers of disabled children and young people in Swansea.

Alex Jones, a candidate from Gower College Swansea,  was the best performer from a South Wales centre in last summer’s WJEC AS Electronics examination.  In recognition of his achievement in gaining the highest marks, the Institute of Engineering and Technology awarded Alex a cheque for £200.  The presentation was made by Steve Watts, Chair of the IET Wales South East Network.

Alex has now progressed to study Electronic Engineering at the University of South Wales.

As part of the 'Walk in her shoes' campaign 50 ESOL students and staff from Gower College Swansea will be undertaking a charity walk in aid of Care International.

The walk will begin at Kingsway Centre at 9.30, walking to the Uplands, around Brynmill, Singleton and along Swansea Bay Promenade.

This amazing charity aims to improve the lives of those young women in developing countries who miss out on education to walk miles every day in persuit of safe, clean drinking water.

Visit our Facebook event

Visit their website for more information.

The Vanilla Pod training restaurant at Tycoch campus will be having a belated St Davids Day celebration this Thursday 6th March with a special Welsh Themed Dinner Service.

Check out the delicious options on the menu and call to make a booking!

For advance reservations contact 01792 284252 / 284218 or email vanillapod@gowercollegeswansea.ac.uk

Gower College Swansea and Swansea City Council's Life Long Learning & Employment Training service have teamed up to encourage Swansea businesses to recruit an apprentice and reap the rewards!

The Apprenticeship Programme, which is part funded by the European Social Fund via the Welsh Government, is a vocational education route for anyone who wishes to gain a qualification or up-skill themselves in the workplace. This approach offers learners the opportunity to get hands-on experience in a busy working environment which will prepare them for a successful career - all with the support and guidance of a dedicated mentor who will guide the candidate through the qualification. 

What are the benefits to an employer?

This is YOUR opportunity to select promising individuals and provide them with opportunities to learn whilst moulding them to your way of working and strengthening the skill-set within your workforce.

Vocational qualifications are offered from levels 2-5, meaning your existing staff can also become up-skilled ‘on the job’ which will, in turn, enable you to offer the highest standard of service possible and take your business to the next level.

What’s more, taking on an apprentice will enable you to access funding and create good links between your organisation and Gower College Swansea.

Please take a look at this short video to learn more about The Apprenticeship Programme offered by Gower College Swansea and Swansea City Council's Life Long Learning & Employment Training.

For information about the opportunities available to employers please contact Nicola Hughes of the Work Based Learning department on 01792 284155 or email Nicola.Hughes@gowercollegeswansea.ac.uk.

Over 60 class reps attended the Annual Student Conference on Friday 7 February at Sketty Hall. It was a busy day!

The conference key note speaker Joy Marsden talked to the class reps about how to achieve their goals.
There were 18 different student bids for equipment and resources with the panel of senior managers allocating £6,000 to successful bidders on the day.

The class reps selected from a range of workshops including:

• www.gowercollegeswansea.ac.uk– is it the best?
• Your Voice, Your College
• Big New Library, Big New Ideas (Gorseinon Campus)
• Bidding for IT and Capital Resources
• Are you healthy for success?
• Communicate to succeed!

and provided their views to the workshop leaders.

If you would like to see the photographs, notes and actions from the event they are now on the Student Councilsection of the Student Handbook on Moodle.

Please click on the link. http://learn.swancoll.ac.uk/sites/studenthandbook/student-council/annual-student-conference/

Our next student council meetings are on:

• Thursday 3 April (12-1.30pm) at Tycoch/LYB/Kingsway (Tycoch, Main Hall)
• Wed 2 April (3-4.30pm) at Gorseinon Campus  (Room D3)

If you would like your Class Rep to bring an issue or feedback to the meeting please let them know.

You may have noticed that the new build construction at Gorseinon campus has been livened up lately with the inclusion of some brightly coloured art work surrounding the site?

This splash of colour comes courtesy of Llwyn – Y- Bryn students who created the work for their ‘MY Favourite things’ project. The BTEC Extended Diploma Art and Design students were given the project  by lecturer Michael Murray and is based on a combination of the hit musical ‘The Sound of Music’ and the work of artist Michael Craig Martin.

The finished pieces depict the students' ‘favourite things’ using bold colour and are on display on the usually plain white hoarding boards which surround the current building projects taking place at the campus.

Building company Care Construction Company have also launched a competition for the best piece and have offered a yet to be announced prize for the winning artist.

A Level French and Spanish students at Gower College Swansea have been inspired by a visit from Anna Bastek, CEO of Wolfestone Translation Ltd, who spoke about the exciting opportunities that translation offers.  Her speech was described as “inspirational” by one student and the students were all amazed at the career opportunities translation offers.  The visit was organised by Lucy Turtle, the college Enterprise Project Officer, as part of the Dynamo Role-Model programme.  

Translation is an integral part of both the A Level French and Spanish courses and students frequently practise translating.  This year, it was decided to introduce the Gower College Translation Competition, a challenging competition which was open to French fast-track learners at Tycoch and French and Spanish A Level full time learners at the Gorseinon campus. 

The students had to translate a complex article into English under exam conditions and lecturers Siân Brooks and Chris Elias, who organised the competition, were delighted with the response.  Five students in each category were short-listed and their entries were then sent to Wolfestone Translation Ltd for judging. 

The winners in each category were Ben Hockley, a full-time A Level French student at Gorseinon, A Level Spanish student, Rhiannon Thomas Val, and Llinos Davies, a part time A Level French fast track student at Tycoch.

Each winner was presented with a Kindle by Anna Bastek.  Siân Brooks commented:  “Anna has proved to be a superb role model and we are delighted that she has agreed to continue her involvement with us so that the Gower College Translation Competition can become an annual event.”

Monday 17^th- Fri 21^st March 2014 is Gower College Swansea’s ‘Money Skills Week’ in partnership with Barclays bank. The week aims to teach students about money management, the best ways to save and how to avoid getting into debt!

We will have lunchtime sessions taking place at campus common rooms.

A group of Gower College Swansea A Level Business and Economics students are heading to Cardiff to compete against all the other colleges in Wales.  They won the college Global Enterprise Challenge final and will now represent the college at the Welsh final at the Millennium Centre on 11th and 12th March.

The Global Enterprise Challenge is a Welsh Government endorsed scheme that gives students the opportunity to develop their knowledge and experience of enterprise and business by providing an environment where they can apply skills and improve their understanding in practical ways.

Once they reach Cardiff, the team will have 24 hours to develop a detailed business plan, cash flow and proposal before they return the following day to present their completed proposal to a panel of experts.

In preparation for this event, they have been working closely with the college’s Enterprise Officer, Lucy Turtle, and local entrepreneur, Adam Curtis, a former student of the college, who judged the college finals and commented: “I really enjoyed being a judge for the college Global Enterprise Challenge finals - all the teams were amazing and it was really hard to pick a winner, but the team that won were exceptional! Being a former student at the college I was really impressed with quality of work that was produced and was honoured to be a part of it. The winning team are driven and clearly have the ability to go on to run businesses in the future. I am looking forward to seeing how the team performs in the Cardiff final.”

The Gower College Swansea students taking part are Jordan Allan, Emma Breach, Cerri Glover, Jack Govier, Rachel Jackson, Aaron Thomas and Gareth Wilkins.

The Vanilla Pod has a special menu with an Irish theme on Thursday 20th March.  Dinner will cost £20, including a glass of wine, and will be served at 6.00 pm,

The delicacies on offer will include potato cakes with Irish smoked salmon, Irish Baileys sorbet, Irish stew with leek dumplings, smoked haddock and colcannon with a white wine beurre blanc, Guinness mouse with shamrock shortbread and Murphy's pudding with whisky cream and ice-cream!

Vocational Computing students at Gower College Swansea are being encouraged to think about their future career paths.  To assist them in making their decisions, IT staff have organised a “Be Inspired” all-day event on Wednesday 12 March.  Inspirational guest speakers from a range of backgrounds will be running a series of workshops, allowing students to experience first-hand examples of technology used in industry.

The event will give current students the opportunity to speak to people working in industry about the qualities and skills that are in demand and what they may aspire to after completing the course.

“The day is a vital part of the students education since it shows the subject in real life and highlights the purpose of studying and achieving on their course”, says Bev Morgan, IT lecturer at Gower College Swansea.

Speakers taking part in the event include Paul  Webb, Hi Tech Crime Unit Manager for South Wales Police, Stephen Griffiths from Swansea Business School, Dr Stephen Lindsay, and former Gower College Swansea student, Joel Eastman, who is currently employed as a network IT technician.  The topics covered will range from Computer Forensics to creating Business Models using new concepts in technology.

“Guest speakers have been keen to come forward and we are grateful for their involvement as it helps ensure we are equipping our students with the skills demanded by Industry”, says Clive Prosser, IT lecturer at Gower College Swansea.

Aneurin Donald, a student at Gower College Swansea, has received the SportingWales Rising Star Award for November 2013.  The monthly awards are presented every quarter by SportingWales, Wales’ national sports magazine, and the other winners at the awards event in January were Harry Wilson, the 16-year-old Liverpool winger who, in October, became the youngest player ever to be capped by Wales, and Matt Smith, who won a Mclaren young driver award in Motorsport.  The three are in great company as past winners of the Rising Star Awards include George North, Jade Jones, Geraint Thomas, Nicole Cooke, Gethin Jenkins, Ben Davies and Simon Jones.

Aneurin is studying A Level Pure and Applied Maths, Chemistry and Economics and is also a member of the college Cricket Academy.  Last year, he was chosen to join the ECB’s Development Programme for the 2013-14 season and was selected to captain the England Under 17's in a three day game against Sri Lanka.

Mike O’Brien, Director of Cricket at Gower College Swansea, commented: “Aneurin is an outstanding young cricketer. Gaining entry onto the England Development Program (EDP) is a significant achievement, and he is also an important part of the Glamorgan Academy, having recently been offered a contract with the county’s senior squad. Since starting at Gower College Swansea, we have worked hard to ensure that his ambitions have been supported, liaising with the England Program, and providing him with the opportunity to attend both the cricket academy and maintain a focus on his academic work. I’m sure this award will be the first of many…”

As part of the 'Walk in Her Shoes' campaign, more than 70 students and staff from Gower College Swansea undertook a charity walk in aid of Care International on Friday 7th March.  The walkers set off from the college's Kingsway Centre, then headed to the Uplands, around Brynmill, Singleton and then along Swansea Bay promenade.

Over £300 was raised and Jane John, Equality and Diversity Leader, was delighted with the event:  “The college has supported this very worthwhile charity for a number of years.  The annual sponsored walk undertaken by our students not only enables us to make a donation, but also marks International Women’s Day and promotes awareness of gender inequalities around the world.”

Technical Theatre students at Gower College Swansea are celebrating as three of the final year students have gained places at some of the most prestigious Drama and Design colleges in the UK.

Hollie Meldin, formerly a pupil of Dwr y Felin Comprehensive School, has been accepted onto the BA in Theatre Design course at Wimbledon College of Arts; Kelly Rosser, who previously studied at Cefn Saeson Comprehensive, joins the Technical Theatre and Stage Management course at RADA, while Mitchell Lawson will study Live Events and Production at The Backstage Academy in Wakefield.  Mitchell joined the course having previously studied at Cwmtawe Comprehensive School.

Curriculum Leader, Adrian Hocking, commented “It is a credit to these young people that they have gained places in their first choice college so early in the application process, receiving offers just two days after interviews.”

The Technical Theatre course, which has been established at the Gorseinon campus for over fifteen years, has an excellent record of preparing students for employment and further training, with many former students now working with major names in the recording industry as lighting and sound personnel or stage managing major events nationally and internationally, while others are working in some of the leading performance venues in the UK.

Unfortunately the Broadway Holistic and Beauty Fayre planned for next Saturday 22nd March has been cancelled until further notice.

We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause and hope to put on another event soon!

A group of Gower College Swansea A level students headed to New York for a recent field trip. The 39 students from A level Geography, Politics and World Development courses visited the Big Apple from Monday 3rd to Saturday 8th March and packed a lot in to the 5 day trip! Along with sightseeing some of the city’s most iconic landmarks the students were able to study migration and sustainability in New York as well as tour the United Nations headquarters, Capitol Hill and watch a live vote in the American Senate. Accompanying the students on the trip were Valeh Warrey (World Development coordinator), David Bawden (Geography coordinator), Scott Evans (Politics coordinator) and accompanying were Jenny Hill and Lucy Hartnoll.