Cardiff and Vale College student Danielle is a Career Ready winner

Cardiff and Vale College student Danielle Halford has been recognised as one of the best Business students in the country.

Danielle, a 19-year-old Level 3 Extended Diploma in Business student from Barry, has won the Sir Winfried Bischoff Regional Award for Wales, the West and Midlands. She will travel to London later this month to give a presentation and interview to a judging panel who will determine the UK-wide winner of the award for Career Ready students.

Tracy Bird, CAVC’s Career Ready programme co-ordinator, said: “We are all so proud of Danielle – she’s done brilliantly and really deserves this award. The team here at Cardiff and Vale College are all rooting for her as Danielle stands an extremely good chance of being the UK-wide Career Ready Student of the Year.”

Cardiff and Vale College is a committed member of the Career Ready programme as part of its drive to ensure students are employable and able to add instant value to any workplace.

Career Ready is a national charity that links with schools and colleges to prepare learners for the world of work. Alongside their academic studies, Career Ready students benefit from a two-year programme of regular mentoring, workplace visits, masterclasses and internships.

During the programme Danielle had an internship with the bank Santander and impressed senior staff there with her presentation skills. One even asked that she leave him a copy of PowerPoint presentation she had prepared as it was the best that he had ever seen and he wanted to keep it as a template. A Welsh speaker, Danielle also gave the bilingual opening address at the College’s Career Ready graduation ceremony last year.

“I was completely surprised to win this award, to be honest,” Danielle said. “It was so nice to get the opportunity – I never expected that my name would be put forward so it’s just amazing.

“I’m really excited to be going to London; it will be yet another opportunity to meet new people and have new experiences. I’m very excited and happy to be going.

“Career Ready has been completely life changing for me. I would never have expected to have the goals I have now compared to the ones I had before I started on the programme – they are so much more ambitious.

“I’ve applied to go to university to do a degree in Business Management and Law which is something that would never have crossed my mind before I started the Career Ready programme. It’s completely changed my career path and has been even better than I expected.”

Ends

Notes to editors

• Photo shows Sir Winfried Bischoff Career Ready Student of the Year Regional Winner for Wales, the West and Midlands Danielle Halford at CAVC’s City Centre Campus
• in 2016 CAVC won the prestigious UK-wide Association of Colleges Beacon Award for its innovative and sector leading apprenticeship provision
• 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. It has also been awarded the National Centre for Diversity’s Award for Welsh FE College of the Year 2016
• CAVC has been shortlisted for the TES College of the Year Award – the winner will be announced in February 2017
• Cardiff and Vale College was awarded College of the Year at the 2015 and 2016 Insider Business and Education Partnership Awards
• Apply now to join CAVC in Sept 2017
• Why not follow the latest updates from Cardiff and Vale College on Facebook.com/CardiffandValeCollege, Instagram @cavcinsta or Twitter @cavc

For more information contact:

Chris Baker

Communications Officer

Tel: 01446 725003. Mob: 07932 770938

[email protected]