Barking & Dagenham College Talent on show

Last week, Barking & Dagenham College(@BarkingCollege) underwent an extraordinary transformation, turning into a vast arena for a skills competition like no other.

Over a thousand students, joined by employers and residents from the local community, came along to participate in the extravaganza. Across the campus, students from diverse curriculum areas engaged in practical competitions and mini-events, ranging from cookery and construction to sports and filmmaking.

The day enabled students the chance to showcase their skills to employers, many of whom were guest judges for the various competitions.

One of the highlights of the day was a bustling community event involving health and social care students; it was smiles all around, as 50 residents from residential care units enjoyed a day of activities hosted by students, such as crafts and biscuit decorating including lunch and a natter.

Charlotte Stanford-Gibbs from Care Provider’s Voice, who helped coordinate the health and social care event, explained:

“It’s difficult for under 18s to get work experience in the sector and this has been a fantastic opportunity for the students to get some experience. We’ve connected the future workforce with the residents who access adult social care services.”

Four competitions were held in the Health and Social care department and were sponsored by Shreeji Inc Ltd.

Elsewhere, cookery students were making culinary delights for special guest judges from professional catering company BD Group and the council’s Food Education Partnership Coordinator, Lily McSweeney.

The catering and hospitality students were probably the busiest of the day, as they cooked and served a delicious two-course lunch to around 70 special guests in the Chef’s Hat, the college’s public restaurant. The desserts, which included a pretty-as-picture lemon tart, prompted many of their guests to post them on Instagram.

During the VIP guest lunch, the judges were observing the lunch prep to pick the best contributor as the winner. Madison Peppiatt, 16 from Romford won and is getting a one-week work placement with BD Group, which includes getting experience in several school kitchens around the borough. Jessica Mead, 17 from Romford was named runner-up.

Over in the Idris Elba Film Studio, media students showcased their documentary films to expert judges Gavin Saville Director of film company Wild Indie and Anna Wilson, Sector Lead for Film & Creative Industries, Film Barking and Dagenham.

Gavin said:

“A pleasure to help judge the student film competition again this year. Seeing some of the students’ development is really pleasing. Nothing develops the film art as much as doing the art and making films. It’s notable how hard the staff and college are working, with even more student films created. Bravo.”

Steve Thompson, MD of Dagenham and Redbridge FC visited the sports department and met with football apprentices, revealing that he attended Barking College, as it was then called, back in the 1970s:

“It’s been a good day, I’ve watched some competitions and I was impressed by the upselling abilities of the business students [who had set up stalls selling a variety of goods for the day] who managed to sell me four cakes when I only wanted one!”

Production arts students took part in a timed ‘crew obstacle course’ whereby they had to correctly connect cables and microphones in front of their classmates.

Over in the English and maths department, students took part in a tabletop war game, with Curriculum Manager Tom Mudd explaining:

“Games like this provide a great opportunity to embed numeracy and literacy skills within the college day.”

Carpentry students impressed the judges with the tidiness and quality of the wooden frames they made; in a ‘close competition’, the winner was declared as Harjap Singh, 18 from Havering with Yuri Karabanovych, 18 from Elm Park coming runner-up.

The electrical students had worked in pairs to do an electrical installation for the competition and with only one point between the winners and runners-up it was a close call.

Duo Jake Gales, 17 from Dagenham and Sonny Holtom from Romford were victorious. Sonny said:

“I’m chuffed that we won and I’m really looking forward to competing in the inter-college competition in April.”

Guest judges from Axis Europe Tyler Sansome and Cameron Bonthron said:

“It was nice to see such passionate students and teachers. They clearly all worked hard, and it was a brilliant opportunity for them to put what they have learnt in class to the test in a competitive environment”.

Barking & Dagenham College’s Horizons department, the largest provision for students with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities in North East London, had 10 competitions running. They had a team of external judges and ended the day with an awards ceremony.

Many fantastic prizes were on offer for the winners and runners-up of all the competitions, including Amazon vouchers, with lots of employers sponsoring competitions, and offering prizes such as toolboxes.

Adam McLane, High Performance Skills Coach, WorldSkills UK was impressed by the day, commenting:

“It was a fantastic event; warm, friendly and passionate staff who are working hard to provide opportunities for learners to excel and be the best version of themselves.”

Event organiser Zoe Richardson from the College summed up the day by remarking:

“The students had a brilliant day and did themselves proud. Thank you so much to all the industry experts and employers who gave up their time to provide masterclasses, guest lectures and be our guest judges for the day.”