A Level students engage with high profile news presenters

A Level Professional Honours Programme students at Wigan & Leigh College (@GMCollegesGroup) had the unique opportunity to hear from two high profile guest speakers this week.

Channel 4 News presenter, Krishnan Guru-Murthy and BBC Radio 4 and Dragon’s Den presenter, Evan Davis spent time with learners to engage in a question and answer session.

These are the latest in a list of prominent guest speakers, arranged by the College, who have each given fantastic insight into their careers.

Earlier in the year, the now newly appointed Good Morning Britain presenter, Alistair Campbell spent nearly two hours talking to Wigan & Leigh College A Level students as well as former Home Secretary, Lord David Blunkett and BBC News World Affairs Editor and journalist, John Simpson.

Krishnan Guru-Murthy was this week’s guest for the A Level students. The channel 4 News anchor spoke about how he ended up in his role at Channel 4 and also discussed the importance of media.

A Level Psychology tutor Jonny Evans said “It was an honour to have Krishnan join us, his views on the importance of media and on objectivity in the media were fascinating, we were very lucky to have him join us”.

Students also received advice from the Unreported World reporter on how to be successful in their chosen pathways.

A Level student Drew Whittle added: “Krishnan was a really interesting guest, especially when talking about his recent trip to the USA where he talked about the political changes over there”.

Being able to attract these high profile guest speakers to the College has been a positive outcome from the lockdown and the resulting move to virtual learning which has allowed these kind of opportunities to become more accessible.

The second celebrity guest of the week was BBC Radio 4 and Dragon’s Den presenter, Evan Davis, who joined a virtual discussion for a lively  economics talk.

The former BBC Political Editor answered questions ranging from his favourite economists to how his soft interview approach can sometimes be more effective than more adversarial ones.

“It was a real pleasure to meet you all and the questions were fantastic,” stated Evan.

A Level Sociology student, Katie Winrow said: “I enjoyed the talk with Evan because he gave insight into other subjects I don’t often hear about like economics.

“He was really friendly and answered everyone’s questions in detail, which was really helpful in learning more about life in the broadcasting industry.”