Students at Romney Marsh Skills Festival enjoy work experience
More than 600 students from Romney Marsh, Ashford and Shepway enjoyed the opportunity to discover the wealth of career opportunities on their doorsteps on May 6 and 7 when they visited the Romney Marsh Skills Festival. The event, held at the Marsh Academy in New Romney, was organised by Kent County Council in partnership with the Academy and the City of London Livery Companies, with support from Hadlow College.
The event was designed to give students a real insight into the range of careers available locally, and focussed on the rural economy, energy and engineering, construction, IT and telecoms, fashion, and marine and maritime industries.
On the Friday, year 8 and 9 students took part in hands-on activities and listened to talks from young people already working in each of the industries. They also watched demonstrations by master-craftsmen and discussed careers and apprenticeship opportunities with a range of organisations. Students particularly enjoyed the hands-on activities, with thirteen-year-old student Matthew saying: "today was really good, like doing five work experiences in a day!"
A reception was held on Saturday evening for local VIPs to look around the exhibition and to thank exhibitors for giving their time to the festival. At the reception, joints of Romney Marsh lamb prepared during butchery demonstrations over the course of the day were auctioned off, raising over £300 for the three charities supported by the Marsh Academy – Help for Heroes, Port Lympne Wild Animal Park and the Make a Wish Foundation.
At the reception, the Leader of Kent County Council , Councillor Paul Carter, said:
"We have been on a mission for many years to deliver not just traditional education, and to ensure that we prepare our students for the world of work. We need to light the flame of enthusiasm in our young people, and events like these are a fantastic way of doing that. Thank you to everyone who has made this such a great success."
Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports, Lord Boyce, said:
"There is no doubt how useful it is exposing students to these different skills. It is especially important in these hard economic times to ensure that students are leaving school with workplace skills, and this has been an extraordinarily successful day."
Saturday saw Post-16 students taking part in master-classes with master-craftsmen. Students learnt how to turn a creative hobby into a business, practiced stonemasonry and silversmithing, and even tried their hand at butchery and cookery! Student Tom (14) took part in a plumbing master-class and said: "It was really good and I learnt a lot – it was really worthwhile!" The festival was also attended by members of the public on Saturday, including the families of students who had taken part on Friday and were keen to show their parents their newfound skills!
