Celebrating Equality and Diversity Booklet 2012 - Leeds City College

College helps to drive people on lineLeeds City College has joined a nationwidedrive to get more people on line, hostingan event to enthuse students to train otherswho are IT-phobes.An audience of up to 150 attended theRaceonline 2012 event on Thursday,September 29th which saw a series ofinspirational talks by Digital Championshighlighting the benefits of IT, and morespecifically engagement with the worldwideweb.Raceonline 2012 recognises that a largenumber of people from a variety ofbackgrounds have never used the Internetand aims to encourage IT savvy people tohelp others who have yet to go online totake the first steps to do so.Headlining and aiming to inspire theaudience to take the lead were MarthaLane Fox – the founder of lastminute.comwho was reappointed UK Digital Championby the coalition government in June 2010– and Ed Kitchen from O2, who bothspoke about how technology can make adifference to everyone.Student mobo blogger prepares formusic industry awardsJournalism student Danny Taylor is one ofthree national winners in a competition tobecome an official blogger for the MOBO(Music of Black Origin ) Awards – thehighlight of which was an invitation to itsannual awards on Wednesday 5 October inGlasgow.Danny, 17, was awarded a one-yearopportunity giving him very specialexposure to the music industry, and has sofar been blogging about albums and eventsand promoting artists from a variety ofcultural backgrounds. The competition ranin partnership by National Skills Academyfor Creative & Cultural Studies and MOBOand is one of the ways the NSA is helpingyoung people by providing access to themedia industry.Student storyG first came into the Help Zone at the endof August to see an adviser. His ambitionwas to be a Social Worker and he neededhelp with the financial aspects of coming tocollege on a Level 3 Health & Social Carecourse.As he was 20 years old he was looking at asubstantial amount of money for the coursefees. He lived with his mum who being alone parent with 2 other children hadn’tmuch in the way of spare cash; he wasunemployed but not claiming benefits.As this was his first level 3 course he wasable to get a fee remission and we looked atthe Adult Learning Grant which would helpwith travel as he lived in Bradford.I later helped him with the ALG formand explained about the discretionaryLearner Support Fund which would helphim with the CRB check he needed andany essential trips. During the year he hadseveral payments through the hardship fundwhen he found it difficult to budget hismoney for travel payments during his workplacements.He has now enrolled on the 2nd year ofhis course this August and still receives hisALG – University is his next challenge. I feelthat the money helped G with his decisionto start the course and later on in the yearwhen he was finding it hard to budgetit took away the stress of trying to findmoney so he could concentrate on his workexperience and studies.Garden projects put students on a newpathJoseph Priestley Campus has scooped twoawards for its bloomin’ lovely gardens.PALS (Preparation for Adult Life & Society)tutor Ian Forward and Foundation Studiesstudent Chris Crowther attended the Leedsin Bloom Awards Ceremony at Pudsey CivicHall to accept a highly commended awardfor the spring judging rounds and a bronzefor summer.The grounds at the Peel Street Campushave recently been renovated by the PALSgroup, who also enlisted the help of theMorley based Horticulture Level 1 studentsand the NPTC Horticulture & Conservationgroup.Visitors to an East Leeds communitycentre have also seen their outdoor spacetransformed into an urban oasis, thanks toa group of young people on a programmerun by Leeds City College and youth charity,The Prince’s Trust. Nine young people, aged18 to 25, officially unveiled the garden theydesigned and built at Kentmere Communityin Seacroft, at a barbecue for the centre’sover-50s users on Thursday, July 28th.The garden featuring a patio area, flowerbeds, seating and raised vegetable bedsis the result of The Trust’s 12 week Teamprogramme, which is delivered in the cityby the College and helps young peopledevelop the skills and confidence to getthem into work, education or training whilealso contributing to the local community.Journalism student Danny Taylor became an officialblogger for the MOBO (Music of Black Origin) Awards.