Colors: Green Color

A Sandwell Council employee is celebrating after being recognised by the Career Development Institute at a national awards ceremony.
Lee Groucutt, who works for Connexions Sandwell, came runner-up in the category of Careers Adviser of the Year at the prestigious UK Career Development Awards ceremony in Leeds on Wednesday 7 March 2018.
Lee beat stiff competition and only narrowly missed out on winning the top prize. For coming runner-up, Lee has been given the prize of an all-expenses paid, four day visit to a career development conference in Tallinn, Estonia to learn from representatives across Europe and share his own experiences.
Lee works in several Sandwell schools helping young people with their career choices and has recently been involved with Ormiston Sandwell Community Academy helping them achieve the Gold Standard in the Careers Quality Award.
Lee was thrilled with coming runner-up. He said: “I was ecstatic just to be nominated. It is an honour to represent Connexions Sandwell in Tallinn.”
Councillor Simon Hackett, cabinet member for children's services said: "Congratulations to Lee, what a great achievement to be recognised at a national event for the amazing work he does with young people in Sandwell.”
"Lee is clearly an asset to Connexions Sandwell and I know he will do a great job of representing Sandwell at an international level when he goes to Estonia."
Connexions Sandwell provides impartial careers advice for young people aged 15 to 19, and up to 25-year-olds with a disability, on all of their options, including apprenticeships.
Young people can go to the One Stop Shop at Sandwell Council House in Oldbury on weekdays to speak to a Connexions adviser.

Move over Cowell, there’s a new talent contest in town with a pretty spectacular career at stake and it’s seen thousands of the Great British public sign themselves up in a bid to get paid to play for a living.

The new LEGOLAND Discovery Centre Birmingham has received in excess of 5,000 applications for the coveted role of Master Model Builder since the job window opened three weeks ago. With just four days now remaining for perspective applicants to apply, bosses have confirmed the selection process will culminate in a live public audition later this month, channelling the gruelling heats from popular televised talent shows.

The top 50 brick builders will be invited to battle it out in a ‘Brickfactor Challenge’ on Saturday 24th March in what is being dubbed as the Hunger Games of LEGO geniuses. Thousands of LEGO bricks will aid multiple building challenges, which have been designed to whittle the contestants down to just one Master Builder.

The role, which has been reported as the nation’s dream job, is one of just 22 positions across the world and will be located at a custom-built studio next to the attraction’s Creative Workshop and will boast an endless supply of LEGO bricks.

The Discovery Centre hopes to crown a passionate and creative LEGO fanatic for the role which will see them construct structure attractions, curate exhibitions and mentor children and families in the creation of their own model masterpieces.

Amy Langham, General Manager at LEGOLAND Discovery Centre said: “The Master Model Builder role is such a privileged position to hold and the number of applications that we have received has come as no surprise. Given this role hankers creativity and excitement, giving someone the opportunity to win the job from a series of live challenges couldn’t be more fitting!”

The position initially opened on Friday 9th February and within 24 hours had received over 1,500 applications, the demand of which caused major technology issues for the site.

So far, the attraction reports that applications have been received from parties on the other side of the world including New Zealand, Australia and California. The dream job status has seemingly attracted the attention from all walks of life too, with bosses confirming reports staff currently in post at the royal household to distinguished barristers have put their credentials forward for consideration.

The Discovery Centre is set to become the "ultimate indoor Lego playground" with more than two million bricks, iconic buildings and landmarks built from scratch, Lego-themed areas, an interactive laser ride and a 4D cinema.

Applications for the role will remain open until Friday 16th March 2018. Further information on the job criteria can be found at www.birmingham.legolanddiscoverycentre.co.uk

Children at Ferndale Primary School in Great Barr are raising money to go towards installing an all-weather pitch on the school field.

Local businesses are also being invited to support the project.

To help towards the fundraising, pupils and staff this week (Monday 19 March) took part in an obstacle course challenge in the hall.

The Football Association (FA) is leading the Mini Pitches initiative in conjunction with The Premier League and the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS).

The school is one of only seven in the country that has been selected from more than 19,000 that originally applied to be part of the project and 65 that were shortlisted. This followed a successful bid written by the headteacher Ruth Gillett.

Staff and pupils are working had to raise £20,000 to go towards the pitch. The school has already managed to raise just over £10,000 with events planned to help raise more over the coming months.

If the school is able to raise the money, the rest of the cost of the project, estimated to be in excess of £80,000, will be met with a grant from the Football Foundation.

Ruth said she is keen to get local businesses involved too. She said: "The mini pitch is very much needed at Ferndale as our fields are very water-logged and unusable for much of the year.

"The pitch will not only benefit the school children as it will also be available to the local community and sports groups.

"Our school community has been so generous and I've been really touched that a couple of children have donated some of their pocket money to the cause.

"If there are any local businesses out there that can help us raise the rest of the money, we would be very grateful."

Councillor Simon Hackett, Sandwell Council’s cabinet member for children's services, visited the school on Monday. He said: "Staff, children, parents and carers have done an amazing job in raising money for the mini pitch. Having seen the enthusiasm for myself I am confident that they will get to their target.

"The mini pitch will ensure the children at the school and the local community will have the chance to be more active and healthy using state-of-the-art facilities."

The school has many other fundraising events planned including discos, cake sales and raffles.

Great Barr children were marking International Women's Day with a series of special classes and activities at Ferndale Primary School.
Children have been discussing inspirational women and focusing on the suffragettes who gained votes for women just over 100 years ago.
Children were also debating inequalities between men and women and how things have changed over the years.
Headteacher at Ferndale Primary School said: "Equality is one of our school values  so it's important to mark days like International Women's Day.
"I'm really proud of how hard all the children and staff have worked on this topic and it's been really interesting to look back through history and acknowledge how things have moved on."
Councillor Simon Hackett, cabinet member for children's services said: "It's great schools like Ferndale Primary are doing activities to mark International Women's Day.
"Focusing on suffragettes is very apt given this year marks 100 years since women first gained the vote."

University of Wolverhampton students took part in a two-day data hackathon designed to put large-scale data analysis on the learning map to develop 21st century career skills.

Students studying for degrees across a range of disciplines including Computer Science, Mathematics, Engineering and Biotechnology took part in DataFest, an intensive 48-hour challenge, as part of the University’s Career Development Week (CDW).

A team of German students visiting from Aschaffenburg University, accompanied by Professor Michael Moeckel, also took part in the challenge.

DataFest was first introduced by the Statistics Department at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in 2011 and is now supported by the American Statistical Association (ASA) and hosted at universities throughout the US.

The event was hosted by the School of Mathematics and Computer Science at the University’s City Campus in association with Transport for West Midlands, part of the West Midlands Combined Authority, and City of Wolverhampton Council, who provided transportation data for students to interrogate.

Stuart Lester, Data Innovation Lead at Transport for West Midlands, said: “We were really pleased to set the challenge for students by providing the data sets and contexts of the problems we are grappling with.  It was great to have the chance to work with the next generation of data scientists, to inspire them to get involved in the world of transport data.”

Dr Patricia Davies, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science in the University’s Faculty of Science and Engineering, said:  “Our DataFest competition is designed to bring “big data” to our students during Career Development Week, and get them thinking of themselves as data professionals.

“Students from across a range of faculties were tasked with analysing a huge amount of transport data, working in small teams to interpret their findings, and presenting these results and recommendations to a wider audience. The intensive exercise helped students to develop negotiating skills, perseverance, tolerance in working as part of a team, and adhering to strict deadlines - all transferrable skills for the real world of work.”

Professor Prashant Pillai, who recently joined the University as Professor of Cybersecurity and Director of Wolverhampton Cyber Research Institute, presented the DataFest trophies donated by Google to participants.  He said: “This take a lot of effort. It not only tested students’ abilities to use cutting edge tools and techniques in the field of data science, but also their ability to work in diverse groups to solve such complex tasks.”

Richard McNally, 22, a Mathematical Science student, said: “Our group focused mainly on congestion.  We were given two sets of data - speed that traffic travels at and incidents of congestion, and it was our task to find out what might be the cause of congestion.

“I really enjoyed the whole process.  I was so focused and it was really great to interact with people you wouldn’t normally interact with.  In particular, the German student who was placed with us brought an engineering focus to our analysis and I also learned things I didn’t know about excel spreadsheets from Computer Science students.”

Prizes were awarded for Best Insight, Best Visualization and Best Use of External Data. The event was also supported by Google, TurtItIn, PebblePad, MathWorks, Royal Statistics Society and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).

The FE Week Annual Apprenticeship Conference (AAC) is one of the most prestigious events amongst colleges and employers. The conference, which is in its fourth year, celebrates and honours the very best in Apprenticeship provision.

Regional winners were announced for the ‘apprenticeship employer’, ‘apprenticeship provider’ and ‘promoting apprenticeships campaign' categories. The winners will now head to the national finals on 22nd March at a National Awards Dinner at the conference in Birmingham.

The awards recognise apprenticeship employers and training providers who have excelled in contributing to the development and delivery of apprenticeship programmes in the UK.

Walsall College currently offers over 40 apprenticeship frameworks/standards and has over 2000 apprentices enrolled on its programmes from level 2 (equivalent to GCSE) to level 6 (Degree) apprenticeships.

James Norris, Assistant Principal for Commercial Development at Walsall College, commented: “It’s an honour to be the regional winner of the ‘Apprenticeship Provider of the Year’ award. As one of the largest providers of 16-18 apprenticeship training in the West Midlands, our apprenticeship provision is something we are very proud of.

Winning the award is a testament to the amazing work our apprenticeship team do in ensuring that the right candidates are matched with the right vacancies, so they go on to become valued employees within the organisation.”

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