Cellist Julian Lloyd-Webber told patrons of Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce (GBCC) that the Birmingham Conservatoire has the opportunity to become the “best in the world” but needed private support. Julian, appointed principal of the Conservatoire last year, was speaking at a patrons’ lunch hosted by Birmingham City University (BCU).

A new "shelf help" collection has been launched in Wolverhampton's libraries to enable young people to better cope with problems they may be facing. The Reading Well scheme highlights 35 books and graphic novels which can help young readers who are suffering from issues such as body image problems, eating disorders, low self-esteem, bullying, stress or poor mental health. Titles also focus on conditions such as ADHD, OCD, autism and Asperger's Syndrome.

Former Walsall College Construction student, Claire Brittain, now an assistant site manager for BAM Construction returned to the college to help celebrate the success of current students at its annual Adult Students’ Awards Ceremony on Tuesday 24th May. Claire completed an apprenticeship in Brickwork following her GCSEs and after taking time out to have her first child, she decided to build on her skills and enrolled on to a Level 3 BTEC in Construction and the Built Environment course at Walsall College as an adult student.

Calling children of Birmingham, it’s time to get creative and put pen to paper because the National Young Writers’ Awards have returned!  Organised by tuition provider, Explore Learning, which has a centres in Handsworth, Harborne, Kings Heath, Longbridge, Wylde Green and Yardley. The theme this year is ‘The Mash-Up’ where children are encouraged to write a 500 word story that is a ‘mash-up’ of two genres. 

Business leaders from Walsall-based home assistance company, HomeServe, have been working with a group of Black Country students to help them learn the ropes about succeeding in the world of business. An eight-strong team of HomeServe volunteers was on hand to judge a host of “inspirational” business ideas, put forward by pupils from a number of Black Country schools as part of the area finals of the Young Enterprise Company Programme, held recently at Wolverhampton University.

Painting and Decorating apprentices at Walsall College, Tom Wilson and Benjamin Hegedus were awarded with 2^nd and 3^rd place in the regional round of the Johnstone’s Young Painter of the Year 2016 competition. During the regional final, which took place at Novus Solutions in Stoke on Tuesday 17^th May, the young Level 2 painters both 17 completed tasks devised by the experts at Johnstone’s, to test their skills in a number of key areas including working to a technical specification, applying different types of paint, selecting and using tools and applying stencils.