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.

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.

Yesterday Aaron Lawes of King Edward VI Five Ways School and Bishop Vesey’s Dan Black and Will Poland joined 30 of the country’s most promising schoolboy rugby players and experienced a day in the life of an England rugby player after being selected to attend the NatWest Schools Cup Academy Day.

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. 

Walsall College Plumbing apprentices, currently completing their training at HomeServe gave something back to the community last week by volunteering to feed homeless people in Birmingham city centre. As part of an enrichment project on their course, the trainee plumbers chose to support the work of The Midland Langer Seva Society, a Sikh organisation who have been providing food for those in need for a number of years.