Recognising Student Success

In November the Leigh University Technical College (Dartford) held its first awards dinner to recognise the exceptional work of ten of its students during its first year since opening in September 2014.

Lord Baker, Chairman of Baker Dearing Educational Trust was invited as the guest of honour and business partners were invited to sponsor tables at the dinner to support each of the winners, enabling  each student to bring two family guests. Towards the end of the evening a ‘silent auction’ took place which raised the fantastic amount of £10,500 to go towards various special resources to support the engineering and computer science specialisms of the college.

When choosing the trophies for the winners it was decided to reflect the engineering specialism of the college. Kenard was honoured to be asked to manufacture a suitable trophy.

Steve Leahey, the Principal of the Leigh UTC said “It’s unique and unprecedented to have such a level of support from the business community and the support they gave us for this event was tremendous. The evening was thought by everyone to be fantastic.”

For more information and a list of the award winners visit the Leigh UTC website

Mentoring Programme

Keith Ellis, managing director of the Kenard Group is the Chair of Governors of the Leigh UTC and has been closely involved with the college since it’s inception.

The latest initiative that we’re involved with is their Business Mentor  Programme and as a result two students from the college joined us for work experience in the October half term. The pupils will be supported by their Kenard mentors Paul Fisher and Paul Rose, who have both been through the mentor training with the Leigh Academy.

How does it work?
Each mentor is asked to commit at least one academic year to the programme and will meet with their student(s) a minimum of once per term for approximately an hour. For these sessions the mentors will prepare discussion topics, learning activities and present  scenarios/problems/solution based activities. As a mentor it is key to develop a supportive role that will help the student to improve their academic performance and encourage them to explore their aspirations/investigate future careers. It is an invaluable opportunity for the students to improve their understanding of the world of work.

Mentoring can be a highly rewarding experience for everyone involved. As a mentor it is an opportunity to develop management/leaderships skills; participate in influencing the aspirations and future direction of the next generation of engineers; and feel a sense of pride/recognition in their contribution to the students’ achievements. As Paul Fisher explains “I wanted to do this to support the local Engineering College which we (Kenard) are heavily involved with. Hopefully in the future we can source apprentices from UTC students. It’s early days but I have met and understand the aims of my two mentees and hope to be able to inspire them to work hard on their studies and continue into engineering.”

Good luck to Paul Fisher, Paul Rose and their mentees for their first year in the programme!