Best in the East of England

Shuttleworth wins and Bedford College shares the limelight

The East of England show proved a valuable showcase for students training at Bedford and Shuttleworth Colleges.

The show is traditionally an Agricultural and Country show so students and staff from Shuttleworth College are regular visitors. The show is a perfect venue for National competitions. The show not just about livestock and horses but also includes exhibits and competitions for horticulture, floristry, landscape gardening, arboriculture and game keeping.

Shuttleworth College covers a wide range of land based and animal science courses and students are able to benefit from the excellent job opportunities in these areas. In fact there are no shortage of jobs in agriculture, in fact the industry is short of 80,000 skilled workers.

Shuttleworth students showed their talents by taking prizes in a variety of classes at the East of England Show.

William Colebrook's award winning garden

Top with gold was William Colebrook (pictured above) who creating a “star garden. His fellow horticulture students Jack Sharpe, Sam Gibbs, Nick Bitten and Adam Knibbs also exhibited and achieved silver and bronze awards. William, aged 18 and lives in Gamlingay has completed his National Diploma in Horticulture and is setting up business as a self-employed landscaper.

Floristry student Gemma Dennis (pictured left), aged 17, won the Smalley Challenge Cup in the Round and Round the Garden design category. A full time student at Shuttleworth. Gemma is going on to take her Level 3 Diploma in floristry next year. She has a part time job at Cottage Garden Florists in Kempston - the town where she lives.

Assistant Director Bronwen Bray said: “This was a good result for all our students who took part at the show. Shuttleworth College has a national and regional reputation and the East of England Show is a good place to remind people what a great place this is to study.”

Meanwhile their new friends at Bedford College decided to join the show too - a first and interesting experience. Schools and Community Liaison Manager Ellen Punter co-ordinated the activity together with colleagues from both campuses .

“Many people at this show were familiar with Shuttleworth College because of its top class reputation among farming and rural industries and employers. Fewer had heard of Bedford College or understand the wide range of complementary courses which are offered there,” she said.

Catering and Construction training teams from the Outstanding Ofsted Bedford campus joined the event.

Head of Hospitality Raj Mandal and his Hot Squad of students talked to people at the show about how catering can support rural industries such as tourism and specialist retail by enabling people to cook for visitors or prepare food for farmers markets.

Construction specialists explained how on-going building and maintenance work on large estates and properties can be aided by modern training techniques.