NEWS ARCHIVE
Lord Young Visits Falmouth Marine School
Lord Young, Minister for Postal Affairs and Employment Relations at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills visited Falmouth Marine School on Friday 26th March.
Previously Minister for Skills & Apprenticeships at the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills, Lord Young asked for the visit to the College as part of a series of student listening visits he is conducting on behalf of the Department for Business Innovation and Skills.
The purpose of these visits is to enable Lord Young to hear first hand, from students about their experiences at college, what they think is working well and their suggestions for improvements. Lord Young specifically wanted to find out more about how training leads into employment and was keen to see examples of the important role further education plays in placing people in jobs and preparing school leavers to enter employment. The information gathered will then be used to inform National policy development. He was accompanied by his personal secretary, Jez Williams, whose responsibility lies directly in further education and student affairs.
Lord Young arrived at the College at 1pm and was met by the Principal of Cornwall College, Dave Linnell OBE, and the Head of Falmouth Marine School, Tom Shaw. It was then straight to the boardroom for lunch with members of the Falmouth Marine School Student Union Committee and senior members of College staff, including Head of Quality J-P Eatock and the Colleges' two Course Area Managers, Alex Whatley (Marine Technology) and Steve Bowens (Ocean Science).
After lunch, Lord Young, who was also accompanied by his wife, and David Ward, Learning Opportunities Adviser at Skills for Business at Cornwall Council, visited the woodwork workshop to meet students on the Yacht Fitting & Composites C&G Level 3 course along with course tutor Dave Martin. Lord Young spoke to students about their career opportunities and saw examples of the work they were carrying out. Dave Martin showed Lord Young around the workshop which also displayed images of boats built by previous students on boatbuilding courses at the College including the Falmouth Marine School Cornish Luggers.
This was then followed by a visit to the marine engineering workshop to meet students on the Light Marine Engineering C&G Level 3 course and their tutors Martin Peart and Ken Whitney.
To end the visit Lord Young, accompanied by Head of College Tom Shaw, travelled to the Watersports Association to meet students on the Marine Sports Science and Marine Leisure Management Foundation Degrees as they came off the water after one of their lessons. Over a cup of tea to warm them up, joined by Course Manger Steve Bowes, students chatted to Lord Young about why they chose Falmouth Marine School and the advantages of their course over ones at other colleges.
Richard Morris from the Isle of Wight on his first year of the Marine Sports Science Foundation Degree, when asked why he chose the University of Plymouth approved course above others closer to home, simply answered: "Because it was better!"
Dave Linnell OBE, Principal of Cornwall College commented: "We very much enjoyed Lord Young's visit to Falmouth Marine School. I believe that Lord Young was very impressed by the quality of the students, the quality of the staff and the quality of the work."
