Students from Westminster Kingsway College praised their lecturers’ support during the pandemic as they were awarded their degrees at this year’s graduation ceremony.

Assistant Principal Keith Turner presented the new graduates with their scrolls as they were announced by Maliheh Hamdollah, Programme Area Leader for Business, at St Stephen’s Church near the college’s Victoria Centre.

Both the classes of 2021 and 2020 were honoured at a joint ceremony after last year’s graduation was cancelled due to the COVID pandemic.

Deputy Executive Principal Gary Hunter announced this year’s student awards at the ceremony, which were presented by Culinary Arts lecturer Vince Kelly.

Valedictorian awards, for the graduates attaining the highest achievement in their year, were presented to Hospitality and Tourism Management student Heather Braveboy and Business Strategy and Enterprise Management student Kathleen Dean, who both gave speeches.

Awards were also presented to outstanding students in Business Strategy and Enterprise Management, Culinary Arts and Business Management, and Hospitality and Tourism Management.

Further awards were given to students who excelled in research, analytics, innovation, entrepreneurship, enterprise, teamwork, peer support and for best dissertation.

Katarzyna Uddin, 33, who graduated with a BA (Hons) Business Strategy and Enterprise Management and received the outstanding student award on her course, hopes to set up an organic café in the next two years.

She said: “I feel very happy that my hard work has been recognised. Getting the award has given me the confidence to know if I work hard and I’m determined I will be able to achieve my dreams.

“We’ve not been able to celebrate for a year, so it’s been nice to finally be able to get together. Most of us felt quite isolated from other students during COVID and it was difficult to finish our degrees at home, but the teaching was amazing. All the lecturers were very encouraging and supportive, and believed in us.

“I want to start my own business and feel I’ve now got the skills and knowledge to run it when it opens. My degree has taught me how to do a proper business plan, marketing and how to understand the finances. I enjoyed working and learning from other people, hearing different people’s views and realising the importance of working as a team if you want to be successful.”

Elizabeth McBride, 23, graduated with a BA (Hons) Hospitality and Tourism Management and won the student award for culinary entrepreneurship.

She said: “It feels too good to be true. I’m so happy to have finally completed my degree because there were so many points during COVID when I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to do it. It was more difficult and challenging with everything online, but we had one-to-ones with our lecturers if we needed help. You’d send them an email and they’d be there straightaway. It was never a problem, there was a lot of support. It went a lot smoother than most of us thought it would.”

Elizabeth previously completed a Patisserie and Confectionary Level 2 Certificate at WestKing and has been working as a pastry chef in restaurants in London for five years.

She added: “I realised I wanted to make my own cakes, but I just needed to know everything that needed to go into it. The course covered business management, law, finance and marketing – all the topics I needed to know, so it was the perfect course for me. It’s opened my eyes and given me a lot more confidence because now I know more about what goes into running a business.”

Petrena O’Halloran, Head of School for Higher Education and Professional Programmes, welcomed students, staff, parents and guests to the ceremony, which also included speeches by Executive Principal Kurt Hintz, Chair of Governors Alastair Da Costa and Vice Principal Jasbir Sondhi.

Special guests Deborah Homshaw, Managing Director for CH&CO, and Ralph Coulson, People Operations Business Partner at Food+ by Compass, also addressed the students.

Congratulating the students at the ceremony, Petrena said: “We have had an exciting yet challenging year of transition, and you have all demonstrated the amazing ability to overcome challenges and weather the storm while learning creatively.

“All your hard work, your educational journey, your incredibly strong pursuit in the quest for academic excellence, and your unquestionable commitment towards your goals has culminated in this moment. This is a big achievement for you, a first step on the road to success, and you will go on to achieve great triumphs and other prosperous accomplishments.

“Well done to all of you for putting in the necessary hard work to be included in the graduating classes this year.”

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A new café exclusively for hospitality workers has opened at Westminster Kingsway College to help boost the industry in the aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic.

The PM Café, run in partnership with the PM Trust and Hospitality Action, is open three days a week at the college’s Victoria Centre, and provides a space to network, get advice and share ideas over a tea or coffee and a pastry or slice of cake.

The opening of the PM Café comes at just the right time for the hospitality sector. The Government’s furlough scheme ended on 30 September, but consumer spending on hospitality and the number of people employed in the sector are still below pre-pandemic levels.

Visitors to the café will have access to information on mental health and wellbeing and can arrange to meet trained mediators from the charity Hospitality Action to get further help and support.

Celebrity chef Brian Turner CBE, who is a Trustee of the PM Trust, said: “By opening this café today we’re recognising the needs of the hospitality industry and providing them with somewhere to go, find friendship and someone to talk to when the going gets tough.

“The mental health problem is much bigger than we ever thought it was. Now is the time to get rid of these problems that have particularly affected young people, but not solely, and provide as much help as we can. It’s a brilliant idea, which we hope will catch on and we’ll be able to open more of these places around London and the rest of the UK.”

WestKing is one of the UK’s leading colleges for Hospitality and Culinary Arts and already features two award-winning training restaurants The Brasserie and The Escoffier Room, known jointly as The Vincent Rooms.

The college’s Hospitality and Culinary Arts students will be overseeing the running of the café and making drinks, pastries and cakes as well as serving customers. Pastries will be available in the morning and cakes in the afternoon with larger bites available from the Brasserie menu during kitchen opening times.

Deputy Executive Principal Gary Hunter said: “The PM Café will create a place of sanctuary where hospitality workers can talk and seek guidance or support over a cup of tea or coffee served by our students.

“The café will also be a fantastic opportunity for our students to get real experience of working in front of house roles and perfecting their culinary skills in creating a selection of pastries and cakes for customers visiting the café to enjoy.”

The PM Trust provides financial support for young people aged 16-24 looking to work in the hospitality sector, to help support their training and development. It was formed in 1949 after the closure of the PM Club, a meeting place for young hotel and restaurant workers in the crypt at St Martin-in-the-Fields on the north-east side of Trafalgar Square.

Hospitality Action has been supporting the UK hospitality industry since 1837. The charity helps workers across the industry with physical or mental health problems and also prepares them for the next phase in their lives if they are no longer able to work.

Gary, who is also a Trustee at the PM Trust, said: “In my role with the PM Trust I have been involved in supporting young hospitality workers in London with advice and financial support, and during the pandemic it became very apparent how many hospitality workers needed more support than ever.”

Tim Jones, Trustee at both PM Trust and Hospitality Action, said: “I am delighted to have played a part in helping to create the new PM Café. In the last century the PM Club operated as a place for young hotel and restaurant workers to meet and relax during the afternoons between shifts. When the club was disbanded the PM Trust was formed to assist young people entering the sector.

“During recent times, it has become apparent that a social wellness hub is needed for those working in the industry, and one of Hospitality Action’s prime roles is to provide support to improve mental health. I am sure the café will be extremely beneficial to many and help the sector to be seen as an attractive career path as it bounces back from the pandemic.”

The PM Café is open on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from 9.30am to 9pm. No proof of employment in the hospitality sector is required.

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According to the British Dyslexia Association, dyslexia affects 10 per cent of people in the UK but is still poorly understood. Healthcare student Layla Sbila explains how City and Islington College has helped her with the condition as the charity marks Dyslexia Week from 4-10 October.

When I was five, I moved to Dubai with my mum and older sister having been diagnosed with dyslexia two years earlier. It’s a neurological condition that affects my reading, writing and spelling, which I will have to live with all my life.

I find it hard to read properly and tend to mix up words and stutter when I read long sentences or paragraphs. I often blank out words or skip one or two sentences without realising it. Sometimes I see different letters or a different word, so for example I will see and read important as informed. It’s the same for maths, the numbers jumble around and it’s hard for me to understand.

I started at a school in Dubai and my mum told them about my dyslexia. The teachers tried to help. They would get me to write down words and sentences multiple times and ask me to read more often, but what I really needed was more one-to-one support. The teacher would sometimes ask me to read in class, but I couldn’t do it. I would just sit there, my mind blank and I would be unable to speak. I was embarrassed and felt really low, like I couldn’t do anything.

In my mid-teens I changed school, but it was even worse. I didn’t get any support at all. My teachers told my mum there was something wrong with me. They thought my dyslexia was a disease and I was lying about not being able to read or spell. They thought I was lazy. When I put my hand up to ask for help, one of my teachers would make me stand up and read a whole chapter from a book. I would stutter through it all, and because I did not understand what I was reading, it made it even worse. She wouldn’t even explain afterwards and just told me to get on with my work. I felt very vulnerable and lost, and never thought I’d be able to go to college and stay in education.

All I needed was a teacher or teaching assistant to explain what I was reading because for a person with dyslexia it can be ten times harder to understand. People with dyslexia can also be distracted easily and work better in a quiet environment. If my school had provided a support teacher to work more one-to-one with me there wouldn’t have been an issue. I needed someone to understand and reassure me that I’m only telling myself I can’t do something, when actually I can. I left school with no qualifications because of the lack of support for my dyslexia. I felt the school had held me back, but not to the point where I was going to give up on myself. If nobody was going to give me help, I knew I would have to fight for it.

I returned to the UK when I was 16 to live with my maternal grandparents in Haringey and applied to study for a Health and Social Care diploma at City and Islington College (CANDI). I began at Level 1 and I’m now studying at Level 3 and hope to go to university and become a nurse. Last year I also took GCSE English and passed with a grade 4 and this year I’m doing GCSE Maths. At CANDI the teachers break things down, explain things multiple times and double-check to make sure you understand. The college has also given me a support teacher and everyone has gone out of their way to do the best for me. It makes me quite emotional when I look at myself and see how far I’ve come because of the way the teachers at CANDI have helped me. I feel like I’m doing something good for myself now.

It’s often wrongly assumed that dyslexic people are not very bright, or they use it as an excuse because they don’t want to read, learn or understand things. That needs to change. People need to listen and understand more about dyslexia whether that’s at home, in school or the workplace. If you have a child who finds it hard to spell or understand the meaning of easy words, get them tested. If it’s someone at work or school, make sure they take everything in and understand the job or task they are being asked to do. Above all, be patient and kind, and recognise people with dyslexia as individuals and their needs are different.

People with dyslexia are just as smart as anyone else. If you’ve got the right support, you can do anything in life. The support I’ve received at CANDI has turned my life around and made me the person I am today.

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