On 15 January 2020, the Royal Navy Engagement Team visited a group of 30 Public Services students at the College of Haringey, Enfield and North East London’s Tottenham Centre, to deliver workshops designed to improve students’ soft skills. Soft skills are usually defined as the attributes that people need to be able to work in a team and get on with others, and include things like communication skills, team-working and leadership.

This visit was arranged in collaboration with the Royal Navy to allow Public Service students to practice specific unit content relating to Teamwork, Leadership, Self-Discipline, Command and Control. The aim of the event was to develop collaboration and teamwork between students – essential skills for the modern workplace.

Split into three groups, the students completed four tasks revolving around building, shooting, cooking and teamwork.

The groups were tasked with building a two metre tall ‘satellite’ from the building blocks provided. This structure then needed to be adapted to withstand the ‘wind test’ by Lt Commander Sim Low, one of the attendees from the Royal Navy Engagement Team.

Students then moved on to a shooting range simulator, where their hand-eye coordination skills were put to the test on the laser simulator before going head-to-head in a number of challenges.

Teams also got a chance to try some of the foods in a standard ration pack that the Royal Navy uses in their operations. The final challenge saw students work together to manoeuvre from one side of a spider web structure to the other without touching the web.

Our Public Services Level 3 Extended Diploma students said: “The building task was the hardest because the pieces were hard to put together and we had to change it when the ‘wind’ was added to test the strength of the structure.

“We learned a lot during the cooking task. We found out all about the ration packs that are used in the Navy. It was cool seeing things you can’t get in a normal shop. 

“The final team building exercise was the Spider challenge. This was where, as a team, you had to move from one side to the other of a spider web-like structure without touching the rope. It was difficult, but we worked together and we completed it. It was fun working as a team.”

Lt Commander Sim Low said: “It is important for students to be exposed to days like this and learn new skills.

“The Navy engagement project goes to schools, colleges and youth centres up and down the country. We deliver these soft skills workshops to encourage teamwork and communication among young people in England.

“We also raise awareness for the jobs the Royal Navy do worldwide, including providing aid to third world countries and protecting ships against piracy. People’s perception of the armed forces can sometimes be negative, but we want to help show the high level of teamwork and communication skills that we need, to carry out the good work we do around the world.

“During these events we are happy to share our experiences and help educate people about the role. It isn’t our main goal, but we are always happy to help those who want to, to find out more about joining the Royal Navy.”

Curriculum Manager for Sport, Public Services and Key Stage 4, Brendan Berry, said: “It was a highly productive day that enabled our Public Services students to engage with the Royal Navy SET Team. The broad range of activities provided by the Navy gave the students the opportunity to display the skills they have gained during their time with us over the past two years. The day’s activities enabled students to consolidate things they are learning on their course, including Teamwork, Leadership, Self-Discipline, Command and Control.

“I cannot thank the Royal Navy enough for working with our students and creating an engaging day that brought practical enrichment and a greater understanding of the role and purpose of the Royal Navy. The team upheld the ethos and finest traditions of service from the Royal Navy, and we look forward to them returning this spring to work with our Sports Students at our Enfield Centre.”

“College was hard for me at the beginning. I ended up repeating my first year as I struggled with mental health issues and chronic pain after a spinal operation. A wave of depression started off my passion for song-writing and in my second year at college I met two of my band mates, who helped me grow tremendously. I left college with a band, a promising music career, great friends and, despite everything, ‘ABC’ in my results.”

At 20, recent sixth-form grad Charlie Raphael-Campbell is already making waves as an independent artist. At the end of 2019 we caught up with the young creative to talk fame and fortune ahead of the release of her debut album.

Charlie doesn’t take breaks. Having self-released an EP entitled “Julian” in 2018, she spent the summer recording an album with her band, “Charles and the Big Boys,” and is currently piecing together another four-track solo record. She says: “The response so far has been really lovely. I have had streams all over the world and have received messages from strangers on Instagram about how much they love it. It means so much to me that my art is received with love around the planet. The leading single, ‘Lemon Moon’, was even played on the radio!”

Music has been integral to Charlie’s life since day one. From writing “little poems” and putting them to music on a toy keyboard at five, the singer-songwriter tells of the cathartic experience of producing music into the present.

“I cannot think about an alternative to music. It’s what makes my life enjoyable. If I wasn’t doing that I wouldn’t be me.”

In 2014, Charlie told the Islington Gazette that her life was “turned upside down” by scoliosis, curvature of the spine often associated with chronic pain and other medical complications. Scoliosis affects between 2-3% of the population and has a number of causes. Surgery can be offered in some cases, but presents its own risks.

Charlie is now looking for ways to collaborate with the national charity Scoliosis Awareness UK to help steer the conversation on scoliosis.

“College was hard for me at the beginning,” she explains. “I ended up repeating my first year as I struggled with mental health issues and chronic pain after a spinal operation.

“I missed a lot of classes due to personal issues and changed my courses entirely. I ended up studying Film, History of Art and Fine Art. My second year was really fun. I left college with a band, a promising music career, great friends and, despite everything, an ABC in my results.”

Her current collective, she says, “sounds like Arctic Monkeys had a kid with Nirvana and their grandparents were David Bowie and The Blues.” She describes her solo work as “very indie-alternative… with a sprinkle of Radiohead and Courtney Barnett.”

“I feel like my music grows with me. It’s influenced by the people I see, the world around me, my vivid dreams and experiences. A wave of depression started off my passion for song-writing and my personal growth from there kept it going.”

“It’s important to have something positive to channel my feelings into,” she wraps up. Over the years, Charlie has made a clear impact on the community through her work, using the platform to give air-time to good causes.

Back in August she appeared in The Guardian, offering support for the threatened Tileyard Impact inner-city music education project.

Tileyard Impact “borrows space from other recording, dance and fashion studios to train young people, many from deprived communities, in all aspects of the music industry.”

Charlie told The Guardian: “It would be nice to bring stability to the course, to give the project its own home, because when you do it you go all over the place to get trained up on different aspects of music production,” she said.

At present, the young singer-songwriter is preparing for an upcoming concert in London on 7 March at the Amersham Arms.

You can purchase tickets at Dice.fm.

Career Ready are a charity that offers a combination of group activities and employer engagement opportunities to prepare young people for the world of work. CONEL have worked with Career Ready for seven years, offering students who successfully apply for the programme a mentor who works in the sector they are interested in. The mentors work for household names including Lloyds Banking Group, Santander Bank, HMRC, Pertemps Recruitment, Kaplan Financial and HM Treasury.

Emily, David and Rodjin are second year Level 3 Business Extended Diploma students who achieved top Distinction star grades. They have loved their time at CONEL studying business and reaping the benefits of the Career Ready programme. Here is what the three of them thought about the CONEL and the Career Ready programme so far:

Six-time best-selling author Levison Wood visited the College of Haringey, Enfield and North East London (CONEL) on Wednesday 5 February to deliver a talk about his experiences in Asia, Africa and the Americas.

Organised as part of the national Reading Ahead Initiative, and with the help of the Wilbur and Niso Smith Foundation, Levison talked a full lecture theatre through his journey from schoolboy to soldier and entrepreneur to explorer.

The Wilbur and Niso Smith Foundation is a charitable organisation, providing opportunities for young writers and the advancement of the adventure writing genre.

The nationwide Reading Ahead challenge (formerly Six Book Challenge) run by the Reading Agency is designed to encourage adults and young people to read a variety of literature. This is the seventh year that the college has run the challenge and this year, students from all different curriculum areas participated.

The explorer and writer recently signed a two-book deal with publishers Hodder, the first due for release this spring.

“I was always interested in the idea of exploring ‘because it’s there’ – not having to explain yourself but just going,” he told an audience of staff and students. “At 19, my dad took me to a painting exhibition by David Shepherd, who used to paint elephants. I was amazed that somebody would pay for him to travel around the world and paint elephants.

“The next day a careers advisor came to my school and gave me a psychometric employment test. I was told I should be a librarian! So I went to the library and started reading and it just so happened that all my favourite stories were the biographies of explorers – Amelia Earhart, Lawrence of Arabia, etc.”

Levison has brought his story full-circle, now working closely with non-profit organisation Tusk to aid in the conservation efforts of elephants, promoting awareness through talks about his time spent on Safari in Africa.

The author of ‘Walking the Nile’, ‘Walking the Himalayas’ and ‘An Arabian Journey’ told how travel to Thailand, Australia and India had inspired his decision to join the army, seeking the same military experience that united his heroes.

“I took £500 after university and decided to travel to India, hitchhiking and walking. What travelling on foot – rather than by plane or car – forces you to do is interact with people. You’re invited into homes, or in for a cup of tea, and you get to know a bit more about that culture. It reminded me of the goodness of humanity. You see a lot of places in the news that are remembered for the wrong reasons. But it was that sense of hospitality that really stuck with me.”

Experience in the army would lead Levison to carve out a career working in dangerous places, offering unique experiences to western holiday-makers, like skiing in the Kashmir.

Eventually, he would get attention from filmmakers looking to capture the unseen side of warzones. Most recently, Levison has appeared on film in ‘Arabia with Levison Wood’ (2019); ‘From Russia to Iran: Crossing Wild Frontier’ (2017); and ‘Walking the Americas’ (2017).

Students and staff were finally invited to ask their questions about the author’s career, picking up on training regimes and overcoming obstacles.

“When I’m out on an expedition, whenever I’m feeling low or out in the middle of a desert thinking ‘what on earth am I doing here?’ I just remind myself how lucky and privileged I am to be able to do this for a job,” he told us. “Because the alternative is a real job. My main driver is the fact that I’m doing something that people often dream of doing but don’t get the chance to do.”

Levison concluded his talk with a simple message, urging students to go out and “above all, read books!”

‘The Last Giants’ is available for pre-order on Amazon here and is due for release on 2 April 2020.

On 10 February, students and staff from the five City and Islington College centres came together for the launch of this year’s Themed Learning Week. The event, which has run at the college for the last six years, aims to unite different college faculties around an academic or political idea central to our life and times. This year, students tackled the ever-relevant issue of ‘Climate Change and Power’.

The multidisciplinary event crossed over with the Tate Modern’s Tate Exchange programme and hosted guest speakers including Leader of the Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn, Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, John McDonnell, and Campaigns Coordinator for Campaign against Climate Change, Claire James.

Kicking off on Monday morning, the launch, which took place at the Centre for Lifelong Learning in Finsbury Park, saw poetry recitals by students of the Centre for Business, Arts and Technology, as well as an emotive interpretive dance routine by students Joanna and Allana. The latter featured the experiences of the Rwandan genocide recounted verbatim to Joanna by her mother, who endured its brutality 26 years ago.

Event organiser Sean Vernell spoke at the launch of the inception of the Themed Learning Week, saying: “A few of us teachers got together and thought ‘what can we do just for one week of the year where we all get together and act collaboratively and see if we can teach an interesting thing?”

Mr Vernell continued, adding that staff are “now more confident to teach these issues and integrate into their teaching.” As well as raising general awareness, the Themed Learning Week allowed staff to share resources on the college’s VLE, headed ‘Learning for a future that does not cost the earth.’

With the support of education publication TES and the University and College Union (UCU), the event is recognised today by over 100 schools, colleges and universities, who also participated in their own projects throughout the week.

Mr Vernell was happy to see the event grow within City and Islington College’s borders, reporting that the newly-involved Maths department had brought with them “fantastic teaching resources” and praising the efforts of staff to integrate themes into classes.

The college also welcomed support from the Centre for Health Social and Childcare, who ran initiatives to promote use of public transport and walking throughout the week.

Capital City College Group CEO Roy O’Shaughnessy attended the launch and used the opportunity to motivate students to work together on tackling global issues: “The challenge today is to take the greatness within each of us and combine that to find a way to move forward with purpose. As we think about climate change and power today, we have to ask: what action is enough?”

John McDonnell continued the thought, speaking frankly about the perils of ignoring the climate change conversation. He said: “To people who deny climate change, I say, ‘that’s fair enough, that’s up to you, but I don’t want to take that risk’. It is better therefore to ensure that we take the actions now that could possibly protect us in the future.”

Mr McDonnell went on to stress the importance of the upcoming COP 26 summit in Glasgow this November. The talks will aim to deliver “meaningful” emissions reductions in all areas of the economy, with The Economist reporting that as many as 200 world leaders are expected to attend. He suggested that it was the role of citizens to pressure the government to embrace change, following the success of phenomena like Greta Thunberg’s Skolstrejk för klimatet (School Strike for the Climate).

“Our role as individuals is to convince them that they need to act alongside us, not on our behalf. We need to make sure that when those world leaders come together they make the right decisions and sign up to an agreement and then they go back and implement it.

“Up until now we’ve allowed politicians to go away and have these discussions and, to be frank, it hasn’t really delivered that much. The way in which our economic systems and our political systems are made undermine our ability to tackle climate change, so this meeting in Glasgow is key to saying ‘we need systemic change’. The way in which we change the system is to make sure that we don’t just leave it to politicians, but actually we all participate in solving the problem.”

Around London, other City and Islington College sites supported the mission with their own initiatives; the Sixth Form Centre in Angel hosted talks by young environmental activists including SFC alumni Ummi Hoque and Yusif Ibrahim (both My World My Home), and GCSE student Elijah McKenzie-Jackson (UK Student Climate Network). The centre also ran a number of competitions and educational talks on reducing food waste and environmental impact.

A Thrift Sale in aid of Oxfam further aimed to “combat fast fashion” and “put the money towards climate poverty”. Earlier this year, Sixth Former Maria Silva made headlines when she exhibited her work at the London Fashion Week, developing a sustainable wardrobe that challenged the fashion industry’s “contribution to pollution”.

Throughout the week, Centre for Business, Arts and Technology students presented their work at the annual Tate Exchange exhibition in Southwark. The programme allowed students of all levels to make a statement in a shared space at the Tate Modern, with topics ranging from The Power of Freedom to the imbalance of power in relationships, the nature of online debate and ‘What Empowers You?’ 

Over 100 Performing Arts, Music, Art and Design, and Fashion students (and their teachers) worked hard to share their art with the public, during the college’s three-day residency in the Tate’s Blavatnik Building. Students created and staffed artistic installations, ran workshops, told powerful and intensely personal stories, danced, played great music, acted, and provoked the public, to think about power in its many forms.

As Kevin Hope, Lecturer in Visual Arts, explained, the college’s relationship with Tate Exchange dates back to before the Blavatnik Building had been completed in June 2016. In fact, Kevin was able to go inside the building shortly after construction finished. The students were great ambassadors for the college and their courses, and engaged with the public who visited the gallery in their hundreds to find out more about the students’ work and engage with them and their art.

On Wednesday, City and Islington College hosted a Question Time Climate Challenge debate, featuring panellists from Arsenal football club, Islington Council, the Bakers, Food and Allied Workers Union (BFAWU), and the college.

Thursday saw the spotlight fall on the Camden Road’s Centre for Business, Arts and Technology, where students put on an unforgettable show for staff, fellow students, Chief Executive Roy O’Shaughnessy and special guest, Labour Leader and Islington North MP, Jeremy Corbyn.

Mr Corbyn, who has been coming to the campus regularly since 1975, watched performances from the college’s talented performing arts students, all with the themes of climate change or power. In a speech to the students after the performances, Mr Corbyn said that, unless the UK changes its ways, “we will not meet our target of net carbon zero emissions until 2099.” He urged the audience to “be out there, demand, demonstrate … and force companies, government and councils to change their ways.”

Mr Corbyn was very popular with the students and staff and posed for selfies and photos after his speech.

Afterwards, Mr Corbyn also had the time to take in an exhibition of photographs and essays by staff and GCSE English students, called Utopias or Dystopias – Voices from the Future. Some of the students’ essays imagine a bleak dystopian future where climate change has spiralled out of control; while others are more hopeful and describe a world where humans and nature live in harmony.

The week successfully brought together the college’s five distinct centres to think about tackling the main issues of a generation. With the Themed Learning Week now a national phenomena, City and Islington College students can be proud to have sparked an invaluable conversation around not only climate and power, but on how much can be achieved through collaboration and education.

Sean Vernell has also written an article about the Themed Learning Week for Tes, the leading education magazine, here.

Gulcin Ozdemir is the new, optimistic face of Labour in Islington, having being appointed as Councillor for St George’s Ward at the end of last year. A champion of education and early intervention programmes, the City and Islington College alumn spoke in January about politics, identity and the role of Further Education.

Born to Kurdish immigrants, Gulcin talks proudly of her heritage, but finds it a complex topic: “Growing up as a Kurd in London was really difficult. People would ask me what a Kurd was and I would struggle to answer that question. I did not really know what my identity meant – why we did not have a formal identity, why people did not know who we were.

“I grew up like my parents, who migrated from Turkey; they were proud of who they were. I learnt about the injustices against Kurds and grew up in an automatically political home.”

The Islington native started her political career when campaigning to save the Whittington Hospital where she was born. Today, she lists her priorities as establishing a safe community and providing affordable housing on the former Holloway Prison site.

“I think the main thing for anyone considering politics is to find something that makes you feel passionate and focus on that. Find a campaign or an injustice that means something to you and get engaged with your community. Support a party or don’t – but either way I think it’s important to realise how you can affect the things you care about through politics.

“I went to secondary school in Camden and studied Citizenship. My teacher was very enthusiastic; he taught Politics at A Level, too. He told us that politics was everything, that everything was ultimately political and that by learning about it we could do something about it. It was an important moment. All of us from that class went on to study Politics at A Level.”

But life took a new direction with the birth of Gulcin’s daughter. Gulcin always intended to return to college eventually, but says she struggled to find balance between work commitments and a new addition to the family.

“There was a point where I thought I would have to choose between college and a job, but it was the support of my teachers at the Centre for Lifelong Learning that helped me to keep my job and carry on with the course.

“I retook my Maths GCSE first. It was done as evening classes, which made it a lot easier to balance. I was already at college and still wanted to study politics at university at the time. It made sense to stay on and complete my Access course there.

“I had a really good time. A lot was down to the friends I made, but also the teachers went above and beyond teaching the course. I received a lot of additional support through my History teacher, Saffia, who is still at the college. I was struggling and she helped me access additional learning services, which helped me with deadlines and let me sit down and talk to somebody. Having a careers advisor who can provide not only career advice but offer personal advice as well I also think is vital.”

For Gulcin, this is the sentiment she wants to try to foster in the broader Islington community.

“Having that opportunity to try again helped me to realise that it was the circumstances at the time that had got in the way – not my ability. Being able to return to education was really one of the best decisions that I have made.

But not everybody has the same privileges, she says. “Young adults going into Further Education face so many factors affecting whether or not they can access education such as rent and the cost of living. I know from experience that university isn’t for everyone and things like debt may be an obstacle for a lot of people. But for people coming from working class backgrounds, it’s so important to have these additional support services to help with the cost of study.”

Gulcin feels for those who are unable to access such opportunities. For many, a full-time education may appear unviable due to financial concerns. A recent report by Islington Council found that nearly 35% of the borough’s children are living in poverty and that 33.6% of secondary school students are eligible for free school meals – much higher than the 13.2% national average.

“I remember what it was like to be a young person lost in Islington and thinking ‘what am I going to do?’ I think that’s when people who are a bit older have a responsibility to share their experience and to provide that advice and encouragement for different paths. Many people in Islington do not have that. They may not know people in different positions in life. They should still have access to them. Young people need mentors and role models.”

Gulcin’s first-hand experience of the borough’s troubles motivates her words. She talks about direct experiences of knife-crime and violence in Islington and surrounding boroughs. “It starts with the mentality of the individual,” she says, and places education at the centre of tackling that.

“Early intervention is key to avoiding the same cycles. It’s the small changes, like teaching children that if you accept money from a stranger, it often comes with the expectation that you will commit a crime for them. Local schemes are finding that young people are also starting to open up about other problems that are going on when you start that conversation. So I think there is value to starting in primary school and then continuing with this as they grow up. Throughout their life, people will come across a lot of different challenges. Knife-crime doesn’t discriminate, and all young people should have a space to talk about it and learn how to keep safe from it.”

Tracking back, the councillor talks about the role of community identity in helping to build a safer Islington. We talk about political apathy and the new wave of young voters turning out at the polling stations. “Engagement,” she says, “is important and I don’t think that’s going to be an easy task. It’s that community spirit I want to see again. It’s about building trust with police and councillors and creating a dialogue with young people. To make people care, it’s about having people everywhere – not just teachers – who are dedicated to community engagement.

“In my experience City and Islington College did a good job of that.

“On the other hand, we as councillors have to be as accessible to everyone as possible – that people can have a say in the issues that matter to them in the community. It has to come from the grassroots. We have to build that bridge.”

Ahead of National Apprenticeship Week, Gulcin rounds off with a look at the issue of non-traditional routes into work. At the end of last year, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn pledged to create 320,000 green apprenticeships as part of a larger apprenticeship reform.

“I think the current system makes it really hard for people who want to do apprenticeships and who want to do more vocational courses to go to university. Vocational courses don’t receive enough investment.”

Many looking at careers still find themselves in need of a university degree, despite the fact that 31% of graduates are reported overqualified for a graduate role. An apprenticeship offers an alternative way of gaining experience on over 400 unique courses, but some universities still prefer traditional A Levels.

“It’s a problem because not everybody wants to follow that one path towards university. If that isn’t valued, then the people who are doing them aren’t going to receive what they need to in terms of being employable.”

Gulcin ends the conversation on a reflective note. A piece of advice for 16 year olds starting their way in life? “Prepare for the disappointments.

“Just know that it is not the be all and end all of everything. I wish I knew that a lot of it is down to my perspective. A lot of the disappointments in life were stepping stones, not failure. When you are young it often seems like ‘this is it’, ‘everything is over’ – I wish I was just a little bit kinder to myself. I wouldn’t change anything though.

“Even though we lost the General Election, what came out of that movement was that a lot of young people cared about politics for the first time because there was something on offer that was directly going to affect their future for better or for worse. And that’s a win. So I wouldn’t change anything.”