Coleg Powys was recently audited by Ground Work in Wales and was awarded Level 2 of the Green Dragon Environmental Standard.

The College has been working hard to adopt a more sustainable approach and has recently introduced its own sustainability policy which outlines the College’s targets and actions.

At the Newtown site 50% of all waste produced is recycled.  This has enabled the College to reduce its ‘landfill’ from two 6 cubic metres skips picked up three times a week to just one.  Also, on average 1 tonne of food waste per month is recycled – the College is one of the few colleges in the whole of Wales that participates in this type of recycling.

The Brecon site recycles approximately 50% of its waste and has reduced its electricity usage by 33% and gas by 45% in the main building. 

At the Llandrindod site approximately 70% of waste is recycled, gas has been reduced by 18% and electricity reduced by 23%.

The Vocational Access learners on the Brecon site have also been promoting climate and environmental issues by producing a globe and encouraging staff and students to make environmental pledges to reduce their own carbon footprint.  The Assistant Principal of South Powys Ian Millward pledged that he would bike 1000 miles from September to Christmas.  This involved him biking part of his journey to and from work.  He did this as part of the Cycle to Work Scheme and managed to exceed the 1000 miles.

Assistant Principal Quality Sian Pinner said: “We are very pleased to have been awarded level 2 of Green Dragon.  The College is continually trying to reduce its carbon footprint and is committed to creating a more sustainable environment for its learners and staff.  We will now be working towards achieving level 3 of Green Dragon.”

The Catering and Hospitality students at the Newtown site were given a fantastic opportunity of cooking the famous Wagyu beef and serving it to the guests that were invited to the tasting event at the Themes Restaurant on Wednesday.

The Wagyu beef came from a local farmer, Ifor Humphreys, who has decided to move away from commodity beef production in an attempt to produce the World’s best tasting tender beef.  He has introduced Japanese Black Wagyu from Australia into his herd and provides them with the best feed, which includes four pints of real ale from Monty’s brewery.  They are also treated to massages.

The Catering students, alongside Slow Food Chef Gareth Jones from The Wynnstay Hotel and Chef/lecturers Mandy Carter and Tony Burgoyne, prepared eight dishes using different cuts of the Wagyu beef, with each dish showing off the flavour, tenderness and succulence of the beef.  Between each course the young chef who had prepared the course explained the dish.

The Hospitality students also did a great job of serving the food.

Lecturer Tony Burgoyne said: “This was a great opportunity for the students to show off their talents.  This meat is very unique and was very enjoyable to experiment with.  We offer a huge thank you to Ifor for providing us with this opportunity.” 

The event will be showing on S4C’s Ffermio on Monday night (8th March) at 8.25pm.

More photos can be found on the Coleg Powys Facebook Page.

Sport student Stephanie Hughson has gained international recognition by being part of the Welsh Colleges team which played Australia Schools recently at South Gower AFC.

The Welsh Colleges side made an impressive start to their first international fixture of the season and were ahead at half-time with a 2-1 score, but the Australians fought back and the final score was 2–5.

Stephanie played an excellent game, showing great runs from midfield which caused the Australian’s defence a lot of problems. 

Coleg Powys Lecturer Adam Jones, who is also the Welsh Colleges Women’s Coach, said: “All the girls gave a good account of themselves today against very strong opposition and lots of valuable lessons were learnt.  There is a strong feeling within the camp that this group of players can go on and achieve success in future international fixtures.”

The Welsh Colleges football team will be playing England and Northern Ireland Colleges in the next round of fixtures.

Stephanie is studying for the National Award in Sport and Exercise Science at the Brecon site.  She also plays for the Welsh Colleges Netball team.

The therapy students at the Llandrindod site of Coleg Powys successfully ran the Spa facilities at The Metropole in Llandrindod and raised £185 for the Bracken Trust Hospice.

The Metropole had kindly given permission for the therapy students to run the facilities on St David’s Day to enable them to have experience of a real working environment, whilst raising funds towards the renewal of the Bracken Trust Hospice.

Clients were given a choice of treatments to choose from including Hot Head (Indian Head Massage with Hot Stones), Reflexology Experience, Massage Experience and Spa Journey and had access to the pool and Spa facilities. 

Head of School for Hair and Beauty Jayne Wright said: “This was a very successful event and we would like to thank all the clients that came to support us and also to The Metropole for allowing us to use their facilities.  The students had a very enjoyable day.”

The Spa facilities at The Metropole were also celebrating a birthday, as they were opened on St David’s Day 22 years ago in 1988.

Two construction students from Coleg Powys were awarded first at the Welsh regional heat of the Construction World Skills competition and will now go on to the Welsh Finals later this year.

Jamie Wheatley was awarded a first in the carpentry section, whilst Tom Carter came away with a first in brickwork.

Ricky Cornell also competed in the Painting and Decorating section and managed to achieve a high standard but did not manage to be placed.

The judges were from local industry in North Wales and commented that the standard this year was very high, which made it difficult to separate those that managed to complete the task in the set time.