Students at Challenge College blaze a trail on BTEC Assignment work thanks to LocalBiz Project
This year, students at Challenge College in Bradford embarked on their new BTEC studies and incorporated the LocalBiz Project into their BTEC Level 3 National in Business programme.
Lorne McNeill – Senior Strategic Leader and BTEC Business teacher incorporated LocalBiz into his planning for Unit 34 - Website Design Strategy; and developed the assignment during the Summer of 2010, so his students were ready to be the first to try it out.
Lorne said “I really am delighted with the excellent results we obtained from the Year 12 students who have excelled in this unit. LocalBiz is a great learning vehicle with every student having the opportunity to get involved, depending on their interests.” “I am really looking forward to next September when with the Year 13 students’ expertise we can really start updating the web-site on a regular basis to reflect what is happening in the Manningham Community.”
Umar Awan, a student working at Distinction level commented; “The practical element made me feel like an ‘entrepreneur’ with a fantastic resource ready-made to use – the web-site itself. The nature of the assignment brief enabled me to use a variety of screen images, taken from the website which helped me develop work and achieve the higher Merit and Distinction grades I wanted".
Osaama Nazir said “I really liked the branding of LocalBiz – the imagery and the website structure was straight to the point. The fact it uses a variety of RSS feeds e.g. BBC News really helps to make the site look more dynamic and professional. Managing and running a community website also provided me with the motivation and wherewithal to find out more about local businesses in the community.”
Both students agreed the experience will be very useful as they are about to embark on their 6 week paid Career Academy internship programme with Santander; believing the work has built up their confidence in problem solving real business issues and speaking to adults in a business context.
Other students comments included:
• Useful teamwork experience
• IT skills used in a practical way
• Log on at any time - great to be able to work on the Project and complete the assignment tasks at home
If you'd like to use the above course materials at your school or review any student work please contact Ian Linnegan by phone or email or
Lorne McNeill
Senior Strategic Leader
Challenge College
North Avenue
Bradford
BD87ND