Kirsty's story

Kirsty
I'm Kirsty and I'm 15, from Rawmarsh. This course is ‘applied art'. On the course we get to do textile, graphic design, fashion design, but I like to do textiles better because it's more hands-on kind of thing and practical work, so we get to do what ever we want.

Tutor
I think the new BTEC course that they've got will benefit them greatly from the standard GCSEs because it is more course-specific to what they can actually do for a future career. At the end of the day all the qualifications and grades that they will be getting is the ultimate aim to be in employment, and any course that can be more specific, for their future careers, would be a great benefit to them.

Kirsty
I think it's better that there aren't exams because I seem to cope better with more practical work than exam work.

Tutor
I'd like to obviously give the students the best possible experience in a working environment and learn exactly what we do and use the programs, use the computers, and at the end of the two or three weeks placement they actually go away with applied knowledge and experience.

Kirsty
The placement gives me an opportunity to learn how to use Apple Macs and lots of different programs in Apple Macs, to help me in jobs in the future.

Tutor
It's things she's been working on from school. We can integrate that into the workplace and turn that into an applied course to follow through the placement period. So at the end of it she's got some work that's finished and she can show how she's progressed.

Kirsty
Well the project I'm on now is designing a company so this placement is helping me carry on with the work. We've had to take pictures of a shop front so that we could change it, and we had to research logos, and how you'd put a company together and that kind of thing.

Tutor
If they're willing to actually take part, get involved and want to do the job and learn, then I'm quite happy to put in that effort and to make sure they get a really good experience.