West College Scotland is committed to providing opportunities to students that enhance their overall educational experience, provide innovative and exciting learning activities and support their onward progression into the world of work.
John Mather Trust (Registered charity number: SC024143) are again providing funding for the academic year 2016/17 allowing the College to provide additional resources that will support students who are in their final stages of study to move on into employment and build a career in their chosen vocational area.
John Mather Charitable Trust's charitable objectives:
"The purposes of the Trust are the relief of poverty; the advancement of education of the public; the promotion of the arts and architecture in general and in particular in Glasgow and the hinterland of the River Clyde ('the Area') and to further the purposes of charitable organisations or to promote other purposes which are charitable in law within or without the Area as the Trustees in their absolute discretion think fit."
For academic year 2016/17 the John Mather Trust Funding will support the following groups of students with Tools of the Trade:
- Tool kits will be supplied to students who successfully complete a full time course in Motor Vehicle and move to full time employment. Starting a tool kit is expensive on an apprentice’s salary. Tool kits have been issued to students over the past 12 years, and this has been key to helping students become fully fledged technicians.
- Selected Professional Cookery students – at NC/NHC and SVQ 3 level – completing studies and moving into employment will be provided with an industry standard knife-set and appropriate chef whites on completion of their programme thus allowing them to enter the industry with the required “tools of their trade”. This would allow the students to be fully equipped and feel part of their professional industry.
- HNC/HND Makeup Artistry students in final stages of College study and looking to move into employment will be provided with financial support for a visit to Warner Brothers Studio, and the National Theatre, and attend Make-up workshops in Covent Garden and the Kryolan/Charles Fox studios, the leading supplier of make-up artistry kits and equipment. Students will learn valuable information to equip them for industry, meeting leading individuals in the industry, thus enhancing their overall skills set and CV, and their onward progression into employment.
- Students from HNC Applied Science and HND Biomedical Science moving to university will be provided with lab coats and safety spectacles which are mandatory for laboratory sessions. The cost of providing these items is often a barrier to students in moving into their first term at university.
- Finally HND Beauty Therapy students who are invited to Trade Test prior to gaining Employment will be provided with a tool kit to ensure they are fully equipped to participate. Students have minimal kit of their own and often, by the end of their time at college the minimal tools they have invested in, or retained from previous bursary funded courses may need replenished. Not all students are in a position to self-finance in this way, and at times can be disadvantaged with regards to demonstrating their skills to prospective employers.