Month: November 2019
Strong numeracy skills? An analytical mind? Good at managing money? Discover all you need to know about becoming an accountant at the College of Haringey, Enfield and North East London. Accountants are essential for business growth and are valued for using their expertise to steer important financial decisions. Upon qualifying, chartered accountants are among the top earners in the UK, with an average salary of £35,000. With two to four years of experience post qualification, salaries often rise to £60,000, and £90,000 following five years of experience.
Interested? If you are a school leaver, parent, teacher or a graduate, looking for a career in accounting, this event is for you! The College of Haringey, Enfield and North East London are proud to present our accounting apprenticeships and careers conference, Make Your Future Count. The conference is a half-day event on 22 January 2020, kicking off at 9:30am at our Tottenham Centre (High Road, London, N15 4RU). The event will bring together big brands Tottenham Hotspur Foundation, BKL Chartered Accountants, CIMA, CIPFA, Haringey Council, Adroit Accountax and AAT.
At the event, you will get up-to-speed in the accounting and finance sector by engaging with professional accounting bodies like CIPFA and the AAT. You’ll also be able to meet key employers in person which will allow you to increase your visibility and expand your network.
You will also meet past and current CONEL students and hear their success stories as they share their career journeys with you from studying AAT to becoming qualified Chartered Accountants. And you’ll be able to find out more about studying Accounting here at CONEL.
There are currently 394,651 jobs in the accounting industry with an average salary of £38,286 per annum. Between 2015 and 2020 the industry is expected to grow 9.2% creating a further 34,574 jobs. So, for those looking to get into a career in accounting, now is a great time to come to CONEL to get the skills you need to succeed.
Originally enrolling on a GCSE course at the College of Haringey, Enfield & North East London back in 2014, mum-of-two Cassandra Crucefix has progressed through the ranks and is now studying our Science Level 3 Diploma.
Dental nurse Cassandra decided she wanted to change her career after having her first child. She wanted to work in a hospital environment as a radiographer, but needed to improve both her Science and English qualifications to do so. She enrolled at CONEL and, despite having to take a break in learning due to her pregnancy, achieved a grade B in GCSE English. In 2018, with two toddlers and still wanting to change career, Cassandra returned to CONEL to join both our Maths Functional Skills and Science Level 2 Diploma courses.
Cassandra explained: “I didn’t do science at school, so it was all new to me. I found Physics really hard, but I didn’t give up, just because it was my weakness. I focused on it and it ended up being my favourite of the three.
“With two toddlers, it was hard work. If I wasn’t at college, I was at home caring for my children. I would study once they had gone to sleep which meant I did not get much sleep myself, but in the end, it was all worth it as I got a distinction star. I want to study Radiography at university to get my dream job.”
When asked about her tutors, Cassandra said: “They have all been so supportive, especially as they know I have my two children. They all encourage you and want you to do the best you can. If you have a problem with anything, they are there for you. Without them, I wouldn’t have got the grades I got.”
Now in 2019, and with a distinction in her Science Level 2 Diploma, and 100% in her Maths Functional Skills, Cassandra is studying our Science Level 3 Diploma and Maths GCSE courses that will see her progress to university to get her degree.
Cassandra’s Tutor, Minas Mina, said: “Cassandra is an excellent student. She is diligent and approaches all her work with maturity and consciousness. She works very hard to balance family and academic life. If she carries on like this, she is destined for success.”
Creative Media students from CONEL recently went on a day visit to large advertising and communications agency MullenLowe as part of a new initiative called Advertising Unlocked.
Advertising Unlocked is an industry-wide open day, which sees top UK advertising and media agencies opening their doors to the next generation of advertisers once a year. During the day the companies reveal how campaigns are made and what jobs are available in the advertising industry at every stage of this process, giving students a taste of the real world.
Upon arrival, students were divided into groups and set a task which asked them to promote one of MullenLowe’s client’s brands. They had to develop their ideas and present them to MullenLowe employees at the end of the day. Our student teams worked closely with advertising professionals from the company who supported and mentored them, to help them develop their ideas.
Creative Media Lecturer at CONEL Selda Yuzudik, said: “I thought it was a fantastic experience and an eye opener for our students. Since the trip we have had loads of interest from students who want to pursue a career in marketing and advertising.
“The staff at MullenLowe were really helpful and professional. They treated our students like staff and really helped them develop their ideas and look at tasks in a different way.”
The trip was organised by curriculum manager Sharon Wallace and has resulted in some of the students being offered work experience because of their great work.
When presenting their ideas to the People Partner at MullenLowe, Nancy Poysden, they were judged and given feedback. The winning team were then awarded £20 Amazon vouchers each for their great idea and pitch.
Winning student Ellis Bocking said, “It was a really good day. The company was very welcoming to us as students. We obviously weren’t as good as them, but they listened to us and our ideas and helped us develop them.
“Winning was great, but seeing our ideas being accepted by a professional company was amazing!”
The College of Haringey, Enfield and North East London, have reached the final of the prestigious Association of Colleges Beacon Awards, in the NOCN Group Mental Health and Wellbeing category.
The AOC Beacon Awards celebrate the best and most innovative practice among UK colleges each year. This award celebrates the important work colleges are doing to support the mental health and wellbeing of their learners and staff. The rise in ill health amongst learners and the greater public is of great concern and is attracting heightened attention nationally.
David Hughes, Chief Executive of the Association of Colleges said: “The work colleges do on wellbeing often gets overlooked. But institutions and especially these final three have shown a whole college mental health strategy that impacts on improving teaching and learning and effective support. All this great, much-needed work enables students to feel secure and able to learn.”
CONEL’s Interim Assistant Principal, Hilary Moore, said: “Mental health is a key issue for us all, with 1 in 4 of us being affected. The nomination represents the work which we have done, are doing and will continue to improve for all learners and staff at CONEL to respect the importance of mental well-being, to offer targeted support and referrals to experts.
Competing against CONEL in the final are Barnsley College, Bridgend College, and Hartpury College. Assessors will visit all four before the final decision is made and the winner is decided. This will take place between December and early February before the awards in June 2020.
Progressing onto our Sports Level 3 Extended Diploma course in September 2013, Jeffrey Boateng had already secured himself a work placement role in the college’s sports department in the Enfield Centre, which he maintained throughout his Level 2 and 3 courses.
Jeffrey said: “The courses were challenging at first because I was advancing from GCSE level of PE to BTEC level, which needed more thinking and research. Later on, everything started to be clear and I enjoyed everything I learnt.
“My work placement was enjoyable because the staff members made me feel needed as their assistant, which gave me some authority and confidence with the students in PE sessions.
“I decided to do the work placement as I noticed that there are many career pathways in the course that I was studying. The work placement made me narrow down the options that I had as I enjoyed the role of a PE teacher and sports maker. Doing my work placement in the sports centre made me understand and know where I wanted to get to in the future.”
Jeffrey’s hard work was not limited to the college; as well as his work placement, he also pushed himself in his spare time securing jobs outside of college, to help earn a bit more money.
“Whilst studying my Level 3 I also got jobs as a cleaner, a carer and in Sainsbury’s.”
Upon completing his Level 3 course at CONEL, Jeffrey went on to study Sports Science at the University of East London in September 2015. Jeffrey said, “It was a great feeling when I knew I had passed everything I needed to for me to go to university as it proved to me that I had a lot to offer.
“I had teachers who would help me and push me to get higher grades. It was tough but I look at it now and thank the teachers I had at CONEL, especially Fabian Darku who dedicated his time to me and advised me on the courses I can choose to do, and the universities that could bring out the best in me. The college also held workshops for us to write our UCAS personal statements and checked them before we sent them off.”
In his third year of university, and after four years of work placement with us, Jeffrey successfully applied for a Sports Attendant role at CONEL. This included responsibilities such as sales, marketing and taking good care of the facilities at the CONEL sports centre. When asked how this made him feel, Jeffrey said, “I had my foot in the door when I was doing my work placement at CONEL but when I got this job I was overwhelmed.”
After completing his degree, Jeffrey pursued a Masters degree in Sports Management while still working as a Sports Attendant at CONEL. When asked how he found this Jeffrey said: “It was not too challenging juggling the job and Masters degree together, as the times that I worked allowed me to attend lectures and have time for independent learning.
“The Masters was a lot harder than the Bachelor’s degree as I needed to put in more work to get the grades that I needed. In addition, it was the first time learning anything related to business.”
Jeffrey completed his Masters in September 2019 and progressed into a full-time role at CONEL as our Work Placement Officer. Settling into his role Jeffrey said: “This new job is great! I believe I will have a big impact on the lives of the students because I will be the point of contact when they need any advice for the career they will like to go into.”
In October, Reverend Ragama Sugathananda, a CONEL student and Buddhist Monk, delivered three mediation sessions at our Tottenham Centre’s Staff Learning Day.
Reverend Sugathananda, from Sri Lanka, is being sponsored by CONEL’s Assistant Principal – Technical Industries, Marcia Summers, to travel to England and study an English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) course at CONEL. In return, the Sri Lankan native is delivering meditation classes to staff and students five times a week.
Marcia Summers said: “I met Ragama in 2015 when I was volunteering in Sri Lanka at the women’s development centre. I visited his village and witnessed the great work he was doing there to support the whole community.
“I sponsored him to come to the UK so he could improve his English, to enable him to better talk about and share Sri Lankan culture with others while he is in the UK.
“I was also aware that if he came to CONEL that he could deliver meditation sessions to our students and staff to improve their well-being, so it would be a reciprocal arrangement.
“Ragama’s feedback has been really positive. He’s learning a lot in his English classes which he attends 3 days a week and is enjoying leading his meditation sessions for our students and staff 5 times a week.
“After CONEL he plans to go to temples in Birmingham and Glasgow before returning to Sri Lanka in March.
“The taster sessions were delivered on the staff learning day and started with a brief history of Sri Lanka and an explanation of Metta meditation, which the group were about to take part in. Metta meditation is also known as ‘loving-kindness’ meditation, because it is designed to direct loving-kindness toward the individual and then, in a sequence of expansion, towards somebody who they love, then somebody they are neutral towards, then somebody they have difficulty with, and, ultimately, towards all beings everywhere without distinction.”
The organiser of the event, Louise Webber, said: “It was great to see so many people taking part in a class. It is a fast-paced environment to work in a college, so to have 5 minutes to remove yourself and relax can help so much.”
When asked how his ESOL classes were going, Reverend Ragama Sugathananda said: “It is the best, I have never participated in an English class like this before. Teachers are great and I no longer feel shy. This is a really good experience for my English. It is very good for me.
“Today in our three meditation sessions we had 40, 42 and 36 staff. It’s nice to make them feel relaxed and it went very well!”
Open to all CONEL staff and students, Reverend Ragama Sugathananda will be running sessions at our Tottenham Centre for the duration of his ESOL course.
