Students at a city college have been hailed as the cream of the crop after cooking up scores of delicious delicacies to serve up at a recent national education conference in Birmingham.
 
The catering students from City of Wolverhampton College provided scores of tasty treats in the form of colourful cupcakes as part of a partnership with LSIS, the Learning and Skills Improvement Service which is based in Coventry.

LSIS was one of hundreds of exhibitors at the Annual Association of Colleges (AoC) conference from 16-18 November and had approached the college for help in cooking up something different to  attract delegates to its stand.

But what made the collaboration with City of Wolverhampton College even more unusual was that it included mature students such as Stan Fencot, a sprightly 74-year-old, and a level three bakery student who has been studying at the college for the last four years.

Stan has completed a range of bakery, cake decorating and pastry courses both for pleasure and for qualifications earning himself a distinction in his Pastry Cooking and Patisserie Level 2 course last year.

Others involved in the project included Olga Stepanenlio, aged 36, a first year at the college taking bakery and patisserie courses with the view to one day opening her own business.
She was joined by 33-year-old Harvinder Field who is on the same course and looking to go on to a career in the trade.

 The youngest student was 18 year old Rebbecca Fullwood, a level 3 bakery student, who is in her third year of study and looking for a career in baking and cake decorating.

 Gary said: “We were so thrilled to be invited to bake the cakes for the exhibition for LSIS and delighted that the delegates enjoyed eating them!”

LSIS chief executive Dr David Collins said: “We are very grateful to City of Wolverhampton College for working with us on the project and providing such wonderful cakes.

“They really were an eye-catching addition to our stand and also a real talking point for all those delegates at the event.

“We work closely with the Further Education sector and this was another great example of how this partnership works as it gave us the chance to really showcase the students’ talents.”