Students boosted their fitness and skills when they took part in an exciting day of mountain biking, treetop pursuits and outdoor challenges with the Royal Navy.

Around 35 students from the College of Haringey, Enfield and North East London (CONEL) joined in the activities at Swinley Bike Hub and Go Ape in Swinley Forest near Bracknell, Berkshire.

They were led by Lieutenant Commander Russ Haines and Warrant Officers Philip Bolton and Janice Scott from the Royal Navy, and Brendan Berry, CONEL’s Curriculum Manager for Public Services.

The students from the college’s Public Services, Sport and Key Stage 4 courses cycled through the forest, climbed trees, swung through woods, crossed rope bridges and whizzed down zip wires.

The Royal Navy officers also ran several group challenges including finding a casualty in the forest and taking them to a designated location where they could be rescued.

Zee Coskun, 19, from Hackney, who has aspirations to join the Metropolitan Police, said: “The mountain biking was great, and it felt good to be out and around people again. It really put us to the test, but we kept on going and motivated each other and I’m glad I did it.

“The team building and leadership exercises with the Royal Navy gave me more confidence in my communication and motivational skills. I learnt a lot, and I am sure other students have as well.”

Justice Bonsu, 21, from Greenwich, who hopes to join the Armed Forces, said: “It was an amazing experience and has given me so much more confidence. It was my first time leading a small team. It improved my communication and problem-solving skills.

“The ziplining was incredible. I was terrified the first time I went down it, but I am very proud that I did it. I couldn’t have done something like that a few years ago.”

Public Services and Sport students are required to undertake several fitness activities during their studies, which they are assessed on as part of their diplomas.

COVID-19 has meant some activities had to be cancelled over the past year or had to take place on college sites instead, such as public order training with the Metropolitan Police.

Lt Cdr Haines was impressed with how well the college had worked with the Royal Navy to provide activities for students in a COVID-safe environment.

He said: “It’s been great working with an organisation that shares the Royal Navy’s passion for developing others and helping a diverse range of young people to learn fundamental life skills such as teamwork, leadership and communication that will help them in defining their future careers.”

Brendan Berry, Curriculum Manager for Public Services, said: “During the second lockdown it was clear that to rebuild the morale and mental health in our students we had to re-engage them in practical activity in a COVID-safe environment.

“To get the students back out into the great outdoors has been our key driver since March and working with the Royal Navy and Royal Marines we looked at the best way to create a range of activities that would re-energise them academically and holistically.

“Swinley Forest was perfect for providing outstanding days for our students after the year of all years. To see our students engaged in practical activity and growing their teamwork, leadership and individual practical skills has been fantastic.”

This activity was funded by the Young Londoners Fund.

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A former business student who impressed on a work experience placement with BP while at college has landed a job with the oil and gas giant.

Elizabeth Daka, 22, undertook a six-week internship with the company while studying a Business Level 3 Extended Diploma at the College of Haringey, Enfield and North East London (CONEL) in 2016.

She was supervised on placement by Christina O’Donovan-Rossa, BP’s then Head of HR Global Functions – Integrated Supply and Trading, and Sue McKenzie, then PA to the company’s UK HR Director, as part of the Career Ready programme.

After successfully passing her Business diploma, Elizabeth went on to graduate with a degree in Human Resource Management from the University of Hertfordshire.

She kept in touch with staff at BP while at university and has now landed a job as a Trading Operations Co-ordinator after being directly approached by the company.

Elizabeth, from Enfield, said: “I remember receiving a call asking if I would be interested in this role as they thought I would be a suitable candidate. I went for an interview and after a few weeks they called to say I had been offered the role. I was so excited.”

In her new job Elizabeth is responsible for all aspects of oil and gas trading across Europe including processing invoices, shipping contracts and product transportation.

She said: “I was looking to pursue a career in HR for a long time, but one thing I’ve learnt is that you actually never know where your career will go. You have to be open to exploring different options because so many skills are transferable. You never know where they will take you.”

Career Ready is a charity that works with educators and employers to help prepare young people for work. While on the programme Elizabeth organised a careers event at CONEL and invited BP staff to talk about their roles.

She said: “Career Ready really prepared me for working in the corporate world. My mentors helped me through my time at BP and both motivated me in different ways. I went from being shy and timid to being more confident and striving for greater things for myself.

“As long as you have a positive mindset and work hard, the sky’s the limit.”

Elizabeth also praised the help and support she received from her tutors at CONEL, that helped her to gain her diploma and the skills and knowledge needed for her career.

Betty Benjamin, Lecturer in Business at CONEL, said: “Through her studies at college and on the Career Ready programme, Elizabeth discovered her skills and career path. We are glad to have made such an impact on her life.”

Click here to apply now for Business courses.

Entrepreneurs Nicolas and Julia Vendramin launched their new fashion company and website – labelld.com – on Saturday 1 May. We caught up with Nicolas before the launch, to talk about their venture, their story, the community they want to build, and the support and advice that Nicolas in particular received from Visionnaires and Capital City College Training, both part of Capital City College Group, along the way.

Hello Nicolas, tell us about LABELL-D, your new start-up. It’s a sustainable fashion company isn’t it? What does that mean to you and Julia?

“We have both worked in fashion for more than 15 years, but with LABELL-D, we feel that we have finally found our purpose in the industry.

“In my fashion career I worked for companies including Hugo Boss, Bally and Harrys of London, in a variety of finance and merchandising roles, but I also knew that the industry is very polluting in its nature, and I wanted to do something about that. We’ve always been passionate about sustainable living and about 12 months ago, we decided to set-up our own company to sell sustainable fashion. The idea had been in my mind for a few years, but two things really accelerated our thinking: the birth of our daughter two and a half years ago and the COVID pandemic.”

And that’s where Visionnaires, our social enterprise, and our training arm, Capital City College Training came in, isn’t it? How did we help you?

“To be honest, I can’t recall exactly how I found out about the programme called Start Up Step Up London, it provides workshops, mentoring and coaching to help start-up businesses get off the ground], but it was a real help to me.

“Because I’ve always worked in big companies, I guess I have always thought big too – ten steps ahead – but Wendy, my tutor, brought me down to earth and reminded me that a new business has to start from zero. She and the 6-week course that she taught was very pragmatic and helped me focus on the basics and get them right first. The course sessions took place before the COVID-19 lockdowns started and it was great to be able to learn in-person, with other entrepreneurs, rather than remotely.”

And then we put you in touch with a mentor didn’t we?

“Yes. We had a Visionnaires mentor matchmaking event where I met Oreste Maspes. Oreste is a fellow Italian and has experience in the fashion and textile industry, and has worked in the consumer electronics, document imaging and printing sectors too.

“We bonded straight away and, as part of the programme, I had 5 hours of one-to-one mentoring with him. Oreste is very strategic and analytical and he pushed us hard – really looking at the strengths and weaknesses of our proposition and our strategy.”

That sounds really good. And since then, you’ve been working hard to set the company and your website up?

“That’s right. We took a couple of days off over Easter and it was the first time we’ve had off in months! We now have a beta version of our website which has already had a few sales. We’ve been testing and getting feedback on the site and we are working on getting the user experience right – making changes so that buying through the website is a great experience for customers – and we’re launching to the public on 1 May.”

What sort of clothes do you offer?

“LABELL-D has garments from a wide range of great brands big and small including Acne Studios, Nike, R3unite, Ecoalf, Burberry, Stella McCartney, Patagonia and Gucci, with others coming on all the time. Our items are all sustainable in how they are produced and our collections include many items which have recycled, organic, bio-based and sustainably sourced materials.

“For example, the uppers of our Nike Space Hippie trainers are made from recycled plastic bottles, T-Shirts and yarn scraps, and our Patagonia beanie hats are Fair Trade Certified – which means that the people who sew them are paid a premium for their work – and they are made from a blend of recycled wool and recycled nylon.

“It’s wonderful to see the site taking shape and we are really excited for the launch. But beyond the launch, we want to do more. We want to build a community of customers who care as passionately as we do about the social and environmental performance of their clothes. We will inform and educate them about the actions that brands have taken on their road to sustainability and we’ll show our customers how the products we sell have been produced and certified. The website is labelld.com.”

Thank you Nicolas. It’s been great talking to you.

Start Up Step Up London is an entrepreneur training programme delivered by Capital City College Group’s training arm Capital City College Training in partnership with Visionnaires and co-funded by the European Social Fund and the Mayor of London. It brings together the capital’s vast business support offer into a single resource, giving entrepreneurs the tools to make their business idea a reality – find out more here.

Rebecca Mbele, from Tottenham, tells how she fled war-torn Congo to start a new life in the UK and secured her lifelong dream of working with children.

Growing up in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rebecca Mbele would often care for her younger siblings and children of relatives and family friends at the age of 10.

Despite a rich wealth of minerals and natural resources, DRC is one of the poorest countries in the world following years of civil and international war from 1996-97 and 1998-2003. The conflicts and their aftermath have caused millions of fatalities amid continued unrest.

Rebecca lived with her parents, older sister and three younger brothers in the capital Kinshasa, the largest city in Africa with a population of 15 million. She is proud of her Congolese roots and recalled a happy childhood and enjoyed looking after her younger siblings and other children when they came to visit. Together they would play games, make dolls, pretend to cook, draw pictures and sing.

“The men would watch TV and discuss the news and politics and the women would be in the kitchen, and I would sit in a corner and play with the children. I felt honoured that their parents trusted me to look after their little ones,” said Rebecca, 44, who now lives in Tottenham.

According to Unicef, 7 million children in the DRC aged 5 to 17 are not in school due to the cost – despite the country’s government decreeing primary education should be free – and the vast majority of the country’s children have no pre-school education.

“There is an African proverb that says it takes a village to raise a child,” said Rebecca.

“There aren’t many places your parents can leave you when they go to work, so you would stay with a relative, neighbour or family friend in the community. For your children to go to a nursery, you had to be earning a lot of money. It was not an option for us.”

Rebecca left school in 1995 aged 18 after passing the Examen d’Etat, the Congolese equivalent of the French baccalauréat, and began studying economics at Université William Booth in Kinshasa.

Civil war broke out in DRC the following year with the country in political turmoil and economic decline, which spilled over into Uganda and Sudan. The conflict escalated when Rwanda invaded DRC and was later joined by more states including Uganda, Burundi, Angola and Eritrea.

Despite only lasting seven months, the war caused widespread destruction with hundreds of thousands of people killed or displaced. Rebecca’s family were forced to move further out of Kinshasa and she had no choice but to give up her studies.

She said: “The lifestyle we had was gone. I could feel it in the house. The country was getting worse and worse and there were fewer jobs. If you didn’t know people, you didn’t get work. I was crying on my bed every single night thinking, what is this life?”

During her studies Rebecca had met and got engaged to another student. He was also a political activist wanted by the Congolese government and fled the country in 1996.

“For a whole year there was no communication. No one heard from him or knew where he was. I was sad, confused and deeply worried. I thought it was finished and he was gone,” she said.

His aunt in the UK later wrote to tell his family he had arrived as a refugee and was safe.

The first war came to an end when President Mobutu was overthrown but political tensions and hostility continued under rebel leader Laurent-Desiré Kabilia, leading to the second conflict that would last five years. Fearing for her own safety, Rebecca flew to the UK to be with her fiancé.

They set up home in Camden and arranged a traditional Congolese wedding and would go on to have four children. Attending baby clubs and nurseries with her own children further sparked her interest in an education career.

She said: “I’m so glad they went. It helped them to communicate with other children, how to play and share toys. At that age, it is so important for their development. I would see how the staff set things up and would get down to the children’s level to speak to them. It was amazing to see, and I knew that this was what I wanted to do.”

Rebecca enrolled on an Early Years Practitioner Level 2 Diploma at the College of Haringey, Enfield and North East London (CONEL) and went on to study Supporting Teaching and Learning Level 3 Certificate. She received an Excellence Award from CONEL in 2018.

She is now working for N Family Club, an early years education provider with nurseries across London and the South East, having started her career at Pembury House Nursery School and Children’s Centre in Haringey where she undertook a placement while at college.

Rebecca said: “CONEL gave me the chance to truly believe in myself and prepare for my dream career. I was blessed to have had the most amazing, kind and caring teachers. I am so proud and amazed when I look at what I have achieved. I now know where I am and where I am going. I am happy and have a purpose in my life, and nothing can stop me.”

Apply now for Childcare and Early Years courses.