Uxbridge College students joined delegates at a national business conference where speakers included Labour leader Ed Milliband and Secretary of State for Business, Vince Cable.
The students, who are taking BTEC business qualifications and A levels, attended The British Chambers of Commerce’s Annual Conference ‘Building a New Model Economy’, with their places sponsored by Heathrow Airport Ltd. Heathrow trains a number of engineering and IT apprentices through Uxbridge College and also supports its training and education in other ways.
The students attended speeches and presentations, and during breaks had a chance to mix with speakers, who also included Foreign Secretary William Hague, Paul Simmons, UK Director of easyJet, designer Wayne Hemmingway and Dr Nicola Millard, Futurologist for BT.
Student Kherun Akram, 18, said: “It was an amazing day and I really enjoyed networking and talking to MPs. My favourite speaker was Ed Milliband because he spoke about issues a young audience could relate to, and Dr Nicola Millard the BT Futurologist also opened new career possibility options to me. I would love to be able to attend another event like this one day. Thank you to Heathrow for sponsoring us to attend The British Chamber of Commerce Conference. “
Sharon McCann from Student Support at Uxbridge College said: “Heathrow’s support gave our students a unique opportunity to hear from some of the most powerful people in the UK about what’s going on at the cutting edge of business policy. This opportunity showed how valuable Uxbridge College’s partnership work with prestigious organisations such as Heathrow can be.”
The students chosen to go had all been involved in enterprise activities at College, including those held by the Young Dragons society to raise money for charity and set up small businesses. The conference took place at Central Hall Westminster in London.
