Graduates celebrate their success

The streets of Shrewsbury were lined with caps and gowns as more than 100 students from Shrewsbury College celebrated their graduation.

Shrewsbury College has been offering Higher Education in Shropshire for over 20 years and the annual graduation ceremony was held in the town yesterday.

Students made their way from Shrewsbury Market Square to St Chad’s Church.

This year, the college has seen over 180 students graduate from a range of university-level courses.

The parade started off from the Square at 2.45pm, led by the Mayor of Shrewsbury, Councillor Jane Mackenzie and made its way to St Chad's Church.

Students from performing arts joined together in song to celebrate the year’s successes and to bid farewell to those graduating. They performed choral arrangements throughout the ceremony of well-known songs. Their programme of songs included, You’ll Never Walk Alone and Climb Every Mountain.

The graduation ceremony in St Chad’s Church started at 3pm and Mandy Thorn MBE, vice chair of the Marches LEP was the special guest speaker.

Ms Thorn said: "A properly skilled workforce is vital to the economic prosperity of a region.

"Simply, education and training needs to engage with employers to not only ensure that provision meets the needs of those employers and raises the productivity of a region, but that it is done in such a way as to encourage young people to develop their careers in the areas where they've studied.

"Here in Shropshire, part of the wider Marches region, we have location specific challenges with an ageing workforce and an increasingly retired population and it was with this in mind that, earlier this year, the Marches LEP launched its three year skills plan, supported with a skills action plan.  As a public/private-sector partnership, we're uniquely positioned to bring together a wide range of employers and training providers to meet the challenges that businesses face and work with them to ensure that higher education provision is fit for purpose."

James Staniforth, principal and CEO of Shrewsbury Colleges Group, said: “I am delighted to be celebrating the success of our graduates. Higher education provides such wonderful opportunities for students to develop their academic interests and deepen their knowledge and understanding, as well as providing the critical skills needed in Shropshire and the region.

“Shrewsbury Colleges Group is the largest provider of higher education in the county, offering local, quality, affordable courses which help our local area, whether it is through providing engineering graduates, trained teachers or counsellors. I want to offer my personal congratulations to every individual student as we collectively celebrate their personal journeys and achievements. It is a proud day to be college principal.”