Pershore College graduates from across the last two years have been celebrating their successes in a duo of ceremonies in Warwick.
The former students were presented with certificates at St Mary’s Church in Warwick as part of college group WCG’s (which includes Pershore College) three days of celebrations.
The graduating students were a mix of 2020 and 2021 graduates – as 2020 graduates were finally able to celebrate their achievements after disruption caused last year due to the pandemic.
Angela Joyce, CEO of WCG, was on hand to present students with certificate scrolls and was joined by the representatives of the college’s board of governors across the three days of celebrations.
Rachel Sandby-Thomas and Chris Bradshaw represented the board of governors across the two individual ceremonies featuring Pershore College graduates.
The ceremonies also featured a keynote speech from Chris Moody, who recently retired as CEO of Landex. He spoke with graduates about the importance of the professions they will be looking to go into, be that horticulture, veterinary or the wide range of other courses graduating.
Angela Joyce said: “After an incredibly difficult couple of years it was fantastic to bring together all of our graduates to celebrate their achievements – which had been a long time coming for our class of 2020.
“Our degree-level courses pride themselves on providing the skills and knowledge to help our graduates to succeed in the next stage of their development, and that is reflected in the latest figures showing that 95 per cent of our graduates currently are in employment or undertaking further study.
“Graduation day is a culmination of three years of hard work for many of our students, who may have been juggling jobs with education and overcoming other personal challenges. Add a pandemic into that and it is all the more impressive that they have achieved what they have.
“We would like to congratulate all of our graduates on this magnificent achievement and look forward to following their development as they take their next steps into employment or by continuing to develop in education.”
Amalia Cleopatra Kountourou graduated with a FdSc in Veterinary Nursing from Pershore College. The degree has given the 21-year-old international student from Cyprus a springboard to achieve her goal of studying veterinary medicine.
“I’ve been looking forward to this day since the first year of the course and it has been an unforgettable experience,” she said.
“Over the years my family have rescued a lot of animals that were near to death and been able to save them. Veterinary nursing isn’t a recognised job in Cyprus, but after some research I found the course at Pershore.
“I lived at Pershore College full-time, except for during the three different placements each year. I’ve already moved on to study my top-up degree now and am planning to study veterinary medicine in the future.”
Anesh Mistry, 25 from Coventry, graduated after a year of waiting with BSc (Hons) Horticulture.
“I was actually a 2020 graduate so it’s been a year since we finished and this puts a good end to the experience,” he said.
“The campus at Pershore College is set-up very well for horticulture with tonnes of different plants. It’s an ideal environment.
“I have worked as a private gardener since leaving and at Dobbies Garden Centre. I’m trying to start my own business now and spending some time figuring out what my next move is.”
WCG offers higher education courses in a wide range of subjects through full time and part-time options. To find out more visit www.wcg.ac.uk/study