When Lita Leikarte took part in Culture Week earlier this year, she was a high-achieving Creative Arts student.
That experience at our Quarry Hill campus, however, set her on a completely different path — and into a career in catering.
During the week, Lita spent three days cooking a variety of dishes for her fellow students under the guidance of our Deputy Head of Food and Catering Services, Fabrice Teston.
The experience reminded her how much she enjoyed preparing food, so she applied for a role in the kitchens at our Enfield Centre and, thanks to the commitment she had demonstrated in the Quarry Hill canteen, landed the job.
Organised by the Student Life Enrichment Team, Culture Week is a chance for students and staff across our campuses to celebrate our different cultures through activities based around food, music, art, dance and fashion.
Lita, who will continue her food service assistance position when the Enfield Centre moves to its new base at Mabgate next year, said: “The time during Culture Week, although short, reignited my passion to seek a job in cooking and catering. My original plan for college was to do a patisserie course!
“The experience was awesome, the catering staff were kind and caring and taught me more about food preparation and serving.
“Due to that, I was able to secure a job on a different campus where my colleagues are super lovely and reliable.”
For Fabrice, it has been rewarding to help someone with a real passion for catering take her first step into a hospitality career.
He said: “Lita was so enthusiastic and passionate during her time in the kitchen when we were holding the Culture Week events.
“Her positive attitude and passion certainly helped her secure her position as a food service assistant at the Enfield campus.”
Lita excelled in her BTec Level 3 Extended Diploma in Animation course, achieving triple Distinction stars in her results. She also won the Artistry Excellence Award at our Star Awards this year.
Although now happily forging a path in the catering industry, she hasn’t ruled out returning to animation at some point in the future.
You can find out more about our catering and hospitality courses here .
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Saffy Blellock is taking her next step towards an IT career after excelling in her Cyber Security and Networking T Level.
Saffy recently completed her course with us, which included a rewarding industry placement at DWP (Department for Work and Pensions) Digital, in Leeds. She also enjoyed being one of our T Level and STEM Ambassadors, taking the lead in talking about the benefits of T Levels and technology-based careers to younger students and schoolchildren.
Now in the first year of her Degree Apprenticeship in Technology Services with Accenture and BPP University, she is convinced she was right to take ‘the T Level route’ after school.
She said: “I have always loved problem-solving and knew that I wanted to do something in cyber security or along those lines, and had heard about Leeds City College before, so I looked at the college’s IT courses as a ‘stepping stone’ to doing a degree apprenticeship later on.
“The course was great and the placement with DWP Digital was really nice, everyone was very welcoming. I got to work on a few different projects there, things involving data analysis and data trends, and once we even created an online knowledge article to tell people how to install different Adobe applications.”
Saffy is hoping to pick up a similar ambassadorial role during her time at Accenture’s Leeds base, where she now works four days a week, using the remaining weekday to study remotely with her university.
She said: “I’m aiming to become a Cyber First ambassador as part of my degree apprenticeship, which will involve promoting cyber security in schools. I’m really looking forward to starting that.”
As for her ultimate career destination, she is keeping that open for now – but knows it will be in the technology sector.
She said: “My degree is very broad to begin with and then lets you specialise in the final year, which is great, as it gives me a chance to learn a wide range of skills.
“Everyone at Accenture has been really welcoming and they arranged a meeting with people from all the different areas of the business, and the projects they’re working on, so I could find out what they were involved in.
“Whatever I end up doing I definitely want to stick to IT, perhaps going down the cyber security route but I like all sides of IT really – I enjoy problem solving!”
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