Teenagers show community spirit

Andrea Baker on her reception duties

Two students from Hopwood Hall College in Middleton have gone that extra mile to help out their local community.

Students Andrea Baker from Heywood and Chris Garside from Oldham, both 18, and both studying for a Level 3 National Diploma in Sport spent their summer holidays helping to run leisure activities for the community.

Over the summer Hopwood Hall College ran a vast programme of summer activities and the students helped to run them

The Sports Arena manager Paul Driver was delighted with this offer of help: “Chris and Andrea have been an integral part of the team. They have worked well with the staff but more importantly have thoroughly enjoyed delivering our summer programme to the local community. They have also been involved in promotion of the College and Sports Arena at local seminars. In total, they’ve helped us to provide over 20 separate sports to the local community.”

Both teenagers started off by working voluntary hours at the Sports Arena; however, because of their excellent leadership skills, the Manager put them onto their casual staff list too, so they could earn a little extra cash to help them with their studies.

Ms Baker has gained experience in Reception, dealing with enquiries and administration in addition to working alongside the College’s fitness instructors, and leisure attendants. She said: “Working with all the staff at the Arena has given me a good understanding of what the job entails. It has helped me to build my confidence in dealing with the general public and given me an opportunity to explore the many different avenues of the leisure industry”

Mr Garside started as a Saturday morning football coach at the Sports Arena; after doing many hours of voluntary work, Chris then secured a place as a summer activities coach. He said: “I have really enjoyed my time here at the Sports Arena and would definitely like to do this on a full time basis. The Sports Arena has allowed me to develop my skills and they have been excellent in providing me with experience in this field. The work is very hard at times, but is really rewarding”.

Mr Driver explained: “We are always looking for reliable individuals to participate in our activity programmes throughout the year; we have placements for reception, administration and work with our fitness instructors and leisure attendants, delivering programmes and consultations to the local community. Any student can be involved so long as they show a willingness to learn and develop new skills they need to be punctual, reliable and hardworking.”