Handmade crafts, gifts and homemade delicacies were the order of the day at Altrincham’s first ever Student Market held during one of the town’s busiest market days – the monthly Vintage, Crafts& Food producers Market. Over thirty enterprising students took part in the event which attracted hundreds of visitors and was organised by Altrincham Forward as part of the ‘Love Your Local Market’ campaign.

Altrincham Forward is aiming to launch a regular Student Market later this year and talked to Trafford College about the idea. The College were already planning a ‘Market Challenge’, a competition open to all their students, with the aim of enhancing entrepreneurial and employability skills. The national ‘Love Your Local Market’ campaign provided the ideal opportunity to link both projects.

Students from across the College including Hospitality, Creative Arts and Media, Business and IT, and Hair and Beauty were tasked with the challenge of creating an idea for a stall with a £100 budget, with which they had to buy their products or service, and design their stall. The winning team would be the team with the most profit on the day. Project ideas included cupcake and pancake stalls, best of Britain, t-shirt printing, and homemade hair and beauty products.

Winners ‘Best of Britain’

Family entertainment was provided at the event with children’s activities such as design your own cupcakes, face painting, plant your own pots and babybib designs. The College’s music base students were also on hand to entertain shoppers with some classic hits to celebrate the official launch of Altrincham Forward.

To close the event, a panel of judges including Entrepreneur Naomi Timperely, Jackie Campbell, who owns a local business and is on the board of ‘Altrincham Forward’, Paul Mirage, Membership and Business Development Manager at Altrincham & Sale Chamber, Councillor Michael Hyman and Susan Aldridge, President of Altrincham & Sale Chamber of Commerce, were tasked with the difficult decision of choosing an overall winner.

Making a comfortable profit and impressing all the judges with their original ideas, the overall winners of the challenge were ‘The Best of Britain’ team, with their delicacies stall of smoked salmon, homemade chutneys, pies and quiches. The students were Rachel Baker, 17, Joe Reuben,18, and Markey Thomas,18, all from the College’s Hospitality department.

Judge, Jackie Campbell, commented, “Today’s challenge has been the most fantastic display of enterprise by young people that I have seen. It makes me love my local market. We cannot praise the students enough and as a Chamber, we’d love to see more of them.”

Winning student Rachel Baker, commented, “It feels good to accomplish this today and it is a really proud moment for us. Our hard work has paid off and it’s great to see such healthy competition in our community. Everyone’s stalls looked amazing and the challenge showcased a lot of our skills. It has given us more confidence and it is something that will look great on our CVs.”

Trafford College is inviting students who are interested in enterprise, business and innovation to find out more about their BTEC Level 3 Diploma in Enterprise & Entrepreneurship. This specialised course helps young entrepreneurial students learn more about how to start up and run their own business or social enterprise, and has been designed and developed with the National Enterprise Academy (NEA) to give learners a qualification that will enable them to start-up and run a fully functioning business to develop their entrepreneurial skills, as well as interact with entrepreneurs and business people.

Father-of-three, Mike Mulvey, 53, was just 19 years old when he lost his leg during his third year of service with the Army. Unsure of what direction to take once he’d recovered from his injuries, he spent years as a porter in a hotel before enrolling at Trafford College on a Level 3 Restaurant, Kitchen and Pastry course.

Immediately he was hooked on the idea of gaining as many qualifications as possible; no sooner had he completed one course than he was gearing up to take on his next challenge. Thanks to his obvious dedication and enthusiasm, Mike was soon rewarded with a fantastic opportunity to join the team at one of the leading catering companies in the North West, Tribourne Catering, where he continued his training with Trafford College while flourishing in his role as Food and Beverage Manager at Stockport Sports Village. Mike credits his success to the seven and a half years training he undertook and the skills he gained, which he believes set the standard for working in the catering industry.

He comments, “I absolutely would not be where I am today without my training. During my time at College I learned so much about the industry, from costing and creating menus to planning and preparing for events, your prospects are massively improved as a result of your qualifications. I am passionate about training and developing people, and most of our staff, from managers to chefs have undergone training with Trafford College.

To celebrate Adult Learners’ Week (18-24 May) Trafford College is inviting adult learners to find out more about adult and community learning at a special ‘Learning Surgery’ in Altrincham Town Centre. The College Community Learning team will be available at the ‘Pop up Gallery’ at 59 George Street, on Saturday 25 May between 10.30am and 3.30pm.

Shoppers who are looking to boost their skills set, learn something new, improve their confidence or simply meet like-minded people are invited to drop into the gallery and speak with our dedicated staff to find out more about returning to learning.

Visit our Adult Learning page for more information on our available adult courses.

Contrary to popular belief, Lorem Ipsum is not simply random text. It has roots in a piece of classical Latin literature from 45 BC, making it over 2000 years old. Richard McClintock, a Latin professor at Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia, looked up one of the more obscure Latin words, consectetur, from a Lorem Ipsum passage, and going through the cites of the word in classical literature, discovered the undoubtable source. Lorem Ipsum comes from sections 1.10.32 and 1.10.33 of “de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum” (The Extremes of Good and Evil) by Cicero, written in 45 BC. This book is a treatise on the theory of ethics, very popular during the Renaissance. The first line of Lorem Ipsum, “Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet..”, comes from a line in section 1.10.32.

Contrary to popular belief, Lorem Ipsum is not simply random text. It has roots in a piece of classical Latin literature from 45 BC, making it over 2000 years old. Richard McClintock, a Latin professor at Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia, looked up one of the more obscure Latin words, consectetur, from a Lorem Ipsum passage, and going through the cites of the word in classical literature, discovered the undoubtable source. Lorem Ipsum comes from sections 1.10.32 and 1.10.33 of “de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum” (The Extremes of Good and Evil) by Cicero, written in 45 BC. This book is a treatise on the theory of ethics, very popular during the Renaissance. The first line of Lorem Ipsum, “Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet..”, comes from a line in section 1.10.32.

Stuck for things to do this weekend? Then why not come along and grab yourself a bargain at the Market Challenge. This Sunday 19^th May, Trafford College is pleased to be part of Altrincham’s first student market as part of this year’s ‘Love Your Local Market’ campaign

‘The Market Challenge’ which is taking place in the Lower Market on Shaw’s Road, 11am – 3.30pm is a competition, open to students, with the aim of enhancing entrepreneurial and employability skills. Students have been given £100 to come up with a service or product to sell on their very own stall. From beauty products, customised T-shirts and cakes to IT products, face painting and handmade crafts there is a diverse range of products that students are hoping to sell on the market.

Altrincham Forward is aiming to launch a regular Student Market later this year and talked to Trafford College about the idea. The College were already planning a ‘Market Challenge’; the national ‘Love Your Local Market’ campaign provided the ideal opportunity to link both projects.

The Student Market will take place on one of the town’s busiest market days – the monthly Vintage, Crafts& Food producers Market. Gail Titchener who runs the Vintage Market said, “I am delighted that the college students will be filling the Lower Market with stalls. Many young people already come to the Vintage Market and we will work with the students and Altrincham Forward to make it a great day for visitors to Altrincham Market whatever their age”

Joan Scott, Assistant Principal at Trafford College and Altrincham Forward Board Member said, “The ‘Market Challenge’ is an important part of the College’s enterprise activity. Many students took part in activities during Global Enterprise week and can use this opportunity to further develop their skills, products and services. The students, in teams, have to take a small investment and turn it into a profit – to be able to do that in an actual retail market environment is a bonus!  We all love our local market….so we’re counting on the local community to come out and support the students on Sunday 19th, as there’s also the vintage and craft market to visit, and we’re involving our Music students to help make it a great day for all the family.”