Students at Coleg Gwent’s Torfaen Learning Zone gave Natasha Asghar MS an insight into three important projects they have been working on this week.
As part of their Advanced Skills Baccalaureate qualification studies, the 16–18-year-olds had to engage with the Welsh Wellbeing goals and complete 15 hours’ worth of becoming an active citizen.
This involved the students identifying a problem in their local area and going out into the community to help bring about a positive change.
Students picked food poverty, lack of access to digital devices and littering as their problems and set about looking deeper into the issues.
This week the students presented Natasha Asghar MS, who represents South East Wales, and other local dignitaries with their findings and to discuss solutions.
In a bid to tackle the littering issue, students are hoping to launch a Deposit Return Scheme in their campus – a move introduced in countries around the world.
Their scheme would see students earn points, which would then translate into rewards, for returning their plastic bottles and cans.
In response to the lack of access to digital devices, students want to see new or refurbished devices introduced for them to loan out in order to complete their work.
At the moment, all of the available laptops are in use and there are fears students who cannot access devices at home are being severely disadvantaged.
Another group of students have been exploring different ways of tackling food poverty.
Natasha Asghar MS said:
“Seeing the passion and effort the students put into this important piece of work was amazing and it was an absolute pleasure to meet with them to find out more.
“They picked three vital areas to explore and came up with some brilliant solutions, which I can hopefully play a part in implementing.
“Every time I visit Coleg Gwent I am always blown away by the students’ attitude, dedication and high-quality work, and this was no different. Everyone involved in this project should be incredibly proud.”