Deeside College Public Services students are celebrating after taking first and third place in the ‘UK Public Services Course Challenge Cup’.

The invitation only event for the best colleges in the UK, which was sponsored and organised by the Royal Navy and Royal Marines, was held across two days at Cwrt-y-Gollen training camp in Crickhowell. Two teams from Deeside College joined a further six colleges from across the UK in taking part in the challenge, the aim of which was to give competitors an insight into Navy life by meeting serving personnel, and taking part in activities similar to those undertaken by Royal Navy Trainees.

Competition during the two days at Cwrt-y-Gollen was intense, with the students taking part in 12 activities including orienteering across 7 miles of challenging terrain, leadership and team work challenges, a gruelling assault course, five-a-side football tournament and a tug of war competition.

Public Services student Natalie Haime, a member of the winning team said “We all learnt a great deal from the event, and we had to call upon a variety of skills we’ve developed during our time at Deeside College, to come out as winners. As part of our course, we’ve attended similar events to this throughout the year, but this is the most highly thought of and challenging”.

Public Services course tutor, John Lewis, who accompanied the students at the event, added, “This is a fantastic achievement for students and Deeside College. We first won the cup in 2007 but weren’t able to defend our title last year, so to win the cup back is excellent. The Public Services Course Challenge Cup is an extremely prestigious event and we knew that the standard would be extremely high. What’s more remarkable is that some of the students taking part were first years and had only been at college for two weeks.”

Deeside College Principal and Chief Executive, David Jones, added: “This demonstrates that Deeside College’s outstanding public services courses are helping our students achieve national and personal success. We would like to offer our thanks to the Royal Navy and Royal Marines for organising and sponsoring the event and hope to defend our title next year.”

Chief Petty Officer Ann Coleman, added, “As always the event was a great success and even more so with the Cup coming to North Wales. I was most impressed by the positive attitude and team spirit displayed by all the students from Deeside College. Hopefully they have all learned something about the qualities required for success in the Uniformed Services and the particular career opportunities within the Naval Services”.