Two lucky politics students at Coleg Gwent staved off competition from students at 700 schools from across the UK to win the chance to produce an episode of the BBC’s Question Time.
This rare opportunity stems from the college’s Crosskeys Campus winning 2010’s BBC Schools Question Time competition. Chaired by the Western Mail’s Martin Shipton and including representatives from the Conservative Party, Plaid Cymru and members of the Coleg Gwent debating team, a panel of key political players answered questions from the audience of 50 young people.
The team of 16 organised all aspects of the event, from behind the scenes planning to publicising the event, and were judged on their creativity and project management.
The team is one of four that won the opportunity to join David Dimbleby and the Question Time team for a workshop in May and will also shadow members of the production team as they produce an edition of the programme on July 8.
Students David Cavell and Alexandra Morgan have been selected by the team to go forward to work with the BBC.
18-year-old Alexandra from Blackwood was one of two Coleg Gwent students on the panel, and she said: “It was more intense than I expected but it was a great experience. We were faced mainly with questions surrounding issues that affect young people like reducing the voting age to 16, increasing the age that people should stay in compulsory education to 18 and the issues surrounding mephedrone and whether it should be legal.
“The event went better than any of us expected which meant that all our hard work and preparation paid off.”
Alexandra will have a BBC work placement in the summer and is really looking forward to it, saying: “It’s a great opportunity to get some hands on experience, particularly as it’s such a large scale event and there will be big names involved – who knows where it could lead!”
Alexandra will be joined by 17-year-old David Cavell on the placement. David, also from Blackwood, project managed the event, which was no mean feat.
He said: “It was a lot of running around on the day but the whole team pulled together to make it a success. We were really shocked to win – you don’t come in the top four in the UK with ease so it’s obvious all of the planning and effort was worth it with a fantastic result.”
David, who is going on to university in Leicester in September to study geology, is also looking forward to working on an episode of Question Time. “It’s a unique opportunity,” he said. “It will be great to see the difference between what we came up with and what happens in reality, and to have access to the BBC’s equipment and resources.”
