Author: Rhys Gregory

An impressive 130 Welsh competitors have been announced as finalists for the WorldSkills UK National Finals taking place this November. The announcement follows a series of regional competitions that took place across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, hosting a string of talented young people. Wales has maintained its top spot of having the highest number of competitors of all UK regions since 2015. This year, over 1 in 4 of the finalists are Welsh and with two categories still yet to be announced, it’s incredibly likely this number will increase. WorldSkills supports young people across the world to take…

A new show giving an entertaining exploration into Obsessive Compulsive Disorder will be premiered by award-winning theatre company StammerMouth at Chapter Arts Centre in Cardiff this month. CHOO CHOO!’ (Or… Have You Ever Thought About Pushing Someone Off Of a Train Platform? (‘Cos I Have.)’ – showing from 20 -23 July – takes the audience on a journey into the workings of OCD and a mind that isn’t always very nice to its owner. The production combines the talents of writer Nye Russell Thompson (StammerMouth) and director Nerida Bradley (Revolt. She Said. Revolt again) and is a disability led performance…

Dogs Trust is offering free workshops in South Wales this Summer to help families understand dogs and learn how to live happily and safely alongside them. The charity, which find new homes for thousands of dogs every year, is offering the ‘How to stay safe this Summer’ workshops to families with children aged seven and over. The workshops will be held at Dogs Trust Bridgend and Canolfan Y Bont, Pontarddulais and must be booked in advance as places are limited. Dogs Trust Education Officer, Claire Kendrick, says: “As we spend more time with our four-legged friends during the holiday periods, Summer is…

Aberystwyth is the best university in Wales for student satisfaction according to the latest National Student Survey (NSS) which is published today, Wednesday 6 July 2022. Based on the universities featured in the latest edition of The Times / Sunday Times Good University Guide, Aberystwyth has also climbed to second in the UK for overall student satisfaction. The result means that Aberystwyth has come top in Wales and featured as one of the top ten universities in the UK for student satisfaction in each of the last seven editions of the NSS. The University also continues to outperform the UK…

he Professional Fighters League (PFL), the fastest growing and most innovative sports league in the world, today announced that tickets for the 2022 PFL Playoff events from Motorpoint Arena in Cardiff, Wales on August 13 and Copperbox Arena in London on August 20 are available now viaTicketmaster. The PFL’s second 2022 Playoff event, on Saturday, August 13 in Cardiff, will feature fighters from the Welterweight and Heavyweight divisions, including 2021 Heavyweight Champion Bruno Cappelozza, Renan Ferreira, Rory MacDonald and Carlos Leal. The PFL’s third and final 2022 Playoff event, on Saturday, August 20 in Cardiff, will feature fighters from the…

The debate to settle which Cardiff school would triumph in this year’s DebateMate Cup is over, with Willows High School crowned champions for 2022. Students from the Tremorfa school have been taking part in the 12-week schools debating programme delivered by DebateMate with eight other schools in the city. The initiative has been sponsored by FinTech Wales and Cardiff Council’s Invest in Cardiff team and Cardiff Commitment. The 12-week programme culminated in a head-to-head debate at the Principality Stadium where pupils from Cardiff West Community High School, Cantonian High School, Cathays High School, Willows High School, St Teilo’s CiW High…

A new initiative has been launched so people know leisure operators using a Gower Beach have the skills and experience to provide safe fun activities delivered to the highest standard. Swansea Council has joined up with the RNLI and the Welsh Surfing Federation to launch the Caswell Beach Operators Charter. It aims to ensure safe and sustainable use of one of Gower’s most popular beaches for activities while being mindful of the many thousands of casual beach users who visit each year. The other founding members are Surfability UK CIC, Progress Surf School, Gower Surf Academy, Mumbles Lifeguard Club and…

Work is soon starting to demolish the Llys Dewi Sant building in Swansea city centre, helping pave the way for further redevelopment. Located in the area of the former St David’s Shopping Centre, the building has been used in recent years as a site office for the £135m Copr Bay district developed by Swansea Council. Buckingham Group Contracting Ltd – the council’s main contractor for the Copr Bay scheme – will carry out the Llys Dewi Sant demolition works. Stripping-out work will take place at the building before main demolition starts, which is expected to take about eight weeks to…

An official ceremony to celebrate the re-opening of Cwmcarn Forest Drive, has taken place yesterday (6 July) a year on after the Drive was able to welcome visitors back by car for the first time. Cwmcarn Forest Drive is one of the Valley Regional Parks (VRP) discovery gateways. The Drive officially re-opened to the public on 21 June last year, but coronavirus restrictions in place at the time, meant that an official re-opening ceremony was unable to take place. The Drive had previously been closed for 6 years to allow essential forestry operations to be undertaken,  to remove 160,000 larch…

hree Year 10 learners from Abertillery Learning Community wowed the panel at the Royal Academy of Engineering’s Connecting STEM Teachers ‘Sustainable Futures’ Innovation Challenge with their app designed to help reduce global food waste. They were so impressed that the students have been invited to attend Welsh Valleys Engineering Programme celebration event at the Royal Academy in London. Only 10 schools from across the UK have been invited. The students entered the Sustainable Futures: Innovation Challenge competition run by the Royal Academy of Engineering, in which there were four categories they could choose from to solve a real-world problem. They…