Lewis and Kenan win national numeracy awards
The Grŵp Llandrillo Menai learners were recognised by The Worshipful Livery Company of Wales for improving their know-how with numbers
Grŵp Llandrillo Menai students Lewis Cahill and Kenan Davies-Zorlu have won national accolades for developing their maths skills.
Lewis, from Abergele, and Kenan, from Holyhead, have both received Financial Literacy Improvement Awards from The Worshipful Livery Company of Wales (WLCOW).
Both study Level 3 Engineering, with Lewis attending Coleg Llandrillo in Rhyl, while Kenan is at Coleg Menai in Llangefni.
Lewis won £500 from WLCOW to help with his studies after achieving a C in GCSE Maths this summer.
While studying Level 2 Engineering last year, he worked with skills tutor Cheryl Stewart to improve his numeracy - gaining the grade he needed to progress to the Level 3 course.
He said after winning the WLCOW award: “I’m very happy that my tutors believed in me to do well on the course. They were a massive help and were good with explaining it all.
“I’m now looking forward to completing my Level 3 course next year, and after that hopefully joining the RAF or finding a job or an apprenticeship in engineering.”
His tutor Cheryl said: “Lewis has made lots of progress. He stuck with it and believed in himself, and sure enough when the results came out he got the C. He didn’t give up when times were hard, and now this year he’s flying.
“It made my day when I found out he had won the award. I was absolutely thrilled to know that the committee has recognised somebody’s achievements and somebody’s struggles and I’m sure that will help him enormously in his studies moving forward.”
Kenan was also able to progress to the Level 3 course after developing his maths ability while studying Level 2.
He was awarded £100 by WLCOW after achieving Application of Number (AoN) Level 2 at his first attempt under the guidance of skills tutor Dafydd Alun Roberts, having passed AoN Level 1 the previous year.
Kenan said: “I like maths anyway but improving my skills has helped me on my course. The support from my tutor was great - he helped me learn things I hadn’t been able to do previously.”
Dafydd said: “It's been a real pleasure to teach Kenan over the past couple of years. He is hungry for knowledge and has made really good progress in his numeracy skills at college, while also developing his academic knowledge and independence. He is a joy to teach, constantly keeping me on my toes with relevant and challenging questions in the classroom.
“I congratulate Kenan for all his hard work in achieving this award and I'm sure he will achieve his ambition to qualify as an engineer in the near future.”
WLCOW is dedicated to helping young people throughout Wales develop their talents and skills through its annual awards programme of scholarships and bursaries to students in schools, universities and technical colleges, as well as to apprentices and young people in the armed forces.
It was founded in 1993 as the Welsh Livery Guild, to promote education, the arts, science and technology in Wales. In 2013 the Guild was presented with a Royal Charter and was renamed the Worshipful Livery Company of Wales.