Make Up for Stage & Screen students from Stratford-upon-Avon College are celebrating after receiving top university offers.
Natasha Witte, 17 from Coventry, and Leah Bickerdike, 18 from Stratford-upon-Avon, have both been offered places to continue their studies due to the skills and accomplishments developed and demonstrated on their course.
Natasha has been offered a place at Cardiff Metropolitan University on their Fine Arts degree course.
Natasha has always had a passion for being creative and studied Art at GCSE. However, the regimented way of doing art wasn’t for her. So, she decided instead to study another of her passions: Make Up. After looking at other courses, she decided the course at Stratford-upon-Avon College was the one for her: “Other Make Up courses were more beauty based and didn’t feature prosthetics work, which I had an interest in, so this course was ideal! Also, my brother came to this College and had a great experience. And Stratford is just a great town to be in!”
Now Natasha’s aim is to broaden her skills even more: “The course at Cardiff is amazing as it offers a whole range of areas to explore. I will learn about fashion, pottery, animation, painting, metal work, printing as well as a whole host of other things. And then I want to go to Falmouth University to get a Master’s in prosthetics. I just want to learn as much as I can and be able to offer a wide range of creative skills as that gives me a broader range of career options.”
Above are examples of Natasha’s amazing work
Leah has been offered a place at the University College Birmingham to do a 2-year course in Theatrical Make Up to get her Level 5 qualification, which she can extend for another year to top up to a full degree.
Leah has really enjoyed her time at the College. After starting at a different college, she transferred to this course after deciding she needed more creativity in her studies: “My favourite element is the special effects, it’s really what made me pick the course.”
She has been able to have a range of learning and practical experiences, a highlight being working with a regional fire service to create burns as part of a training operation: “It was a fabulous experience creating the casualty make up effects. I was able to practise skills I had developed on the course.” This meant she had a great portfolio to show at her University College Birmingham interview.
Above are examples of some of the fantastic work Leah has created at College
Now Leah is excited for her next step: “It is great to be going on to learn more and to have a more specific pathway to focus on. I can’t wait to develop my special effects & editorial skills.”
Lecturer Charlotte Hollingworth is proud of the range of routes the students take after the course: “This course facilitates so many different routes. University is great for those wanting to specialise in a certain area and we have a range of students who do this. But we also get lots who study short courses or go straight into work too.”
