Employers, students and educators gathered for a day of presentations and networking at Budmouth College, where the Centre of Excellence for Industrial Liaison (CEIL) was hosting its annual Employers’ Advisory Board.

CEIL works to instil professional values in Budmouth’s sixth-form students, and also helps to secure internships and scholarships at companies both local and national.

Two former Budmouth College students, Matthew Cornick and Rebekah Roberts, returned to the function on Tuesday to speak about the enduring benefits they had gained from their time at CEIL. Matthew, 24, is a trainee chartered accountant working at Magicard electronics firm on Weymouth’s Granby Industrial Estate, and was CEIL’s first intern back in 2011, gaining experience at local firm Equation Accounting. “I’ve seen the programme grow from about four students to several hundred,” Matthew said. “It really gave me an idea of what a workplace was like.”

Rebekah agreed on the programme’s benefits. “If I hadn’t been on it, I wouldn’t have gone on to uni,” said the 20-year-old, who is in her first year of a degree in model-making at Arts University Bournemouth.

Current students also spoke highly of CEIL. Thomas Free, a 17-year-old in Year 13, has been working in the Kiosk, an on-site stationery shop run by students from CEIL, and extolled the management, finance and training skills he and his classmates had gained through running the store. “We have total responsibility,” Thomas told the Echo, adding that the shop made at least £30 a week in revenue.

Thomas intends to use the skills he has picked up to go on to work in for a Weymouth company. “CEIL is a great place for local businesses to recruit,” he said.

Alex Freeman, a 17-year-old in Year 12, said she had found the CEIL programme ‘really helpful’. “It’s showed me how to improve my skills, my communication and my attitude,” said Alex, who hopes to go on to study physics and astronomy at university.

Diane Hayles was representing employers at the function said it was ‘fantastic’ to bring together so many employers and students. “CEIL is growing really well, and it really does set students up for the world of work,” said Mrs Hayles, a human resources manager at Atlas Elektronik, which has offices at Winfrith technology park. The maritime electronics firm has provided numerous scholarships to Budmouth College students in recent years via CEIL, and Mrs Hayles praised the programme as ‘well-managed and well-supported’.

The programme’s leader, Budmouth director of enterprise Marcel Ciantar, noted that CEIL’s success could provide an example for other secondary schools. “Nothing like this exists anywhere else in the country,” Marcel said. “This is the answer to the national training problem.”

One former CEIL student is now studying at the prestigious Dyson Institute of Engineering and Technology, while an ambitious project to launch a satellite is also in the pipeline. One of the students involved in the project, 16-year-old Tom Hinde, explained that the project would use solar radiation to build the 10cm x 10 cm x 10cm so-called Sat-Cube. “It’s a really exciting project,” said Tom, a budding astrophysics student. CEIL is hoping to raise some £35,000 over the next few years to fund the project.