Students celebrate university offers and vocational achievements at Gibraltar College

The Gibraltar College achieved an A-level pass rate of 89% including vocational courses on Thursday, with students celebrating their results and future opportunities.

Among those receiving their results were students heading to university to study nursing and acting, while others are preparing for careers in music and health and social care.

For Tristan Benyunes, results day brought the news he had secured his first-choice university place at Leeds Conservatoire, where he will study to be an acting musician.

The course combines acting with music, including instrumental performance and singing.

Mr Benyunes plays piano and sings, with musical tastes ranging from 80s classics and soft rock to a wide variety of other genres.

Zyanne Sheriff also secured a university place after an anxious morning spent repeatedly refreshing her email.

She will study nursing at Middlesex University, although her course is currently being revised after she originally applied for paediatric nursing.

“I don’t know yet because they’re changing my course,” she said. “I was doing paediatric nursing before. I believe that they’re going to offer me nursing with peds and adults.”

Ms Sheriff said she had “always known” she wanted to work in a hospital.

She had initially considered becoming a paramedic, but a placement at the Rainbow Ward at St Bernard’s Hospital confirmed her decision to pursue nursing.

Her change of direction came just one month before the UCAS deadline.

Results day was a celebration for Nathan Pereira who secure a merit in Music BTEC.

Known around Gibraltar for his singing and DJing, Mr Pereira plans to spend the coming year developing his musical interests during a gap year. He hopes to attend the Open University in the future.

In the meantime, he hopes to contribute to performances and music events and is also interested in becoming a music technician at Bayside School.

“I will hopefully help out in music events,” he said.

“And hopefully, a music technician in Bayside to help out the music department there.”

Another student celebrating was Rachel Garcia, who achieved an A in Health and Social Care in the first year of her course.

Ms Garcia has worked in the Care Agency for more than 20 years and has completed her studies while working full-time night shifts.

She said she was proud of the achievement, having returned to education at the age of 42.

“I'm really proud of myself honestly, because I'm now 42 and I'm not like students who are younger and have gone through GCSE level,” she said.

“I work for social services, and they offered me the course on health and social. So I thought it was a good time to extend my career now at this age.”

Her children have supported and encouraged her decision to study.

Balancing the course with night work has meant adjusting her daily routine, with Ms Garcia attending College during the afternoon before returning to work in the evening.

“I work night shifts, so it's been a bit exhausting for me also because when I get home, I don't go to sleep straight away,” she said.

“But I've had to sleep during the day for a few hours, not my usual eight-hour, and then come to the College in the course of the afternoon, at five or six o'clock, and then again do a night shift in the evening. It's been a bit hard for me, but I've managed.”

The College’s principal, Daniel Benrimoj, said students had performed strongly and had been highly engaged throughout the year.

“I think the learners have done extremely well this year. The have been so engaged,” he said.

Mr Benrimoj added that the College had also introduced a new enrichment programme designed to develop skills beyond examination results.

He said students had been developing skills including critical thinking, problem solving and communication, particularly as artificial intelligence continues to have an impact on education.

“It hasn't just been about grades, even though the grades have been fantastic,” he said.

“We've been able this year to launch the new enrichment program, which has got a lot of interest from learners.”

“Ithas been developing more their soft skills, because we're seeing more and more the impact AI is having in education and more and more so how having problem-solving skills, getting those other skills: critical thinking, problem solving, communication, and the impact that's having on them, and it's been absolutely fantastic.”

Mr Benrimoj said the College was more interested in the development of students as individuals than in results alone, adding that students should not see results day as defining their future.