With the end of the school year nearing and Year 11 students considering what to do after GCSEs - some may even have lost interest in learning traditional subjects - Kidderminster College is offering students the chance to see what courses are on offer at the College through a week's worth of Taster Sessions. The activities will focus on the world of work and will hopefully prove motivating and inspirational.

The sessions, which take place between the 25th - 29th June, will enable every local 16-year old to explore what options, other than the traditional route of A-Levels, are available to them once they have finished their GCSEs.

The sessions, in everything from Photography, Film Making and Sports and Fitness, to IT and Business, Acting, Electrical Installation and Hair and Beauty Therapy, have been designed to show students that A-Levels aren't the only option. Kidderminster College offers a range of exciting, vocational qualifications including; BTEC National Diplomas - the equivalent to three A Levels, which give practical and vocational experience of the subject chosen ; apprenticeships and work based learning programmes - which enable students to earn whilst they learn and HND's at higher educational and University level. The College route is the opportunity to explore all options.

What's more, College life couldn't be more different to that of School. Andrew Miller, Principal at Kidderminster College said: "College can offer students a much more grown-up and specialised environment than School; they are no longer the child that teachers have seen grown up over the years, but a young adult studying towards their lifelong career ambitions. This, coupled with the mature atmosphere of College, allows students to be amongst lots of similar people who share the same interests - with no younger pupils getting under their feet."

Education and training is vital to the economy of the UK and it is of utmost importance that every 16 year old in the country continues their education or follows a vocational route, rather than drifting into the workplace and taking a low-paid job.

"All of our teachers are industry trained and offer students the real benefit of their on the job' knowledge," continues Andrew. "Unlike A-Levels, College courses are based on a more practical and hands-on, vocational approach, making it easier for students to integrate into employment on completion of their course."

The Taster sessions are available in nine broad disciplines; Health Studies, Care & Childcare; Art and Design; Foundation Programmes & Community Learning; Leisure, Travel & Tourism and Sports & Fitness; Performing Arts & Music, Film Making & Media; Hairdressing, Beauty, Holistics & Sports Therapies; Business, Administration & Accounting; Information Technology and Electrotechnical Installation. Sessions last for 1.5 hours and prospective students can register for as many as they would like.

All year 11 students across the Wyre Forest can expect an invitation to drop through their letterboxes the first week of June. The design and styling of the invitation has been carefully crafted with the College's Bromsgrove-based design agency - WaveMonkey.

Marketing Officer, Denise Brownridge commented, "It was important that we reflected popular culture and so we focused our design on where the growing interest was amongst both sexes of teenagers today. We carried out extensive research and discovered that one of the most popular themes amongst teenagers is animé ' - a style of Japanese comic artwork. We're delighted with the characters which introduce some of the animé ' elements and have been so expertly created by our design agency. They can't fail to appeal to our prospective students!"

Prospective students can find out more and have a chance to win an iPod, by visiting www.kidderminster.ac.uk from the 1st June.