BIRMINGHAM-based Bournville College is celebrating after beating the Guinness World Record for the biggest cake-decorating lesson at the nation’s largest skills and careers event, The Skills Show.

Visitors to the show helped the college, which also forms part of Premier Colleges, break the record, with more than 4,000 of the show’s attendees rolling up their sleeves and taking part.

Within the first four hours, more than 2,013 visitors participated in the cake-decorating lesson at the show. The activity helped to engage and inspire young people about the opportunities in catering and hospitality, as well as encourage them to consider the college as a potential place to study.

To reinforce awareness of the opportunities available in catering and hospitality, in addition to beating the World Record, organisations from across the sector, including Springboard UK and The Edge Hotel School, offered the event’s 82,000 visitors a range of “have a go” experiences, giving them to the chance to try a range of relevant skills from bed-making to cocktail shaking.

Michelle Dowse, assistant principal of marketing and student services at Bournville College, said: "The Skills Show is a tremendous opportunity for further education colleges like ours to showcase our industry expertise and the broad range of courses that we offer.

"We know that young people, when considering their future career options, like to have a go at new skills to help them in their decision-making process.

Abigail Baah, 19 and studying BTEC level 2 in Hospitality at Bournville College, said: "Being involved with the record-breaking attempt was a really fun experience, especially as we were getting so many young people to help us."