Worksop’s Got Talent!

A spectacular showcase was held on the 11th November, at North Notts Arena, celebrating the many talented people living in and around Worksop.  The event was called ‘Worksop’s Got Talent’ and the show was the inspiration of James Clarke, 21 from Gateford, who is employed at North Notts College.

James first came to North Notts College as a student and studied on the Extended Diploma Level 3 in Media course in 2011, which he very much enjoyed, and hopes eventually to get employment within the television industry. “Whilst I am working as an apprentice, I am gaining a lot of customer service skills, which will hopefully help me with my future career”.

He joined the Student Services team in April 2014 working on the help desk, whilst taking his Apprenticeship Level 2 in Business Admin. He has since completed his Advanced Apprenticeship Level 3 and is now working in a permanent role in the Admissions Department at College.

As part of a year of fundraising, including raffles with various holiday destinations such as Portugal and the Isle of Wight, James wanted to finish with a big event and came up with the concept of a talent show.

The event was 10 months in the making and was supported by North Notts College who provided rooms for the auditions, and promoted the event throughout the RNN Group. As a fundraiser and suffer of Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP), James wanted to raise a significant sum of money to go towards researching this condition in the hope of finding a cure. There is hope that they will find something that could curb the condition in the next 10 years.

RP is the name given to a group of inherited conditions of the retina that all lead to a gradual progressive reduction in vision. The age at which symptoms start is variable and the rate of deterioration often varies but is generally very slow with changes occurring over years rather than months. RP affects approximately 1 in 3,000 to 4,000 people.

There was a great response with over 40 acts coming to auditions, from comedians to dancers and magicians to singers – a wide range of acts which were whittled down to 10 finalists.

The ten finalists included a magician, theatre and pop singers, an acoustic musician, a swing singer, a brother and sister dance duo and more, plus on the night there was performances from the Worksop Community Gospel Choir and North Notts College’s own Full Monty.

The Judges on the night were James Hill, from The Apprentice and who won Celebrity Big Brother, Liam Palmer, a Sheffield Wednesday Football player and Angela Norwood-Pearson, a College Representative. The evening was hosted by ITV Calendar News reporter, James Webster.

James commented; “The total raised on the night was £5,750 and is still rising as the DVD of the show is selling fast. I’m really proud of the event, it turned out better than I could have ever wished for and I’ve had such a great response”.

Liam commented after the show; “When James reached out, I couldn’t wait to get involved. I thought the idea of displaying the various talents of Worksop, in the name of a good cause, was something that would work really well and it definitely did!”