Website will have positive impact

The students Iain John Baker (26) and Colleen Smith (35), who are both from Cumbernauld, have spent a year building the site to allow chaplains, who are working in the education sector, to communicate with each other and share best practice.

The project, which also involved a student from Kilmarnock College, is due to be launched in June and came about after the Church and Society Council contacted the colleges for their help in creating the website.

Both Kilmarnock and Cumbernauld colleges were the first to respond and take up the project.

The students were invited to preview the website to ministers who had gathered in Edinburgh for a meeting of the General Assembly.

The four students attended a lunch hosted by Edinburgh’s Lord Provost and presented the website to an audience of more than 100 people.

Iain said: “It has been a great experience to work on the website for the Church of Scotland. It’s been a lot of hard work but we are all really proud of the final product and attending the lunch gave us the opportunity to present it to the people who will be using it.

“We were speaking to the Lord Provost and he was really interested in the project and the benefits it would have, which was a huge boost for us.”

The Cumbernauld students had a busy day as they sat their HNC Computing exam in the morning before making their way to the capital.

Colleen, added: “I was looking forward to the presentation but as my exam was in the morning I needed to ensure I was prepared. Both went really well and the feedback about the website has been really positive.

“We are now just making the final changes.”