IGNITE programme graduates with Joan McBurney, Cinemagic;  Michelle Hatfield, Belfast City Airport and Pete Snodden, Cinemagic Ambassador. 

Belfast City Airport teamed up with local radio personality and Cinemagic ambassador, Pete Snodden, to celebrate the graduation of eighteen students from the airport’s annual IGNITE programme.
 
IGNITE, first launched in 2019 by Belfast City Airport in partnership with Cinemagic, is a youth leadership initiative aimed at providing 100 young people with life changing opportunities over a five-year period.
 
41 participants from secondary schools and higher education colleges across Greater Belfast have now completed the programme, not only developing valuable employability and life skills, but also gaining an NLP Diploma in Personal and Career Development.

Despite the challenges of the past year, where the programme was delivered virtually in line with government guidance and with an extra focus on building mental-resilience.  
Adapting to an online format meant participants on year two of the IGNITE programme could hear from an array of VIPs from right across the world, including Senior Vice President of HBO and Game of Thrones producer, Jay Rowe, TV and radio presenter Dermot O’Leary, and Olympic swimmer and Commonwealth champion, Chris Cooke.
 
Alongside eighteen individual diplomas to students from Aquinas Grammar School, Belfast Met, Campbell College, Christian Brother’s Grammar School, Dominican College, St. Louise’s, Strathearn School, and Wellington College, Belfast City Airport presented special merit awards to Shayna Velasquez, Jack Walker, Joseph Hinchcliffe, and Saya Caddy for outstanding contribution and dedication throughout the programme.
 
All graduates were also gifted £600 of flight vouchers from Belfast City Airport as a consolation for the educational trip to Los Angeles, planned to culminate the programme, being cancelled due to ongoing travel restrictions.
 
To find out more information about the IGNITE Youth Leadership programme, please visit: www.belfastcityairport.com/ignite-leadership-programme