ABOUT 2,000 youngsters from across Wiltshire have gathered at a skills festival to learn about what options they have for their futures.

The annual Wiltshire Skills Festival, now in its third year, attracted Year 10 students from 17 of the county’s schools to the two-day event at Wiltshire College’s Lackham campus.

Over 30 organisations, including colleges and businesses, were on hand to offer careers advice.

Maggie Dalton, event organiser from Connexions, said: “We get the schools to come in and sample what the exhibitors have to offer.

“Next year these students will be in Year 11 and they will have to make decisions about their future.

“The idea of this is to offer them some advice before they make those choices.”

Students who took part in the event were asked to produce a video entry in a Big Brother-style booth to record what options they are considering and to say what they thought of the festival.

Bobby Jeffries, 19, from Connexions, helped the youngsters to produce the short videos.

He said: “The main idea behind the video room is that the students say what they want to do when they finish school and schools can take the videos back to use in assemblies or classes.”