Staff reflect on future challenges

Staff, students and visitors to the College took time to reflect on the past academic year and look forward to the challenges ahead at the College Conference earlier this month.

Former director-general of the CBI and new government trade minister Sir Digby Jones, now Lord Jones of Birmingham, welcomed delegates to the conference and gave the keynote speech, on the importance of skills in a globalised economy and the role the College had in equipping people to compete.

He also took questions from the audience on a wide range of issues including energy security, recruiting doctors from overseas, A level standards and the future of day release courses.

For the rest of the event, academic and support staff, as well as students and special guests, presented papers on issues ranging from the decline of the British seaside resort to teaching in the Indian sub-continent.

Head of external research David Jenkins said: "The event is a great way to encourage staff to engage in scholarly activity and to build links with the industries we work with and our academic partners.

"We had around 150 delegates, and 30 different papers being presented, compared to 20 last year. It was a very successful day and the feedback we’ve had has been extremely positive."

Early Years lecturer Marj Jeavons organised a presentation on the two-week placement at a special school, which is offered to PGCE students at the College.

She said: "The placement has proved very successful and our students all say how much they gain a better understanding of children's learning generally by taking part, and I think the people who came to our presentation were very interested to hear about it."

Student Chris Price, who gave a presentation on how the College's FdA Business course prepared students for the business world, said he had enjoyed the experience of writing and preparing his own paper.

He said: "We discussed delivery methods, group work and what I'd gained by doing the course. We felt the course had prepared us - it worked by teaching me the theory behind the practice of business."

Librarian David Renfree spoke about the particular challenges faced by mature students using ICT and information services at the College.

He said: "Because a lot of them have been out of education for so many years, they may not have experience of using ICT for academic purposes. We plan to run a questionnaire in September and develop a strategy based on that."