Student Engagement Workshops 23
Please find below details on all the workshops running at the conference.
You will need to pick which workshops you wish to attend as part of your booking so please make a note of your choices from this selection.
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Lessons from COVID - Digital Enrichment
How can we build on the digital transformation of colleges since COVID? Is there a "new normal" for enrichment activities or have you gone back to historic ways?
What would outstanding digital enrichment look like if you could design it and how would it work for all types of learners?
Tony Payne, Senior Sales Manager, from native will lead a discussion about this topic and share some examples from their pilot project run earlier this year.
This session will run at 1.30pm
Student opportunties through BRIT Regional Steering Groups and the annual BRIT Challenge
Explaining how BRIT can provide volunteer opportunities for students to represent their college on their BRIT Regional Steering Groups; discussing how, together, we can engage more students of all abilities to participate in the annual BRIT Challenge and destigmatise mental health.
Phil Packer, Founder and Non-Paid Chief Executive of BRIT will lead this session.
This session will run at 12noon
Our Student Engagement Journey - Becoming a 'Very Good' Students' Union
Over the last 4 years we have transformed our approach to Student Engagement and Student Voice. Developing a unique brand, working to improve income and most importantly developing a student voice model that really does put students at the heart of what we do at the Bournemouth and Poole College.
We have been on a journey to ensure that our Student Engagement Team and BPCSU are the very best they can be. We will share with you this journey and the steps and milestones we took to ensure that students really do have a voice and that the embedding of fun activities and accessibility of support is at the heart of what we do.
This workshop will be a practical sharing of our ideas and how we became the first FE Students' Union to receive a 'Very Good' rating from NUS and their Quality Students' Union mark.
Lloyd Perry, Head of Student Inclusion and Support at The Bournemouth & Poole College will lead this session.
This session will run at 12noon.
Find out more about Bournemouth & Poole's Students' Union here.
The Youth View
AoC Sport have created The FE Youth Collective, a collective of thoughts and experiences of young people living through FE today.
In this session we will share how we have taken a values approach to engagement to create an inclusive and open space for listening first. Hear the stories from individuals involved, and what it feels like to be a young person.
This is a new venture for us in our youth engagement and youth voice work, we'll share the lessons learnt so far and the key themes found when speaking to other organisations around their approaches.
Sarah Nickless, Partnerships and Programmes Development Officer for the Association of Colleges Sport will lead this session.
This session will run at 11am and 2.30pm
Enrichment and Clubs & Societies at Derby College
At Derby College we have over 20 Clubs / Societies with over 400 students actively participating. On top of this we also have active Student Councils at each campus that run activities, trips and fundraising events. We will explore how Derby College and the Students' Union put this all together over the past 3 years and how you could replicate this at your institution.
Mark Rugman, Union Development Manager (Students' Union) at Derby College & Derby College Students' Union will lead this session.
This session will run at 11am
Leading Through Sport
Introducing the AoC Sport Leadership Academy, our mechanism which uses sport as the vehicle to enable students to deliver, advocate, influence, market and lead amongst their peers.
During this session we will share how this project came to life, and how it looks across the differing college landscape. The different roles students are playing in engaging their peers to become more physically active, and the methods in place to support their individual learning and development.
Sarah Nickless, Partnerships and Programmes Development Officer at AoC Sport will be leading this session.
This session will run at 12noon
Additional Aids to help Care for the Future
Additional Aids to help Care for the Future.
Robert Powell, Managing Director at IPS will lead this session.
This session will run at 1.30pm
Good Practice in Social Action
The purpose of the Pears #iWill Youth Social Action Apprenticeship programme is to raise awareness of social action and empower students to take action and address local issues. The project has had amazing outcomes and we’d like to share the benefits and practical examples of the impact that social action can have on colleges, students, and their local communities.
The session is designed to support colleges in their social action journey. The apprentices will present their learnings from year one of the programme. Specifically giving top tips on student engagement, student voice, identifying community needs and much more. Case studies will be discussed to give you advice on developing projects and good practice examples will be shared.
Dean Hardman, Director of Sport and Student Experience at AoC Sport will lead this session.
This session will run at 1.30pm
Find out more about the Youth Social Action Apprenticeship programme here
Enhancing Student Voice - Nurturing and developing the skills of our student leaders
The session will explore the Chichester College Group’s student voice journey and evolution, focusing on the practical steps the college has taken to develop the skills of our student leaders, and how this positively impacts on a vibrant and inclusive student voice model that contributes to shaping our college for today and in the future.
Nick Mercado, Group Head of Student Services at Chichester College Group will lead this session.
This session will run at 12noon and 1.30pm
The AoC Creative Writing Project - Student Engagement through Creativity
In 2021, AoC ran a pilot National Writing Project and 17 colleges from across the country took part with over 300 students submitting their creative writing pieces. These were published on the LoveOurColleges website and showcased the wonderful talent of our young people, many of whom had never had the opportunity to engage in creative writing before.
AoC are committed to being able to support more opportunities like this which can only be done through the support of partner organisations. This workshop will review the project and provide an opportunity to discuss best practice in encouraging Student Engagement through creativity.
Dean Hardman, Director of Sport and Student Experience at AoC Sport will lead this session.
This session will run at 2.30pm
Using enrichment targets (and big data...) to raise student engagement and participation
This workshop will introduce how a number of colleges are running their enrichment programmes through learner targets. We will share data that demonstrates how these models have significantly increased student engagement, reflection and participation in enrichment programmes.
You will hear from college leaders who have implemented target-led enrichment provision, all of whom will share the lessons they've learnt and their future plans to further increase engagement.
During this session we will be drawing on good practice from the Navigate user community to share:
1. How colleges use assessment data to inform enrichment planning and measure the impact on learners' skills
2. How colleges organise cohort-level target setting (including lots of real-life examples)
3. How colleges use internal awards and certificates to build engagement
4. How colleges utilise data from Navigate for quality improvement, funding and inspection
Chris Rowe, Managing Director of Navigate will lead this session.
This session will run at 11am and 2.30pm
Engaging the Disengaged
As you all know, youth work is about as far from a 'one size fits all' industry as you could imagine. The common theme across all of our work is the goal to inspire young people to be the protagonists of their own lives and raise their ambitions to a level that matches their potential.
Some of the young people we interact with have had this message constantly reinforced throughout their lives by the people and the institutions they have interacted with. Some have not. We pride ourselves in our ability to connect with and inspire young people who may find themselves disengaged and disenfranchised.
Across the sector, we all achieve this in a variety of amazing ways. This workshop breaks down our unorthodox approach to building workshops and youth programmes; and the tactics that we use to keep the interest and attention of those that we have traditionally struggled with.
1. Establish the Why
2. Gamification
3. It's Not That Deep
4. Infectious Energy
5. Personal Storytelling
Calvin Akotuah, Brand Director, and Oba Akinwale, Commercial Director at Loud Speaker will host this session.
This session will run at 11am.
Embedding the Duke of Edinburgh's Award (DofE) into your Enrichment Offer
This workshop explores how this World leading youth achievement award can bring value to your current enrichment offer and support learners in enhancing their employability through development of teamwork, leadership, problem solving, communication and resilience. We'll be looking specifically at providing DofE in a College and responding to the specific barriers to participation for post 16 learners.
This session will introduce a range of case studies and examples of successful DofE delivery in Colleges. We look forward to inviting both non-delivering colleges keen to start their DofE journey and those already delivering DofE but keen to explore how they can offer the opportunity to more young people.
Claire Shea-Simonds, Further Education UK Development Manager for the DofE will host this session.
This session will run at 2.30pm
Click here to find out more about the Duke of Edinburgh Awards.