Marion Webb, September 2011

I had three main priorities for this visit. The first was to discover more about the variety of mentoring schemes in place at UNC Charlotte to support students once they were enrolled on UNCC courses. I wanted to bring this knowledge back with a view to introducing mentoring schemes for a large number of first year students as part of Kingston’s Access agreement.

Learning points from Charlotte’s mentoring schemes are:

• A Mentoring Committee brings together representatives from all schemes. This would be helpful at Kingston to ensure that inappropriate overlaps are avoided.

• Mentoring schemes need administrative support

• Student clubs and societies are a useful source of recruitment for mentors

• Mentors at Charlotte all receive three days’ training. This training involves topics such as “How to interact with a lecturer”, managing conflict and facilitation skills. It is also recommended that one day of the training should focus on employability skills.

• The Careers Service employs a number of “Peer Career Assistants”.

These assist at careers events, check students’ CVs, manage the Careers social media sites and make presentations to students.

• The Careers Service uses employers and alumni to act as mentors

• Many mentorship schemes contain an observation component.

Mentors are given feedback on their rapport with their mentees, ways in which they provide feedback to students and ways in which they check understanding. It would be helpful for

Kingston’s mentoring scheme to ensure that an observation protocol was established.

I was also interested in the Learning Communities which have been in operation at Charlotte for ten years. These are small groups of students and staff who work closely together with the aim of promoting a sense of belonging and thereby aiming to improve the students’ chances of academic success. Some of these exist within disciplines such as Psychology and Business (and the recently completed evaluation suggests that these subject based communities are the most successful in terms of retention and results) but others focus on themes or groups, such as first generation students. I observed a BEST (Building Educational Strengths and Talents) session for first generation HE students. This was led by a PhD student from UNC Chapel Hill who used a range of drama exercises to encourage these first year students to act out issues around stereotyping. The students participated with enormous enthusiasm (I participated too but slightly less enthusiastically). One of the principles around learning communities is that they should involve experiential learning techniques, such as problem-based learning and they incorporate extra-curricular (“co-curricular”) activities, such as going on “retreats” or volunteering.

Following my work with the Outduction project (http://www. outduction.ac.uk/) I have a particular interest in working with student interns. At UNC Charlotte a variety of internships exist. Some of these are under the banner of “49erships” which are non credit bearing

where students work a minimum of 80 hours a semester in a career related position (placement) to gain professional experience.

Other internships are credit-bearing and the students are assessed by assignments based on their placements, which could take place over the summer outside of teaching time. The Careers Service at UNC Charlotte stresses the importance of “Occupational Literacy”

which is a combination of understanding careers and the demands of various jobs with self-awareness. Interestingly, the Careers Service listed the skills that US employers value as Verbal Communication, Strong Work Ethic, Teamwork, Analytical Skills, Initiative. These are

similar to our KEYS but I did sense that there was less obligation on staff to incorporate these skills into the curriculum.

My conclusions are that many of the ideas from UNC Charlotte could be adapted for the Kingston context. We already make use of student mentors but need to increase recruitment considerably. We could certainly increase our use of student interns and students

generally employed on campus. The Learning Communities model already exists within the APPL groups in Nursing and it would be exciting to see this spread perhaps though personal tutor schemes.

successful in terms of retention and results) but others focus on themes or groups, such as first generation students. I observed a BEST (Building Educational Strengths and Talents) session for first generation HE students. This was led by a PhD student from UNC Chapel Hill who used a range of drama exercises to encourage these first year students to act out issues around stereotyping. The students participated with enormous enthusiasm (I participated too but slightly less enthusiastically). One of the principles around learning communities is that they should involve experiential learning techniques, such as problem-based learning and they incorporate extra-curricular (“co-curricular”) activities, such as going on “retreats” or volunteering.

Following my work with the Outduction project (http://www.outduction.ac.uk/) I have a particular interest in working with student interns. At UNC Charlotte a variety of internships exist. Some of these are under the banner of “49erships” which are non credit bearing

where students work a minimum of 80 hours a semester in a career related position (placement) to gain professional experience.

Other internships are credit-bearing and the students are assessed by assignments based on their placements, which could take place over the summer outside of teaching time. The Careers Service at UNC Charlotte stresses the importance of “Occupational Literacy”

which is a combination of understanding careers and the demands of various jobs with self-awareness. Interestingly, the Careers Service listed the skills that US employers value as Verbal Communication, Strong Work Ethic, Teamwork, Analytical Skills, Initiative. These are

similar to our KEYS but I did sense that there was less obligation on staff to incorporate these skills into the curriculum.

My conclusions are that many of the ideas from UNC Charlotte could be adapted for the Kingston context. We already make use of student mentors but need to increase recruitment considerably. We could certainly increase our use of student interns and students generally employed on campus. The Learning Communities model already exists within the APPL groups in Nursing and it would be exciting to see this spread perhaps though personal tutor schemes.

FASS’s English Language Development Unit has completed a successful contract for the Korean Chungcheongbuk-do Office of Education.
In January, 15 Korean teachers of English came to the University with a supervisor from the Office of Education to immerse themselves in a four-week English language programme that included modules on teaching methodology and British life and culture.

The teachers stayed with local host families, and we organised visits to local schools to observe language lessons.  The feedback has been very positive, and Enterprise Support is in discussion about signing up to a longer term deal that would see a similar programme run in the future (although possibly in the summer as the teachers complained that it was very cold and dark!).
Course Director Kathryn Richardson said: “This is the first time the Chungcheongbuk-do Offi ce of Education has come to the UK, and we are honoured to be chosen as their destination university. We hope to welcome more of their teachers here in future years.”
Last year, the English Language Development Unit provided a similar course for a group of Chinese Engineers from Tianjin University as part of a larger contract they had with the Faculty of Engineering.
If your department offers continuing professional development to overseas cohorts and could benefit from combining with a short course in professional English Language development – for engineers, lawyers or teachers, for example – please get in touch.
Similarly, we would like to hear from academics with links to overseas universities and professional organisations that might be interested in this service.
Contact Catherine Sheppard, Business Development Manager on
ext. 67431 or c.sheppard@kingston.ac.uk
Georgina Cox, Enterprise Support

The first cohort of students taking part in the Student Associates Scheme have now completed their placements for this academic year.

The Student Associates Scheme is a national project funded by the Training and Development Agency for Schools (TDA) and has been set up to help students who are considering teaching as a career and who would like to make a difference in a school and get the “feel” of teaching while they’re still at university.

For this academic year 2008/09, a total of 69 students were placed in 26 schools across the London region. Students who took part in the scheme were mainly Kingston University students, but we also had students from Thames Valley University, University of London, Cardiff University, Leeds University and Oxford University.

Initial evaluation of the scheme is extremely encouraging, with 100% of all students who have taken part stating that as a result of their participation in the scheme their attitude to teaching as a career has either stayed the same (26%) or become more positive (74%).

Here are some quotes from this year’s Student Associates:

‘I have enjoyed the placement and have used many skills I have and have learnt and developed many more. I now intend to follow either the GTP or PGCE route into teaching.’

‘I think it was a great experience and I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in teaching.’

 ‘I feel the scheme is well organised and I would recommend anyone to have this experience.’

 ‘I found this experience to be a real eye opening experience to the possibilities of being a teacher and my capabilities to become one. It was really good to observe different methods of teaching and to interact with the students.’

 ‘Overall, it was a great opportunity for me as I had never worked in a school before and I needed the experience. The school I was allocated to was perfect, so thank you.’

 The schools, who took part in the scheme, also valued the experience and many are very keen to take part in the scheme again next year.

‘I thoroughly applaud the Student Associates Scheme. It is an excellent idea giving HE students the experience of teaching before they commit to a PGCE or GTP course after their degree.’

‘She has been a fantastic asset to the department in just three weeks.’

‘He takes on board all information given, contributes well in class and has good ideas; we have been very impressed with his attitude and enthusiasm from day one!’

An excellent student – showed lots of initiative, enthusiasm and has developed positive and supportive relationships with students of all abilities. Would offer her a placement here if she does decide to pursue teaching as a career’

‘I would like to add that she is an exceptional young lady with outstanding qualities who clearly has a great future ahead of her. She has been a spectacular asset to the kids’

‘We have found having him in the school a very positive experience; he has been an excellent ambassador for the Student Associates Scheme.’

We will be recruiting again for the scheme for 2009/10 in September.

Kelly Barnett
Student Associates Scheme Project Manager

The conference was held within the opulent grounds of Worcester College, Oxford and included keynotes, presentations and workshops covering a range of areas of direct relevance to ongoing work at Kingston to improve the student experience and employability of non traditional entrants. This is particularly pertinent in view of our Widening Participation Strategic Assessment, recently submitted to HEFCE, which, through setting targets, gives further impetus to our work with local schools, colleges and employers to address the needs and expectations of a diverse student cohort throughout their time at Kingston and beyond.

 Kingston was well represented. Jane Gay, Nigel Atkins and Steve May presented “Meeting the employability agenda through an alternative 3^rd year module: ‘maths in the classroom’” which explored the development of an alternative 3^rd year module, that aims, by giving an opportunity for students to gain firsthand experience of teaching through a mentoring scheme with mathematics teachers in local schools, to provide them with insights into the work of a teacher. The findings clearly indicate that both specific and generic employability skills can be embedded in the curriculum. Penelope Bidgood and Nasrollah Saebi presented “A statistical analysis of factors affecting success in NVQs” which showed that, in addition to student centred factors such as gender and ethnicity, there are considerable differences in the success rate and popularity of different subjects. Both were well received by UK and international colleagues.

 The keynote speakers explored some of the underlying issues including “Refocusing politics in education and work” and “Globalisation, corporate strategies and the future of national skill formation”. Other presentations of particular interest included “increasing participation in apprenticeships: What works and why?”, “Pathways to vocational education and training? Engaging adult learners and assessing learner outcomes”, and “Managing learner expectations of e-assessment in vocational education and training”.

Jane Gay and Steve May
Academic Development