During lockdown, our students on the Volunteering Award part-time programme are certainly missing their studies, especially as there was such a flurry of activity in the weeks before face-to-face teaching ceased.
The programme focuses on developing learners’ Essential Skills with a focus on the environment and bio-diversity.
They take on a range of volunteering activities in partnership with local organisations. Their work helps to bring people together to improve their local environment, tackle local issues and create spaces which are a source of pride and recreation for people of all ages. The skills developed prepare our students for volunteering roles or employment.
Our learners, together with our fabulous staff from the Support for Learning department, got together with local organisations, Fair Deal, on the Help Yourself Grow programme and Hidden Gardens project, where they learned teamwork, communication, planning, problem solving and research, all contributing to their self-reflection and employability skills.
The programme is a great example of the importance of partnership working to ensure that learners experience a dynamic and relevant learning environment which will help them as they prepare to move on to volunteering or employment.
Our remarkable students also took great pride in learning skills such as propagation, cultivation and plant care. They’re pictured here getting very hands-on with the local plant-life.
Their hard work made a real difference and certainly helped them to make a connection with the environment. They’ve made it clear how much they are missing the practical aspects of their course and, hopefully, they may soon be able to get along to see the fruits of their labours.
