FE Open Day for land-based staff
LEAD ORGANISATION
ADDITIONAL ORGANISATIONS INVOLVED
Abingdon & Witney College, BCA, Guildford College
PROJECT SUMMARY
In June 2009, 13 staff from local FE colleges with land-based interests attended a bespoke 'Open Day' at the University of Reading, funded by Progress South Central and organised by the University of Reading's School of Agriculture, Policy and Development. Most of the staff who attended were lecturers in either Animal Management or Horticulture. The day formed part of the package of work in the land-based sector carried out by the School of Agriculture, Policy and Development in 2008-09 on behalf of Progress South Central. The purpose of the day was to build and extend links between the University of Reading and local partner FE colleges.
The day included a tour of the University of Reading's campus, which included a tour of the new Hopkins Building with its state-of-the-art laboratory that can accommodate well over 100 students, a visit to the Harris Garden and the Cole Museum of Zoology, and a presentation from Dr Chris Reynolds of the Animal Science Research Group. Then followed an outing to the University's Centre for Dairy Research (CEDAR) at Shinfield, where delegates heard a talk from Richard Casebow of the Crop Research Unit at Sonning Farm and then enjoyed a tour of CEDAR, where they were told about current research being done with cows and milk yields and were taken to the sheds to 'meet' the cows, before seeing them being milked using high-tech milking machinery. The day ended with a visit to the University's Museum of English Rural Life, where delegates took part in a typical activity used with students and school groups, identifying the purpose of various unfamiliar objects from the museum's archives.
IMPACT
Feedback from the staff was positive. The tour of Reading's facilities was most often highlighted as the most interesting part of the day with the tour of CEDAR also being highlighted; staff reported enjoying seeing the milking and learning about how the 'research cows' were selected. Suggestions for improvement mainly centred around feeling a bit rushed and wanting more time - but a balance had had to be struck here with fitting a range of interesting elements into the day. One delegate did comment "This was an ideal first event. In future it would be nice to spend more time looking at the research projects in more detail."
Selected feedback from delegates:
"[The university] staff were very friendly and made us feel very welcome."
"Overall very enjoyable and very interesting."
"I really enjoyed the day. It was all really interesting. Very worthwhile."
Certificates of attendance were issued that enabled the staff to 'count' the day towards their CPD entitlement.