I left home on Friday morning to catch the 06.15 train to reach Keele University where Lindsay Frankland had organised a S/NVQ day for new students. Despite each leg of the journey on the way up encountering delays I still arrived in good time, having met up with Michael Hopkins from HQ on Euston Concourse.
It was great to open the day and to (hopefully) encourage the students with their studies and their on-going career and involvement with the Institute. There were 32 students and reps from NVQ centres present, they worked their way through practical exercises involving nails and a block of wood to underpin the point of “competences” and although light-hearted the message was well delivered. This exercise was run by Judith Johnson an external verifier for the NVQ’s for whom I have to thank for the photographs (as I forgot my camera). Actually it was Lindsay that was snapping away, although he was seen to raise a blush when instructed by one of the attendees on near completion of the balancing task - “not to flash”!
I thoroughly enjoyed talking to the students as I was able to pass on a few remembrances from my own student days. Although there were no competence based qualifications back then (it was exam or nothing), I am so pleased that we now offer a much greater range of study method to reach our technician membership criteria.
Michael and I left at lunchtime as we were booked on early afternoon trains and after a bit of confusion at the ticket office managed to get Michael’s ticket amended to allow us to travel on the same train to continue earlier discussions about the progress on the new syllabus for the certificate examination and the full professional qualification. More on this will follow over the next few months as the Law Research and Education committee as well as the working groups firm up the proposals and syllabus.
Last night I managed to meet up with some girl friends for dinner, there were four of us and it was amusing to note that at one time or another all four of us have been members of the Institute! One of my dinner friends, Sarah Sears has recently taken over the expert content updating role for Euclidian and she was telling us about odd hours of the day and night that she was doing the updates.
Today saw me having a rare Saturday all to myself, besides the obligatory housework that had to be finished, I managed a trip to the garden centre (all the Christmas lights and trees were there already!) and a nice long walk with the dog, I think the dog was impressed anyway as I don’t often get many chances to walk her at weekends these days. I am currently indulging in “Strictly” for the first time this season, the Viennese Waltz is one of my favourite dances and the girls frocks are beautiful.
Ah well that’s about all for now, the honeymoon is almost over, as November shows the diary really to be filling up, so updates may become much more frequent.
A quick update on Gary Watson, who as most of you will know, fell ill just before annual conference. He is at home recuperating and we hope to have him back with us soon, I am sure that you as well as all of us, continue to wish him godspeed in his recovery and look forward to his return to HQ.
It was great to open the day and to (hopefully) encourage the students with their studies and their on-going career and involvement with the Institute. There were 32 students and reps from NVQ centres present, they worked their way through practical exercises involving nails and a block of wood to underpin the point of “competences” and although light-hearted the message was well delivered. This exercise was run by Judith Johnson an external verifier for the NVQ’s for whom I have to thank for the photographs (as I forgot my camera). Actually it was Lindsay that was snapping away, although he was seen to raise a blush when instructed by one of the attendees on near completion of the balancing task - “not to flash”!
I thoroughly enjoyed talking to the students as I was able to pass on a few remembrances from my own student days. Although there were no competence based qualifications back then (it was exam or nothing), I am so pleased that we now offer a much greater range of study method to reach our technician membership criteria.
Michael and I left at lunchtime as we were booked on early afternoon trains and after a bit of confusion at the ticket office managed to get Michael’s ticket amended to allow us to travel on the same train to continue earlier discussions about the progress on the new syllabus for the certificate examination and the full professional qualification. More on this will follow over the next few months as the Law Research and Education committee as well as the working groups firm up the proposals and syllabus.
Last night I managed to meet up with some girl friends for dinner, there were four of us and it was amusing to note that at one time or another all four of us have been members of the Institute! One of my dinner friends, Sarah Sears has recently taken over the expert content updating role for Euclidian and she was telling us about odd hours of the day and night that she was doing the updates.
Today saw me having a rare Saturday all to myself, besides the obligatory housework that had to be finished, I managed a trip to the garden centre (all the Christmas lights and trees were there already!) and a nice long walk with the dog, I think the dog was impressed anyway as I don’t often get many chances to walk her at weekends these days. I am currently indulging in “Strictly” for the first time this season, the Viennese Waltz is one of my favourite dances and the girls frocks are beautiful.
Ah well that’s about all for now, the honeymoon is almost over, as November shows the diary really to be filling up, so updates may become much more frequent.
A quick update on Gary Watson, who as most of you will know, fell ill just before annual conference. He is at home recuperating and we hope to have him back with us soon, I am sure that you as well as all of us, continue to wish him godspeed in his recovery and look forward to his return to HQ.
