MIGRANT WORKERS DAY

SATURDAY 9 JUNE

1100 – 1500


The plight and treatment of migrant workers has been constantly in the news over the last couple of years. From the tragedy at Morecombe Bay to other examples of exploitation, migrant workers, whilst being officially welcomed to Britain, have in some cases been treated entirely differently to what they might have expected. An additional issue has been the need for extending the opportunity of education in a wide range of subjects and fields.

With this in mind, the Dunstable College Trade Union Studies Unit has organised a Migrant Workers Day to take place at the college on Saturday 9 June from 11.00am until 3.00pm. The main aim, of course, is to recruit migrant workers to unions in order for them to be supported in defending their collective interests. However, there will be information about available training and other courses, finding out about the role of Union Learning Representatives, and the chance to have one-to-one discussions about their individual learning needs.

In addition, the day is being supported by many local unions, such as AMICUS, GMB, UCATT, UNISON, and the TGWU. It is also being supported by the Luton Rights Centre, the Bedfordshire African Community Centre, the Polish Club in Luton, along with the South East Region TUC. The TUC Studies Unit has also produced leaflets in Polish and Arabic.

Malta Trip a big hit!

Thirty-seven students and staff from Dunstable College set off for a residential study visit to St Julian's in Malta as part of their BTEC Travel and Tourism course. The trip was organised by course tutors and involved a variety of different activities and excursions. First on the itinerary was a day trip to the capital city, Valletta. In order to experience true Maltese life students travelled by local buses appropriately named the 'boneshakers'. Leaving the bus station behind, students and staff headed for Freedom Square where they were able to explore the city for a few hours.

The next day students enjoyed some free time in the resort where the hotel was located. Some enjoyed a trip to the beach whilst others made the most of the Bay Street shops, cafes and restaurants. In the afternoon we enjoyed a short coach trip to the south coast of the island to an area famous for its rocky coastline. We took a boat trip that toured around the Blue Grotto caves and experienced the bright blue water as the sky reflected off the sandy sea bed. On the way back to the hotel we stopped at the fishing village of Marsaxlokk. Pretty multi-coloured "luzzu" fishing boats bobbed up and down in the water as we wandered the street market buying souvenirs, bags and Maltese food delicacies.



The final day was spent in the resort of St Julian's where students enjoyed free time to make the most of the glorious sunshine. This was a great opportunity for students to complete the task of a 'Wish You Were Here' style film.

Course tutor Jo Turney says "Students behaved impeccably and were a credit to our College. They were immensely enthusiastic about all elements of the trip and this helped them gain a valuable insight into the tourism industry as a whole and Malta as a tourist destination. Overall, the trip was a great success and students are now looking forward to planning next year’s trip!"

Student Sammy-Jo Denham adds, “As I had never flown before I was excited and nervous. I was a bit wary of what to do in the airport, but my tutors reassured me with what I had to do. It was good to actually be checking in myself, as I had never done it before and just being told about the checking in process was a whole lot different to doing it in reality.”

Inaugural Lecturer Awards Ceremony – Thursday 19 April 2007

For the first time ever, Dunstable College has held a ceremony to publicly recognise the hard work and achievement of its lecturing staff; in particular Course Team Leaders of Highly Commended and Commended courses (that means those courses with success rates well in excess of national benchmarks). The ceremony was attended by the Mayor, Councillor Cynthia Gresham, the Governors, College Directors, lecturers and their families.

Colleges often run ceremonies for their students and Dunstable has been doing this for a number of years. However, as College Deputy-Principal, Jerry Goodwin, explained, “Dunstable College wanted an event to recognise the very positive contribution of its teaching staff towards the improving success rates within the College. The College’s overall success rate jumped a full 10% in the academic year 2005/6 and the College is on target to achieve a similar leap in its results for 2006/7.”

As well as presenting Certificates of Commendation to the appropriate lecturers for their Highly Commended and Commended courses, a number of prizes were awarded to recognise the contribution of individuals for specific achievements. Among these:

Rachel Halling was awarded the Mayor’s prize for particularly effective work with disadvantaged learners. Rachel is based at the Learning Warehouse in Leighton-Linslade where she has been in charge of the Skills to Succeed ESF (European Social Fund) project. The project is aimed at 14-16 year olds identified by their school as at risk of dropping out of education and not achieving, or at risk of entering the NEET (not in employment, education or training) group. Through her work on the project, Rachel has successfully worked with these difficult to reach learners and through her dedication and persistence she is achieving great results. There are students on the course who, at the beginning, were very resistant to walking into an educational establishment, but are now attending additional classes on a voluntary basis. Since September Rachel has been relentless in accessing courses and networking with different organisations to help produce a set of individual programmes which allow clear progression and Rachel’s personal dedication and encouragement have been identified as key success factors. This progression can be demonstrated as some of Rachel’s young people have now been accepted on to full-time vocational courses at the College beginning in September.

Sue Cox and Martin Rawles shared the Principal’s prize for particular achievement in promoting the College externally. Sue was recognised for the way in which she promotes the College so positively to local schools via the hugely successful 14-16 year olds’ Increased Flexibility Programme, for which she is the Co-ordinator, and Martin, who is the Course Team Leader for the Public Services courses, won his prize for securing excellent press coverage for his work and for helping his students win a wide range of awards.

Beauty and Hairdressing students raise money for local charities

A Charity Beauty Day, run by Level 2 Beauty Consultancy students, on Saturday 28 April at Dunstable College raised £120, to be divided equally between Keech Cottage and the Pasque Hospice. Students offered members of the public a choice of beauty treatments, ranging in price from £3 to £5. A further £33 was raised by hairdressing students on their charity day on Monday 23 April, which will also be split between the two charities.

Motor vehicle students go back in time!

Daniel Goodenough, aged 17, is studying the Motor Vehicle City & Guilds 3901 Certificate in Basic Motor Vehicle Maintenance. He was one of a party of students and tutors who headed for Stondon Motor Museum, Bedfordshire and he shares the best aspects of the trip.
“I really enjoyed the trip and found it very interesting to see the differences in vehicles through all the different years of motoring history.
The most interesting thing was the different shapes of the early cars and then seeing how the shapes became more aerodynamic as times progressed. It was also fascinating to see how the old types of engine were very large but not very powerful and how different engines have been mounted in different areas of the vehicles.
On one car the engine was mounted on the front left wheel and the car was driven from there.”

Celebrating diversity in Neasden

The National Diploma in Care year 1 students went to Neasden Hindu Temple as part of their studies in equality and diversity. The group has been researching and discussing different cultures, religions and ways of life.
Tutor Helen Rose Wilson explains: “The Baps Shri Swaminarayan Mandir was the first Hindu temple in Europe and is the biggest outside India. It has been constructed using limestone from Bulgaria, marble form Italy and carved by over 1,500 men shipped in from India to complete the work. There is no steel at all within its structure and much of the inside is wood and marble; it took three years to complete. The place is absolutely breathtaking both inside and out, and well worth a visit.
We learnt about the history of Hinduism and how its ancient thinking has shaped the way we live today. Many years ago the Hindus were well advanced in specific mathematics and time measurements, around which ours are formed, as well as the sciences including physics, astronomy and medical surgery. We gained insight into three of their main beliefs 'caring for animals', 'caring for humanity' and 'caring for nature'.
The group was also able to attend a religious ceremony 'festival of lights'; it was a real insight as well as a calming and uplifting experience.
To complete the day we travelled to a local Indian community looking at clothing and footwear, ornate jewellery and of course tried some of the local cuisine.
A totally enjoyable day was had by all.”

Northfields pupils visit the College

Pupils from Northfields Technology College have visited Dunstable College to undertake a session in building and maintaining PCs. The visitors worked in small groups with assistance from some of the College’s Level 3 PC Maintenance students. Northfields Teacher Darren Travi comments, “The opportunity of visiting Dunstable College’s IT department has given pupils the chance to engage in practical work in the areas of PC maintenance and networking, to complement studies being undertaken as part of the GCSE course at school. This continues the partnership formed between the IT departments of Dunstable College and Northfields Technology College started two years ago.”

College tutor Derek Condon adds, “The Level 3 PC Maintenance students have had an opportunity to help in these sessions to make up part of their final assessment for their courses. We see this as a way forward and an example of how two institutions can work together for the joint benefit of all their students.”

Christmas Fayre!

Pathways staff and students held their annual Christmas Fayre on Wednesday 6 December in the Main College Hall. The stalls featured a wide variety of Christmas gifts including: Raffle, Tombola, Books, Gifts, Refreshments and cakes, Games, Hand and arm massage, Nails…file and polish, Floristry, Pet gifts and Woodwork. The Fayre was well-attended and visitors were impressed with the quality of the products available.

Top local Sports Coaches join Teaching Team!

Dunstable College’s Sports Department is delighted to welcome two top local coaches to the teaching team based at the Kingsland Skills and Enterprise Centre.
Dru Spinks, who plays basketball for the MK Lions and Anthony Verster, who works in rugby as the Dunstablians Youth Development Officer and Coach, are both coaching students from the National Diploma and National Certificate (Football Development Programme) in Sport on the Practical Sports Study Unit.
Course Team Leader Glenis Driscoll explains the rationale behind the appointments, “Once the students have acquired the skills from this unit, they will use them when they go out to local middle schools as part of their work experience programme. For many of our students, their ultimate goal is to work in schools as PE teachers.
“We are so thrilled to have Dru and Anthony on board, their contributions are an inspiration to the students.”
Dru adds, “Basketball’s my profession and by working with Dunstable College, it lets me give something back to the community.”
Anthony comments, “It’s all about trying to get as much development in sport in the Dunstable area as possible and this is a good opportunity to move into the College and try and scout for future talent.”
It’s not just the students who are benefiting from the new arrangements. Dru Spinks has been enjoying his coaching role so much, that he has enrolled on a teacher training course at the College and may take up the profession full-time at a later date.

University Information Day

The University of Cambridge was just one of many universities from the Eastern Region and the London area that were strongly represented at Dunstable College’s first University Information Day, which was held on Thursday 23 November in the main hall on the College’s Kingway site.

‘The purpose of the day was to help our learners make informed choices by bringing representatives of a number of universities together in one place. In addition, I wanted to particularly encourage our students, who do not come from families that traditionally go into higher education, to think about higher education, perhaps for the first time’, noted Maureen Asher, the College’s Careers Advisor, who along with Ruth Slack, the College’s Marketing Manager, was the main organiser of the information day.

The event lasted all day and was mostly targeted at College students who are currently studying for level 3 qualifications, such as A levels, BTEC National Diplomas and Access courses for older learners. A series of 30 minute talks on such topics as ‘Student Finance’, ‘Money Management’ and ‘Entry to Social Work’ were also scheduled and well attended throughout the day.

‘I went around at lunchtime and spoke to all the institutions represented and they were all extremely positive, both about the event itself, but particularly about the maturity and general attitude shown by the Dunstable College students as they made their way around the different stands’, observed Jerry Goodwin, the College’s Deputy Principal.‘Furthermore, you could tell the event was a great success from the request I received from Lal Joshi of the University of Bedfordshire, who asked us to repeat the event again next year, but on a slightly larger scale to include parties of students from the local schools’.

Waterfall Shoot

Early on a Sunday morning in November, a party of staff and students went on a trip to photograph, Pistyll Rhaeadr Waterfall in North Wales. One of the Seven Wonders of Wales, the fall tumbles 73 metres into the Tanat Valley below. The group enjoyed the experience so much that a return trip is planned for February 2007. The photograph above was taken by Tom Bliss, Foundation Degree in Creative and Editorial Photography.

Meeting the Marines

Ten lucky boys from the Public Services course were selected to attend a ‘Meet The Marines’ day in Milton Keynes.

They started the day with a briefing session, before boarding a minibus out into the woods. They were given an introduction to field cookery, shelter making and a game of paintball, in which the marines were the target for everyone!

After lunch, they were transported back to the lake, kicking off the afternoon with some scrambling through underground tunnels in the dark. A trip around the lake on power boats really managed to get the adrenalin pumping. To finish off the afternoon, they climbed a 50ft tower and then jumped off!

Tutor Haydon Littlewood, who accompanied the boys, comments, “The day was a great success and I feel there will be some Dunstable College marines in the future.”