Edinburgh College construction training awards celebrate student achievement
Edinburgh College’s construction department raised the roof as students who have proved they are built of the right stuff were celebrated at the college’s annual training awards. Continue reading College construction students raise the roof!
Dan and Jordan showcase their skills in national competition
Two Edinburgh College apprentices are ready to stencil, chisel and carve their way to success at a national skills competition this week, representing the city against UK rivals. Continue reading City pair aim to give opposition the brush-off!
Edinburgh College January courses open for application
Edinburgh College is inviting anyone who wants to fast track their futures towards great careers and further studies to start a new course in January. Applications are now open for a range of full-time, part-time, evening and open learning courses starting in the new year at the college. Continue reading New year, new career?
Edinburgh vet nursing students moving to top new facilities at Scotland’s Rural College
Edinburgh College’s Veterinary Nursing courses are transferring to new custom-built facilities at Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC), giving students an improved learning experience to get the best possible start to their careers. Students and staff will get access to excellent new facilities and resources, including working more with live animals to boost their skills and knowledge.
From August 2016, SRUC will run the two full-time courses at its Oatridge Campus in West Lothian, in a building newly converted into a specialist veterinary nursing facility.
At SRUC Oatridge, the students will get to work regularly with live animals. Currently, students only get to work with animals when they go on placements outside the college, and use simulations of animals on the campus.
SRUC will take on up to 170 students on the two-and-a-half year Level 3 Diploma Veterinary Nursing and the one-year Level 2 Diploma Veterinary Care Assistant. Veterinary Nursing students transferring partway through their course will continue their studies as normal.
It is proposed that all nine Edinburgh College staff members on the programmes – including lecturers and support staff – will transfer to SRUC Oatridge.
Arrangements are being made to make the transition for staff and students as smooth as possible, including transport laid on for students and compensation for staff travel costs.
To ensure staff, students and partners are closely involved in the process and the new facilities meet their needs, Edinburgh College is carrying out a consultation with them.
Edinburgh College’s vice principal for curriculum and quality, Ray McCowan, said: “Our veterinary courses at Edinburgh College are really successful, with excellent completion and employment rates, and they’re oversubscribed. But with our partners at SRUC we identified an opportunity to give students an even better learning experience than they receive at the moment.
“Working with live animals more regularly in great facilities at the college itself will give them greater insight and practical skills, which will make sure the veterinary industry is supported to deliver what it needs to our communities.
“We appreciate that this is a change but we’re doing everything we can to make it as seamless as possible, and we believe the significant improvement in training makes the switch a really positive move.”
SRUC acting chief executive Janet Swadling said: “Bringing together the veterinary nursing provision from Edinburgh College and SRUC is a key part of the Scottish Strategy for Land-based Education, which aims to encourage greater engagement with industry to ensure employment needs are met. The enhanced provision run by SRUC as Scotland’s specialist land-based higher and further education provider, will help meet that need.
“SRUC is delighted to be working with our partner Edinburgh College, in the transfer of students and staff, and we look forward to welcoming them for the next academic year.”
Apprenticeships point the way ahead in Lothian
Edinburgh College hosted an employer’s engagement event to advance their curriculum strategy around vocational and work based learning last week. Employers, partners, local councils and apprentices joined college leadership to put their heads together and share best practice. Continue reading Edinburgh College develops young workforce
Edinburgh College gives Black Dog a home to help raise mental health awareness Continue reading A home for Angus: College supports mental health campaign
Edinburgh College students produce logo for Gorebridge Beacon
One of Scotland’s newest and most striking buildings has taken the latest step from drawing board to a reality with the help of two young trainee graphic designers from Edinburgh College.
The Gorebridge Community Development Trust, a volunteer-led charity that supports local economic and social regeneration, is creating a new £2.2m centre (above) and enlisted students Rhys McGeary and Liam Henderson to create its new brand identity.
The designers took the name suggested through a competition, the Gorebridge Beacon, and worked it up into a new logo that symbolises the point of the new centre, which opens next year (below). The new centre will provide affordable, subsidised business space for rental with meeting rooms, flexible conferencing and learning space, a community cafe, a Sure Start nursery and a youth space, giving the town of Gorebridge a major boost.
Stephanie Walker, co-chair of the Gorebridge Community Development Trust, said: “The Gorebridge Beacon is all about giving people a new start and making their lives better. Graphic design is a fiercely competitive career and getting started on your career can be extremely challenging. By working together, we’ve got a really professional product and the two designers have got something really solid and impressive in their portfolios which will hopefully give them a head start in establishing themselves as excellent creative designers.”
The designers, Rhys and Liam, both from Musselburgh, volunteered to help the trust through their course tutor Chris Hughes at Edinburgh College, where they are in the final year of the HND Visual Communication: Graphic Design course.
Rhys, Liam and the trust narrowed four approaches down to one final design, and this brand identity will now be used across the centre’s website, social media presence, signage and promotional material. It reflects the aspirations of the trust for the contribution the new complex will make in terms of improving lives in the community. The centre has to pay its own way in terms of attracting tenants for the centre’s office spaces and ensuring as many people as possible come in to use the centre’s cafe, performance spaces, youth rooms, nursery and meeting rooms.
Chris Hughes said: “This partnership worked really well for everyone – the development trust got access to highly skilled design professionals and our students got the chance to work on live commissions and see their work being put into place in a real world commercial setting.”
Rhys said: “The client brief was really interesting but challenging. In terms of the people the centre has to attract, because it offers so many different things – from the cafe to conference venues and offices for hire – the audiences are all ages, from school pupils, to teenagers right up to older people, from charities to professional businesses.
“The trust were also clear that they wanted something that reflected both the building, its name, and its ambitious social purpose.”
Liam said: “Getting a design right involves a lot of discussion while ensuring that the end product has purpose and meaning. It will help the client achieve their purpose such as summarising quickly the point of something to helping people get more familiar with the centre and more likely to use it.”
Stephanie Walker added: “Given all the Trust is doing, making this centre work is and continues to be a challenge for our small volunteer-led trust and that won’t get any easier when we open our doors as we will have difficult targets to reach. That’s where a good brand identity and excellent promotional work will pay off and we’ve been grateful to our supporters for their assistance, in particular Midlothian Council which has seconded Stephen Fraser to us part-time.”
“Stephen brought Edinburgh College in and we’re really grateful for their help. Rhys and Liam have listened carefully to our views and worked with board members to come up with a logo and other materials that neatly summarises our hopes for what the centre will provide for Gorebridge when it opens.”
The actual building of the £2.2m centre, known as capital development, has been funded from grants provided by the Big Lottery Fund, Social Investment Scotland and Midlothian Council, with the trust having to repay a loan once the centre is up and running, making it vital that the development is embraced by the Gorebridge community and used fully.
Cookery students help make Aldi opening event taste great
Edinburgh College Professional Cookery students gave customers at the new Aldi store in Tranent a taste of the skills they have picked up on their course at the shop’s opening day event.
The students braved the cold October weather to prepare tasters of recipes they had prepared using Aldi products. Customers were delighted to sample butternut squash soup, chocolate tarts, tandoori salmon with naan bread, and beef tagliata, and snapped up recipe cards to use at home.
The students demonstrated their preparation techniques when dishing the recipes and walked around the store to serve tasters to customers. This is the second store opening the students have attended, following the opening of the Cowdenbeath store last month, and gave them great practical experience and the chance to engage directly with customers and hear their positive feedback.
The five students are all studying SVQ Level 2 Professional Cookery at the college. Their course prepares them for working in the professional cookery industry by pairing training in food preparation and restaurant service. Students use these skills working in the college’s Granton Campus canteen and the two training restaurants, The Apprentice and eh15.
Student Kerry Robertson said: “This has been a really great opportunity to work and show off what we’ve learned on our course. I don’t have a job in the catering industry yet, so events like these give me the experience I need to take to future employers. I’ve been serving the samples to the customers today and had some really nice comments.”
Lecturers Chris Cockburn and George Baker accompanied the students. George said “We’re really grateful to Aldi for giving us the opportunity to help out with their store opening. It’s valuable for us as a college and for the students, as it lets people know just how high quality our students and teaching are.”
Pictured: Professional Cookery students James Baigan, Alastair MacKay, Alannah Ramsay, Douglas McGovern and Kerry Robertson outside the new Aldi store.
Edinburgh College Rapunzels have let down their hair for a good cause and donated their locks to make wigs for child cancer patients who have lost theirs.
Students from HN Sport Therapy and Fitness, Health and Exercise courses joined their lecturers to have the chop to help children’s charity the Little Princess Trust, which makes wigs for children undergoing chemotherapy.
Lecturers Laura Craig and Louise Ball, Louise’s sister Denise Farrell, and five students went under the scissors to donate at least eight inches of their hair each. Altogether, they gave two metres of hair to the charity.
Laura Craig said: “Donating their hair was a scary thing for most of my students because they have had long hair all of their lives. I think everyone looks great with their new haircuts, especially Louise, whose hair hasn’t been this short since she was a teenager. We are now trying to raise money to help pay for the wigs to be made.”
Students from the Level 3 Hairdressing course provided the haircuts under the watchful eye of their lecturer Rosemary Martin, and also styled the newly shorn hair at the Granton Campus training salons. This follows a great run of community engagement by hair and beauty students last year, which included last year’s Level 3 students helping George Watson’s College pupils with their own Little Princess Trust donations.
Each Little Princess Trust wig costs £350 to make, and the charity relies on donations to help make these. To make a donation in support, visit Laura’s fundraising page www.justgiving.com/laura-craig4 or the Little Princess Trust.
Pictured:
(Top) Edinburgh College lecturer Louise Ball and her sister Denise Farrell show off their donations.
Hairdressing students Gillian Muir (right) and Amy Lothian (left) gave haircuts to sports and fitness students Kelsie Boyle and Shannon Leishmann (centre).
University advice at Granton Campus tomorrow
Edinburgh College will be hosting a series of university open days to give students, school pupils and members of the public the opportunity to find out which routes to university would be best for them.
Representatives from universities across Scotland will be on hand to provide advice on the courses they have to offer. The Scottish Institute of Enterprise and Skills Development Scotland will also be there to talk about the support they provide for students. There will also be a chance to talk to SAAS about funding options.
The university open days will take place at 11am-2pm at Edinburgh College’s Granton Campus (20 October), Milton Road Campus (21 October) and Sighthill Campus (22 October).
Attendees:
Granton: Tuesday 20 October. 11am-2pm.
University of Edinburgh, Heriot Watt University, Edinburgh Napier University, Queen Margaret University, University of Stirling, University of Dundee, Glasgow Caledonian University, SAAS, Scottish Institute of Enterprise and Skills Development Scotland.
Milton Road: Wednesday 21 October. 11am-2pm.
University of Edinburgh, Heriot Watt University, Edinburgh Napier University, Queen Margaret University, SAAS, Scottish Institute for Enterprise and Skills Development Scotland.
Sighthill: Thursday 22 October. 11am-2pm.
University of Edinburgh, Heriot Watt University, Edinburgh Napier University, Queen Margaret University, University of Stirling, University of Dundee, Glasgow Caledonian, Glasgow School of Art, Robert Gordon University, Abertay Dundee University, University of Aberdeen, SAAS, Scottish Institute for Enterprise and Skills Development Scotland.
