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STAFF NEWSLETTER JANUARY 2018

Employee of the Year THIS MONTH

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Huge congratulations to Elaine Ballantyne on winning the National Centre for Diversity, UK Employee of the Year Award 2018. What a fantastic achievement!

The event was an exhilarating and emotional night of celebration, attended by organisations and people with a real focus on fairness, respect, equality, diversity, inclusion and engagement .

The awards marked the contributions of some of the most inspiring, passionate and brilliant individuals who work tirelessly every day, to ensure there is a fairness for all, not only within their organisation but also within their wider communities.

Winners were decided by an independent panel of judges, selected from nominations collated by the National Centre for Diversity. Elaine won the award beating several organisations including renowned international fashion and retail organisation Abercrombie & Fitch!

We’re also delighted that the College featured at number 5 in the Top 100 Index. The Top 100

Index highlights the very best from across 600 organisations.

Rural Energy Academy

Purple Friday - 23 February - Ground Floor Atrium

Please join us on the 23rd February from 10am-1pm and wear something purple to show your support for LGBTI equality.

Around the College

Academic Writing Second year students from Human Resource Management and Business thoroughly enjoyed a workshop provided by Silvio Hoffman from the University of the West of Scotland.

Silvio provided an insight into academic writing and Harvard referencing standards at university.

The feedback from the attendees was very positive, especially in terms of supporting future report writing.

Around The College

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1 Construction student 2 - 3 HR & Business students

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Prince’s Trust The HN Business and HN Human Resource Management students were given a highly informative presentation by Lyndsey Little (The Prince's Trust) which provided a detailed overview of how to start up a business and what support is available.

The students were surprised and pleased to find there is so much help out there which is free.

National Skillbuild Finals

Well done to our Roof Slating & Tiling student Liam Crossan.

Liam recently competed in the National Skillbuild competition held in Birmingham. Liam’s work was judged as Highly Commended.

Liam commented “It was a tough couple of days and the other trainees were all excellent however, it was a fantastic experience I will never forget and was delighted that I made it to the finals. I must take the opportunity to thank my lecturers, Jim McVey and Stephen O’Donnell. It was with their support and encouragement that I got this far.”

Liam is currently studying his Advanced Craft qualification and also a HNC Construction Management.

Stephen O’Donnell stated “Liam’s work over the two days was excellent and he certainly did himself, and the College proud. It was a fantastic achievement with tough competition under pressure. He left some fantastic work and I am sure Liam will go on to be a first class tradesperson.”

Well done Liam!

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Around The College

Level 6 Media Make-up students participated in a fantasy make-up seminar. As an introduction to the new unit, lecturers demonstrated two fantasy hair and make-up looks for the three classes, incorporating face and body paint, embellishment and hair pieces.

The seminar was designed to be interactive and visual with students asking questions and giving feedback throughout. The looks created were inspired by the skulls and the use of bold colours with pattern.

1-2 Fantasy Seminar 3 Construction students

Equal Quantities We’re really pleased that our Higher National Certificate in Quantity Surveying has an equal gender balance in the class.

Lauren Grant from the class says “It’s great to see an area in construction that is equally split in terms of gender equality, the job opportunities are great and I am thoroughly enjoying my time studying at South Lanarkshire College “

Fantasy Seminar

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SLC operates policies to safeguard the welfare of the chil-dren, young people and vulnerable adults who attend the College.

Members of staff have a duty of care to prevent physical, sexual or emotional abuse and to report any suspicion of abuse.

A copy of the policy is available from the Head of Student Services (Child Protection Co-ordinator).

The College has a Safeguarding Team. If you have a concern or issue, or would like further information or advice on safe-guarding, contact a member of the team:

Head of Student Services (Child Protection Co-ordinator)

Curriculum Manger for Learning Development (Deputy Child Protection Co-ordinator)

Deputy Head Faculty of Care

Head of Human Resources

Head of Management Information Systems

Guidance and Support Advisor (named contact for

care experienced students and those with caring

responsibilities)

Safeguarding

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Around The College

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1 Construction students 2 Business students

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Tour Guiding

First year HN Business students were delighted to become Dementia Friends after a workshop provided by Audrey Bremner of Alzheimer Scotland.

The students found it rewarding on a personal level and useful in their professional careers.

Dementia Friends

Care lecturer, Carly MacLean, kindly attended the HND Travel and Tourism class to give a presentation on her experience as a Resort Rep and Children's Rep in various Spanish resorts.

The HND students found this talk really interesting and for those that are interested in this career path it gave them real insight into the job from Carly's point of view plus it is relevant to the unit they are currently learning - Resort Representation and Tour Guiding. It is also an excellent example of cross-college collaboration.

The Painting and Decorating section has just completed another successful course for ‘The Make a House a Home’ project.

This class of women had attended previous courses and had used the skills and experience in working with the tools of the trade that they gained there, to produce work of a high quality.

We decided to test these skills by setting them a 14 week challenge where they had to choose a theme, and then decorate a room using skills learned previously. The women entered into this challenge with great enthusiasm, and were soon producing fantastic ideas that even gave the lecturing staff a challenge. During the 14 week course, the group were swapping ideas, helping each other out and were thoroughly enjoying themselves.

At the end of the course, we invited the owners of Britain’s largest Painting Contractor into college to judge the rooms. Annette and George Bell, of the Bell Group, spent the day with the class and commented on the high quality work that was on show. Industry was very supportive of this class, with prizes coming from Bell Group and both Dulux and Crown paints.

The winning room was based around a beach scene, and it even had real sand!! The winners were Margaret Fortune and Linda Sutters, a mother and daughter team from East Kilbride.

Make a House a Home

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3 Travel & Tourism students

Around The College

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Childcare Staff Development

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Staff Development

As part of their staff development activities, childcare lecturers took the opportunity to visit K Woodlands based in East Kilbride.

K Woodlands provide opportunities for children to build on their skills and confidence of working and playing in the natural environment. They progress towards experiences and activities which involve tool use and fire, at a rate suitable to the individual group. All experiences are designed to challenge children, but also to be achievable. K Woodlands work together with practitioners to create specific programmes to suit the curriculum learning and needs. Each session has a lesson plan with set learning objectives and child-initiated learning.

Staff developed knowledge of forest schools and experiences that would be beneficial for children to take part in to develop their self-help skills. This session was also a great team building experience.

During the session, staff participated in a variety of learning experiences.

Safety and Risk assessment

Before venturing out to the wilderness they were briefed on a health and safety risk assessment. They were shown the tools which would be needed to create the perfect sticks for the fire and also the perfect sticks to create sticks to toast marshmallows on.

Lit fires

They were taught how to prepare and start their own fires to keep warm and to use to their benefit for cooking in the outdoors.

Den Building

They were tasked in teams to design and create their own dens using specific natural resources, with a few added extras. Staff had to cooperate and communicate to solve the challenges during this experience.

Woodland ring games

Staff participated in a few ring games where they had to make use of their senses. Listening to sounds and learning about woodland animals and how they use their senses to hunt, scavenge and survive.

Open fire snack

They toasted their own delicious snacks on an open fire pit using the appropriate tools and safety measures. During this experience staff were able to risk assess, and manage whilst creating a tasty snack and keeping warm.

The K Woodlands trip was a beneficial and worthwhile experience. Staff had great fun and could clearly see all of the benefits to children’s learning using the outdoor environment. The curriculum links and the interdisciplinary learning that took place was excellent.

Around The College

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HNC year 1 students attended volunteer interviews for the Glasgow 2018 European Championships. We wish them luck!

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Glasgow 2018 Volunteers

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Five members of staff from Vantaa Vocational College Varia near Helsinki in Finland visited the College for two days on 24th and 25th January as part of our Erasmus+ project.

Anna from Tourism, Liisa and Markku from Construction, Virpi from Professional Cookery and Margit from Hairdressing spent time with Faculty teams, the International Office and the Principalship. They also had a great time attending a Burns Supper in the Training Restaurant where they enjoyed traditional Scottish music, haggis, neeps and tatties and Chef Auchie's 'Address to a Haggis'.

The aim of their visit was to explore the potential for a continuing Erasmus+ partnership between our two colleges. Initial discussions were very positive with many areas for partnership-working identified. The next stage of the process is to compare our curricula to identify where student and staff exchange opportunities would be most appropriate.

Staff from support and teaching roles are encouraged to talk to their line managers about the possibility of taking up an Erasmus+ mobility to this, or one of our other, overseas partnerships. Details of Erasmus+ mobility procedures an be found on the portal, or talk to Lucy in the Marketing and International Office for more information. Thanks to all staff across the College who made the visit such a success.

Erasmus+ Visit from Finland

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1 - 2 Business students

Around The College

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A great big thank you to everyone who contributed to the success of Christmas Jumper Day.

A special thank you to Santa who greeted us in the morning with Christmas music and kept us singing throughout the morning.

A range of fund raising activities also took place and the fantastic total of £1,737 was raised for Who Cares?Scotland. These included crafts from the Life Options and Childcare students, Christmas wreaths from the Horticulture students, the Wishing Tree from Business students a Christmas raffle organised by L5 Hairdressing and home baking by the Care staff

On Christmas Day, 84 young people, who would otherwise been on their own, attended a Christmas lunch and received gifts donated by staff and students.

Thank you all once again.

Christmas Jumper Day

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Christmas Jumper Day

Around The College

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The College has been awarded funding from South Lanarkshire Council and the European Social Fund to deliver a range of programmes through the Rural Energy Academy. We have now opened premises in Lanark, 2 Hope Street (Corner Unit) across the Bank of Scotland on Bloomgate, and down from the Library on the Hope Street side.

This new training and employability project aims to progress 80 unemployed participants from the rural areas of South Lanarkshire into roles related to the energy and utilities sector and its supply chain. Funding is initially available until 30th June 2018.

Karen McFarlane will be managing the project and working with key partners including Skills Development Scotland, the Job Centre and community groups from our Lanark base.

An open day will be taking place at the Rural Energy Academy office, Hope Street, Lanark on Friday 2nd February between 10am and 3pm for people who may be interested in the opportunities that the Rural Energy Academy has to offer.

We can help unemployed people, resident in rural South Lanarkshire with:

•Short vocational training courses

•Industry-specific qualifications

•Job search and progression to employment

•Employability skills (CV writing, interview technique)

•Work placement

•Basic IT and computing

Anyone interested in the open day can register their interest at www.slc.ac.uk/rural-energy-academy, by calling 07813 367422 or by emailing energy@slc.ac.uk

For more information on the project, speak with Anne Doherty (room 349a - ext. 7611)

Rural Energy Academy

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Rural Energy Academy