NORTH TYNESIDE

In North Tyneside, another award-winning consortium, engineering staff have designed the Diploma with the local industry opportunities in mind. However, it has not always proved easy to find the appropriate work placements. We look at how they have overcome these challenges

T

yneMet College has added the Diploma in Engineering to an already impressive existing range of

qualifications in the subject. The further education institution, in North

Tyneside, boasts state-of-the-art, industry- standard facilities, and is able to deliver a wide variety of courses, all the way up to Higher National Certificates. The introduction of the Diploma in September 2008 was not without its challenges, however. About a third of the first cohort of students decided to leave before completion having decided the course was not for them. “What we were then left with was a group

of students who were really into engineering and enjoyed it,” said Gary Eiles, who teaches the Diploma at the college. “I think the problem was that students

were not really given the right impression of what it was about and we heard that one had been told by his school that he needed to do the Diploma in Engineering if he wanted to become a plumber. “Some of the students had expected more practical work and were disappointed that it partly involved some academic work. The advice and guidance was provided by the learners’ schools and there must have been some confusion along the way. At that stage, everyone was still learning and the qualification was such a new thing so problems like this were bound to arise. “We are now much better at promoting it

and more pro-active in the way we recruit students,” he added. The 15 current students studying the

qualification at Levels 1 and 2 come from the range of secondary schools within the North Tyneside consortium, which was one of the runners-up in the National Delivering Diplomas Awards 2010 in the Consortium of the Year category. Within the consortium, it is the college

that does the vast majority of the teaching. Diplomas at TyneMet are taught over two days at a range of employer establishments, by staff from a range of institutions, to students from a range of schools right across the borough, according to Jo Lyons, 14 to 19 Diploma co-ordinator for the Education Business Partnership. She explained: “At times, communications

have been a nightmare to get right due to the sheer volume of people involved in the qualifications. “However, through their persistence and tenacity, partners have managed to stay positive with each other and are constantly looking for solutions. “In meeting regularly at all levels and

allowing everyone to input, we have a consortium that continually grows and

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changes in structure. Our vision therefore reflects the innovative and changing face of how we want our young people to learn.” She continued: “The support employers

have given to drive Diplomas forward has been an incredible and exciting mix of innovative work-related learning. “At years 10 and 11 they have hosted many

work-related activities to include business tours of their company and visits to their production plants and labs. Delivery is of an outstanding quality.” The TyneMet college teaching staff who

deliver the Diploma in Engineering are all experts and specialists who have come from various fields within the industry. These strong links with local businesses

allow them to maintain their knowledge and skills by constantly updating them. Mr Eiles said: “Wherever possible we

make arrangements to visit companies and use our contacts within the industry to update our own skills, which we believe is very important. “Much of the local industry in this area

is engineering and manufacturing-based, and there are a lot of off-shore companies and others to do with energy such as wind power.” The engineering staff at the college designed the Diploma with the local industry opportunities in mind. However, it has not always been easy to find the appropriate work placements for students. Most work experience is sourced through

the local Education Business Partnerships, and requests for placements are put in through them. Mr Eiles continued: “We find work placements through our local Education Business Partnership and put in requests to them on behalf of the student, but unfortunately we don’t always get a lot of joy. “It is incredibly difficult to get students

as young as 14 into engineering companies for any length of time because companies are quite rightly worried about health and safety issues, which you can understand when you are talking about machinery weighing hundreds of tonnes on the premises. It can be a very dangerous environment. “The issue of work placements is something we are working on. The students already do work experience because that is part of the curriculum in year 10 so we have been tapping into those. We supplement these with our visits to engineering companies and those can count as work experience as the students often do tasks and activities as part of the visits. “Many companies are happy to arrange

visits and give you an opportunity to look around so we take advantage of these whenever possible, though it may not be

www.engineeringdiploma.com

actual physical hands-on experience,” he added.

Among the employers visited by students

was Nissan in Sunderland, which has hosted open days. Students have seen car production on the assembly line and had opportunities to speak to employees and ask questions. At Procter and Gamble’s Seaton Delaval

plant, meanwhile, learners looked at the production of perfumes and other types of cosmetics. Another visit was to a discovery museum,

which charts the history of engineering. Learners were given work packs and expected to find the information they required in the museum to complete the tasks. “This links directly with a couple of units

they are doing around innovation, which are areas they will be assessed on,” Mr Eiles added. “The students really enjoy the visits and it Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16