Staff at Milton Keynes College have been coming up with new ways to give their students the kinds of real-life working experience so hard to come by in the time of COVID.
Electrical and painting and decorating students have been lending a hand sprucing up the College’s Silbury Campus on Silbury Boulevard with special care taken to follow pandemic rules.
“We needed to do some work on the building because we’re giving up our lease as the space isn’t needed any more,” says the College’s Group Head of Estates, Liana Sinclair. “It used to be used for adult learning classes but now they’re all being held at the Bletchley Campus where there’s more parking and everything can be done in one place. Given our obligations to carry out works at the end of the lease and the current lack of opportunity for students to carry out work in a live environment. This seemed like an ideal opportunity to give the students a real-life job to do,” she says.
Lee Mills Head of School for Engineering and Construction says, “It’s very difficult in the current situation to find ways of giving the students work experience while making sure they’re able to do so safely following all the rules so we jumped at the chance to help. They’ve done a fantastic job and they were all so enthusiastic. We even had students staying well past their scheduled hours into the night because they wanted to get the job done on schedule and to standard – exactly the kind of attitude customers want from tradesmen in the real world.”
He says some of the students involved have told their lecturers that it’s been a fantastic opportunity for them.
“A great part about it is,” Lee adds, “that we’ve had people just starting out on their training working with apprentices who already have significant skills. It’s given them the chance to see just what they can achieve if they work hard and that’s been an inspiration to all concerned. It’s been a great lesson in collaboration for the staff too. We wouldn’t normally have much to do with the Estates Department but now they’re asking the bricklaying team to look for walls around the campuses which could do with repairing, giving the students brilliant opportunities to learn and saving the College money on important maintenance work.”
The College is already talking to a couple of charities in the city about sending the students to lend a hand improving their properties. It’s a chance to do something good for the community while getting valuable work experience.
Liana says, “We had quite a bit of furniture at Silbury which wasn’t needed on our other campuses and we’ve been able to donate much of it to the Kingdom Life Assemblies of God church and also a local primary school while some is also going to various educational charity projects in Ghana. The College always wants to be at the heart of the community and it’s a great way to be able to help out where we can.”
