New Look, Inspiration and Developments!!

The first thing you will notice this week is that we have had a bit of a revamp.  It was time for a change and we hope you like the new look, if not let us know and we’ll take your thoughts into consideration – it can always be changed again!

We have a few articles for you in this week’s update so let’s get started.

Architectural Inspiration

Our NC Civil Engineering class were recently involved in a visit to the Glasgow School of Art Campus Redevelopment site in nearby Garnethill.

The project was designed by architect Steven Holl, who recently won the AIA Gold Medal, the highest honour awarded by the American Institute of Architects.

A new five-storey building will replace a number of Glasgow School of Art’s existing premises on Renfrew Street. The new building will house a range of studios and teaching facilities as well as workshops, communal areas and exhibition spaces.

The main contractor, Sir Robert McAlpine, gave our students an informative presentation and a guided tour of the construction site, which the Engineering students (and staff) found very interesting and a useful addition to the academic side of the NC Civil Eng. course.

Ronald McDonald  Appeal

Ronald McDonald house needs 50 volunteers to take on Ben Nevis on the 29^th and 30^th of June 2013.

Transport from Glasgow, accommodation, food and guides will be provided upon raising minimum sponsorship of £300.00

The house relies on sponsored events and donations to meet £300,000 annual running costs.

If you are interested in taking part please call Allison at the house on 0141 201 0782 for an information pack or email her at –  allisonmckillop@btconnect.com

Electric Honey Developments

To celebrate the 20^th anniversary  of Electric Honey, Young Aviators released their debut album “Self Help” on Monday the 13^th of May and have already picked up favourable reviews from The Daily Record, The Herald and the Skinny.

Alex Hynes a Stow Music Business management student also releases his solo debut EP on the college label with the “Slow your Breath E.P” out on the 20th of May.

Both these artists alongside Harry and the Hendersons , Wake the President and Albert Shakespeare will play the annual Electric Honey event at Oran Mor in conjunction with the West End festival. Any staff or students who wish to come along to the 20th anniversary Electric Honey Bash at Oran Mor please contact Cara Graham cgraham@stow.ac.uk and she will issue you with a badge/ticket for this special event. Why not bring a friend/partner and have fun doors are at 7pm and it will all be over by 10pm.

ILS News Of The Week!

Why not drop-in and see our mini-exhibition for National Epilepsy Week (19-25 May) which will be displayed in the Learning Centre from 20-28 May?  Our display will include epilepsy and neuroscience related materials.  You can also find out more at http://www.epilepsy.org.uk/campaigns/epilepsy-week

It’s also Resource of the Month time again.  This month we have Oxford Reference Online (ORO) under the spotlight.  ORO brings  together language and subject reference works into a single cross-searchable resource.  There are over 300 titles including:

• Dictionary of Biomedicine
• Dictionary of Computing
• Dictionary of Psychology
• Oxford Companion to British History
• Dictionary of Marketing
• Dictionary of Nursing
• Oxford Companion to Global Change

Ask in the Learning Centre about Athens access to this and 39 other online collections.

Sun Shines for Reims Students in Glasgow/Scottish Tapas/Fabrice Returns/Fun and Games at GCU

In shock news, the Scottish summer arrived on Tuesday 7 May and lasted for exactly one day.  However, Manon Laurent, Mick Moisson and Ron Dillin took advantage of the sunshine to take a lunchtime walk to Kelvingrove Park and Glasgow University.

Trusty snapper Ron Dillin took this picture of Manon and Mick in the quad at Glasgow University.

As Manon finishes her placement on 23 May and returns to France, John Gallagher, Claire McLaren and Lorna McNiven treated Ron Dillin and the three Reims students to Scottish Tapas at Jackson’s in Cambridge Street to thank Manon for all her excellent work.

Our French guests preferred burgers to the tapas of haggis, Cullen Skink soup, smoked salmon etc which was on offer, but everyone enjoyed their meal.

Some of the Stow staff remember Fabrice Dubois from Reims who did his work placement at Stow in 2005.  Fabrice stayed on in Scotland to study networking at Glasgow Caledonian University.  After several jobs in IT and other areas, Fabrice joined Strathclyde Fire Brigade and is now a fully-trained fire fighter.

Fabrice married a Scottish girl, Michelle, and now has three children.  Wow, a work placement in Stow College really can change your life in a big way!

Since Mick and Jason, two of our current Reims students, are interested in studying and/or working in Scotland, Ron Dillin arranged for Fabrice to come and meet this year’s students.  They found it useful to find out about living and working in Scotland.  The picture shows the group with ^ feet 4 inch Fabrice in the middle and their waitress, Karolina, at Fazzi’s in Cambridge Street.

Fabrice came back to the college and met up with Ailene Temple, Helen Wooley, Helen King, Nicki Campbell, Margaret Cooke, Billy Taggart and Bryan Grantham.  Reminiscences included Donnas McInulty’s 21st birthday bash at the Griffen which Fabrice attended.  Billy spent a large part of the evening wearing Nicki’s ‘Princess’ jacket.  Later, Fabrice told Nicki she couldn’t sing (clearly he was mistaken) .

Mick and Jason are both doing computer games projects with the Creative Industries Faculty.  Jason is particularly interested in studying computer games development at University in Scotland, so Ron Dillin arranged a meeting at Glasgow Caledonian University with David Farrell who taught games part-time at Stow and now has a full-time lecturing position at Glasgow Caledonian.

David showed the group around the facilities at GCU, including the world-leading eMotion lab where games are tested.  Sensors track eye movement and changes in conductivity in the skin to detect where users are focusing on the game being played and the amount of excitement (small changes in sweat) the users are experiencing.

The pictures show the group in the eMotion lab.  The group were overwhelmed by David Farrell’s passion for computer games research and his vast knowledge of the games industry worldwide.  A fascinating trip ended in the Saltire Centre at GCU where a bridal fashion show was being rehearsed.

Stowter Sounds

Sara Fellows, one of our Music Business students, is working on her graded unit project and as part of this she decided to produce a podcast show for broadcasting in the cafe, canteen and/or shop.

This broadcast took place on Wednesday the 15^th of May at 12.30 pm in Café Connect (5^th floor of our Stow City Campus).

Students and staff alike popped along to Café Connect, sat down, grabbed a coffee and listened to some Stowter Sounds.

Visit the Stowter Sounds website for more information and to listen to the podcast.

Just a Reminder … Communications Workstream Survey

Thank you for your views and suggestions you have made so far in our Communications Workstream survey – some of them have been very interesting.

BUT… we are still looking for more suggestions.  If you haven’t already done so, could you please take 5 minutes to fill out our questionnaire

Complete the survey: Merger Communications Survey.

Make sure you keep yourself up to date on merger news by using the following platforms

• E-Merge Microsite
• E-Merge Facebook page
• E-Merge Twitter account
• E-Merge Magazine (this will take you to the latest issue)

Well that’s us for another week, so join us again next Friday for more news and updates and remember to let us know what you think of the new look blog.

Delicious Cakes and Giant Pants!!

Welcome back to Stow’s Blog everyone, we hope you enjoyed last week’s long weekend – not long until the next one!!!  Just a few short(ish) articles for you this week ……

Cake Break Update!

You will remember we told you, a week or so ago, about a cake break that was being planned by Morven Thomson.  Well this was held on Wednesday the 8^th of May.

Morven would just like to extend her gratitude to everyone who participated in Cake Break on Wednesday.  Thanks to those of you who baked, the quality, variety and quantity of the  cakes was outstanding.  There really are some very talented bakers in the college.

Thanks of course goes to those of you who bought cakes and were so generous with your donations.

Morven is delighted to tell you that so far we have raised £424.30 for the MS Society.  There were a few cakes left at the end and these were vary gratefully received by Glasgow City Mission.

Same time next year?

X Factor Hopeful

One of the NC Civil Engineering students has now left the course in order to follow his career in London.  However, this new career has nothing to do with construction….

Abdolmajid Fallapour entered what is referred to as the Iranian X-factor.  This is held in conjunction with the GooGoosh Music Academy.

Majid kept in contact telling us his progress, making it through to judges houses then eventually the final!  We are very proud that he won second place.  The following is a link to one of his performances http://youtu.be/2eY594ounmI

Majid has now had to withdraw formally from the course and we all wish him well in his new career!

Giantopants at Stow West

Did you see them?  How could you miss them!!!  No they weren’t for sale!

It’s now the last week in team Keepitin’s sales campaign (Aww) but you can still get involved! Look out for them at Stow West or make a promise to their crowdfund.

Since we last heard from the PJEA Pants team they have been busy spreading the word about their PANTS…on the telly with fellow Stow students on Daybreak news, in STV Local, Evening Times and in Scottish Crowd funders Bloom vc’s newsletter.

Did you share the pantastic fun on twitter #pantstopoverty #teamstow?  The team dressed to impress at the main campus on Tuesday the 7th of May selling their ethically sourced pants vests and pyjamas, a big thank you everyone who stopped to listen, laugh and buy!

The tweets sent out stayed true to their approach that ethical manufacture is a something serious we should all consider and we can still have fun doing it – check out some tweets…

“Forgot your pants today? We know how that feels… Grab a new pair @bloomvc #makeapromise  we got you covered! ”

“Pants Alert! Yip we said PANTS! We say ‘Pants To Poverty’- do you?  #makeapromise @keepitin2013”

They even have wrist bands, with the help and sewing skills of our own Margaret Cooke! Fantastic!

Team Keepitin’s website offers more information as to what the team have been up to click to catch up and their crowd-fund is not only offering Pants To Poverty items, but also the chance to hire the team to support a business or project!  Did we mention that they are PJEA students?  You can hire the team to support your business or project.  Do you need a PR team quick?  Need a website?  Or is your office just a mess?  If you have a problem- if no one else can help – and if you can find them – then maybe you can hire: The PJEA Team! (doo dodooo dodo dooo) Sorry, it’ll be stuck in your head all-day!

Even our Assistant Principle is talking PANTS (that’s what I said PANTS!!!)

A big thank you from Natalie and Serign of team Keepitin for everyone’s support!  Don’t forget to follow the team on Twitter and LIKE their Facebook page.

Fancy hearing more about the Peter Jones Enterprise Academy?  You can ask Serign and Natalie all about their experience, ask Marlyn Totten for more info.

ILS News Of The Week!

Firstly, we would like to highlight that new content has been added to JISC Journal Archives: http://jiscjournalarchives.ac.uk

• Oxford Journals Archive Upgrade – the upgrade includes an additional 32 Oxford University Press (OUP) journals containing over 76, 000 articles that have been digitised since the original archive was purchased by JISC Collections in 2006. Each journal is available from volume one issue one until the last issue in 1995. Titles previously missing from the Medicine Archive (1878-1995) and the Science Archive (1878-1995) have also now been added.
• Cambridge Journals Digital Archive – the Humanities and Social Sciences titles from the Cambridge Journals Digital Archive have also been loaded now. Previously only titles from the Scientific, Technical and Medical collection for this archive were available.

There are 39 online collections which you can access using your Athens log in – get in touch if you would like to find out more.

We would also like to tell you about our mini-exhibition for International Day of Families (on 15 May) which will be displayed in the Learning Centre from 14-16 May.  Drop-in to see our display or find out more see http://social.un.org/index/

How Are We Doing? 

Communication is a vital process for a merger to be successful. The communications team have been keeping you up to date with news and events surrounding the merger via a number of different media.  However, we would like to know if we are getting it right.  Please take 5 minutes to complete our online survey so that we can measure our performance and make adjustments as necessary.

You can access the online survey at the following web address: http://svy.mk/14hYuOt or you can complete the survey on the e-merge website: http://www.emerge-glasgow.org.uk. Thank you for your participation!

Well that’s us again for now, but join us again next week for more Stow News.

Picnics, Productions and Opportunities!

May already and the end of the academic year is looming ahead, so we are bound to have lots of updates for our blog over the coming weeks.  This week we bring you news of upcoming events and updates on ones that have passed.

Teddy Bear’s Adventure

Lisa-Jane Rattray, a Lecturer in our Creative Industries Faculty is pleased to announce that this years Teddy Bear Adventure, an annual event held in Strathclyde Park, raised an amazing £44,000 for the St Andrews Hospice.

In May of each year in Strathclyde park St Andrews hold a morning event, called the Teddy Bear’s Picnic,  where approximately 2000 children from the region’s primary schools, all of them sponsored, are bussed in and entertained for the morning by actors. The entertainment is a themed trail that the children follow around the park. At different points on the trail they will come across a group of actors in costume related to a particular nursery theme – The Three Bears, Alice in Wonderland, Red Riding Hood and other fairytale characters combining song, dance, puppetry and storytelling that keep the children entertained for fifteen minutes before they move along the trail to discover the next activity.

Lisa worked with the NC Acting and Performance students to devise costumes, scripts, props and acts around the fairy-tale themes.  It’s a fantastic experience for the students and the children enjoy a great day of entertainment.

St. Andrew’s Hospice said – “A HUGE thank you to the students from Stow College who performed at our Teddy Bears Adventure yesterday in Strathclyde Park. You were absolutely FANTASTIC! Over 3000 primary school pupils and staff thoroughly enjoyed the day and helped raise funds for the hospice. We could not have done it without you! Thanks for your continued support”

Checkout out their Facebook page for more photos.

Engineering Students Induction.

On Wednesday 1^st May 2013 the NC Civil Engineering class were awarded certificates for completing the full site induction for the Brookfield Multiplex site, otherwise known as the new Southern General.

Robert McGrory, Chief Executive and Principal of Stow College, presented the students with their certificates along with Paul Mooney (ex Trade Union Education at Stow and now UCAT representative on the Brookfield site).

The students received the same full induction as all subcontractors undertake prior to working on that site.  Upon completion we were given a guided tour by some of the engineers, enabling students to link classroom theory to in-situ examples.

Alan Roseweir has said that Brookfield Multiplex has given our students a great opportunity to engage with employers at an early stage in their careers, allowing them to enhance their own learning.

Following the presentation ceremony the students showcased their Civil Engineering Projects in which they completed a design that incorporates much of their learning throughout the year.  The Faculty of Engineering and Technology staff have been very impressed with this year’s submissions and are pleased that all the students from this class have applied to return to Stow next year to embark on an HN level programme

Blooming Great Tea Party

Alison McInally would like to pass on the following date for your calendar.

As most of you are aware we hold our annual coffee afternoon each year, all proceeds raised go to Marie Curie Cancer Care.

Our “Blooming Great Tea Party” will be held on Wednesday the 5^th of June from 1 pm until 3 pm.

If you have any old unwanted Christmas/Birthday gifts, bric-a-brac (ie ornaments/books/CDs etc) please hand them into the Enterprise Department no later than Friday the 31^st of May 2013.

Every cuppa and slice of cake will help nurses provide care to terminally ill patients in their own homes or in hospices, while  offering  support to their families.

Checking Out Your Health.

Over one hundred Stow College staff and students took advantage of the offer of a free health check last week.  Gary Blair, Margaret Cairns, Jacqueline Blair, Ron Dillin and  were ably assisted by Ron’s better half, Karen, and good friends from Reims, Manon Laurant, Jason Hennequin and Mick Moisson in providing the health MOTs.

Tests available included blood pressure checks, body mass index, flexibility, lung capacity and percentage body fat.  There was plenty of sound advice available in the form of leaflets and one on one consultations.  So, if you missed out this time, the Healthy Working Lives Committee plan to organise another series of health checks next session (probably October and April).

Karen said, ‘I advised several people to see their GPs as their blood pressure was too high, and they had not previously need this.  it is best to get your blood pressure checked as high blood pressure can raise the RSI, of heart and stroke problems.  A few minutes spent getting you blood pressure checked could help to identify potential problems and get them investigated by your GP.  We get our cars checked for fitness every year, but some people neglect to check their own bodies’.

Several staff and learners also showed an interest in being involved in the work of the HWL group.  Special thanks to those tutors who brought their classes along.

All in all, it was a very busy couple of days and we were glad that so many people took advantage of the free health checks.

ILS New Of The Week!

We’ve told you about the great free service you can access from Glasgow Life – Glasgow public libraries – with many varied electronic resources.  Now they have just subscribed to another great resource – Rocks Backpages.  The ultimate archive of music journalism with over 22,000 classic articles on artists from Aaliyah to ZZ Top, on all genres from rockabilly to hip hop, by the finest music writers of the last 50 years including Lester Bangs and Nick Kent.

Rock’s Backpages also features a library of over 300 audio interviews, including classic conversations with Leonard Cohen, Morrissey, Little Richard, Arthur Lee, Joni Mitchell, Johnny Cash and Kurt Cobain. To access this and other great resources FREE – drop into the Learning Centre and ask for a Glasgow Life membership form and card which will give you instant access even more online resources.  This is open to staff and students, so drop by and ask for a form soon!

We would also like to take the opportunity to remind you that the College and our centres will be closed on Monday the 6^th of May due to the bank holiday.  See you as usual on Tuesday 7 May at 9am when we re-open.  Happy holidays!

Stowaway Productions!

As you know Stow College’s performers – the Stowaways – have several productions planned over the next few weeks and we have some updated information for you for ones being held in May.

Scenes from the Big Picture – 8^th to the 11^th of May – East Kilbride Arts Centre

• Written by Owen McCafferty – The play takes place over the course of a hot summer’s day in an imagined area in present day Belfast. We see a day in the life of over twenty inhabitants of the district as their stories interweave and collide.

As We Forgive Those / 100 / Excess Baggage – 14^th to the 17^th May – East Kilbride Arts Centre

• 100 by Diene Petterele, Neil Monaghan and Christopher Heimann – Imagine you must choose one single memory from your whole life and capture it with a magical camera – everything else will be erased from your mind forever. You have just one hour to decide.
• As We Forgive Those by Andrew Smith – A tense play about the conflicting bonds of family, faith and friendship.
• Excess Baggage by Nancy MacPherson – In this comedy drama, four very different women meet up in the changing room of the Secret Sanctuary Health Spa. Each has her own problems and needs as they seek a strategy to cope with life.

Illyria / Red Hot in Amsterdam – 26^th to the 27^th May – East Kilbride Arts Centre

• Illyria by Bryony Lavery – A powerful drama/physical theatre.
• Red Hot in Amsterdam by Patricia Robinson – Running from the Amsterdam police, diamond thieves Frank and Mickey find an open window, clamber inside, and discover they are in a brothel.

Jesus Christ Superstar – 29^th to the 31^st May – Rutherglen Town Hall

• The original Andrew Lloyd Webber spectacular.

Try and get along to see one of these fantastic performances.

Eternal Light – The Concert

The Bearsden Choir would like to let you know about a concert they are holding on the 15^th of May this year, in Paisley Abbey, Bearsden Choir will be joined by Chorus Niagara to perform two wonderful choral works.  The first is a traditional mass, composed as a celebration for the life of a loved one and the second, a requiem, written, not for the dead, but for those who are left to grieve.

The concert, Eternal Light, will benefit Poppy Scotland and the Royal Canadian Legion.

Jam Session

On Tuesday the 30^th of April, Ron Dillin hosted a Jam Session in room 1/24 at Stow.  The session ram from 6 pm to roughly 8 pm and any instruments were allowed.

The activity was just for fun and anything went, whether it was guitar picking or ukulele playing.

Great fun was had by all.

Comedy Night Update!

Douglas Thomson would like to let you know that the Stow College comedy night was a great success last week (24^th of April).  7 students from the course performed for the audience in Maggie Mays, getting valuable experience of what it’s like to perform in front of a paying crowd. They all got a few laughs too, which is good!

Raymond Mearns was the MC for the night and the show was rounded off with an appearance by Janey Godley, so the students were off to a good start in excellent company.

Also, the night raised a fantastic £400 for the Friends of the Beatson charity.  Thanks to anyone who came along to support the students on the night, and hope to see you all at the next one.

That’s us again, but join us again next week.  Remember the college is closed on Monday for May Day, so enjoy your extended weekend.

Awards, Appeals and College Needs!!!

Welcome back to another Stow blog update and we have a few wee snippets for you this week.  We will cover everything from awards to Flash Mobs.

Award Winner!

On Tuesday the 23^rd of April, Melissa Campbell from the 2nd Year HND Mechanical  Engineering course, collected a Hammermen Award during a ceremony at Trades Hall in Glasgow.  It was a most enjoyable and informative evening.

As a result of winning this award, Melissa will be invited to attend an interview in May where she will be competing against all other prize winners from Glasgow Colleges for the Prince Phillip Medal.

We wish Melissa well in her endeavours to win this prestigious award and hope that a Stow student can win it for the second year running!

Charity Night Update!

As part of the NC Business course at Stow, students ran a micro business challenge for their Enterprise unit.  One group organised and ran a full scale charity night at a top city centre venue.

The night involved a live band and raffle prizes all in aid of the Soldiers’ Charity.  T in the park tickets were won, along with an overnight stay in a top hotel in Edinburgh for the Edinburgh Tattoo.

Students learned business organisation skills, using what they learned about planning, marketing and finance.  They also developed negotiation skills and were able to secure a great venue complete with drinks promotions on the night.

The event was enjoyed by all and raised a total of £2428!  Well done to all the students.

Marie Curie Daffodil Appeal

Pamela McKinlay would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your kind donations on behalf of the Marie Curie daffodil appeal.  You have helped Stow College raise a fantastic amount of £75.65 towards Marie Curie Cancer Care.

Without your help this would not be possible.

Cake Bake 2013!

Is there any better way to relax after the stress of busy day than with a cup of your favourite beverage and a nice slab of cake?  I thought not. That’s why Morven Thomson is pleased to announce that this year for the third year running we will be hosting a Cake Break in aid of the Multiple Sclerosis Society.

The cake sale will take place in the College Foyer on Wednesday the 8^th of May 2013 at 12.00 pm and will feature a host of home baking supplied by talented bakers throughout the college.  As usual all donations of cake, scones, biscuits, cookies etc. will be very gratefully received.

This year the MS Society are hoping that Cake Break will  raise £350,000 which they say could help them fund over 6000 hours of research into finding better treatments and, ultimately, a cure for MS.  More information on the work carried out by the MS Society can be found on their website.

ILS News of the Week!

Recently we highlighted that Glasgow Life (formerly Glasgow public libraries) resources are now available to you free of charge.  One of the resources will be of particular use to our engineering students and staff, and anyone else using British Standards.  British Standards Online provides access to 27,000 current, draft, and historical standards.  I’m sure you can see the uses of this service in teaching and learning and don’t need me to sell it to you!  I have application forms and Glasgow Life cards available in the Library so if you are interested in accessing British Standards Online, then pop in, complete a form and get searching immediately!

ILS would also like to highlight our regular feature – resource of the month.  This month, our resource in the spotlight is JISC Media Hub – which brings together audio clips, images, and over 40 collections of films for all curriculum areas.  Collections include:

• Bioscience Image Bank
• ITV News
• Films of Scotland
• Performance Shakespeare
• Amber Films – political and social history of Britain
• NewsFilm Online

Your College Needs You!

You may remember a few weeks ago we told you about a Flash Mob that was being arranged, well we have more information for you now.

The Flash Mob will take place on the 19^th of June at 1.23 pm in the Riverside Transport Museum.

We need 200 of our very best students and staff to shake it in style to show Glasgow we will become 1 College with 1 Love in November 2013.  Interested and want to show us your moves then email flashmob2013@rocketmail.com

That’s us for another week, more news and updates next Friday, so join us again then.

Superstars, Pants and Rock ‘n’ Roll!

Hope you are all back refreshed after your two weeks off.  We have lots of news for you this week, so let’s make a start.

Superstar Production!

Stowaways (that bunch at Stow West) are proud to announce that after 12 years of begging, pleading and praying we have finally got the rights to perform Jesus Christ Superstar at the end of May 2013.

May will also see many musical theatre, acting and dance productions in a venue close at hand that you would love.  Stephen Langston will be sending out a full list of shows and dates to your email shortly for the forth-coming productions and we will offer the usual discount (if booked in advance).

Just email Stephen with a request for tickets for a show and he will make sure you receive them at the discount price of £6.50 per ticket.  So, get booking as soon as you can. You really will be impressed by the productions our performing arts students produce.

Do not miss out, be a part of the experience.  Stowaways really is the best  and biggest producers of performing arts education in Scotland and our 350 students want you to see them in action.

April/May

• 23rd to 27th April – UWS and stowaways 4th year degree final performance showcases
• 30^th April to 1st May – Stowaways present Godspell at Rutherglen Town Hall
• 1st May to 25th May – Stowaways Festival of Theatre including plays and musicals (details to be announced).
• 29th May to 31st May – Stowaways present Jesus Christ Superstar, Rutherglen Town Hall.

June

• Dance, Dance Dance and More Dance

Individual show details will be sent by email so if you want to be included in this mail out, contact Stephen.

Haggis, Neeps ‘n’ Rock’n’roll? – bien sûr!

The college is delighted to be hosting 3 computing students from the University of Reims in France who are doing work placements with us.  The trio (or ‘the weans’ as Helen Wooley calls them) arrived on 9 April.  They are loving Glasgow and their work placements.

Jason Hennequin and Mick Moisson are working with Creative Industries staff to develop programs and resources which the college can use.  Mick is developing an app for Android phones or tablets (Ron tried explaining that ‘tablet’ is also a sweet that you sometimes get with your coffee ‘No, not like an iPad, more like a sort of fudge but harder.  The ingredients are sugar, sugar and..er.. more sugar.  He in some tablet the next day for the guys to sample). Jason is working on a video game for playing on a PC or X-Box.  Anne Porter is supervising the lads, with assistance from programming wizard and fluent French speaker Finlay McGregor.

Helping out John Gallagher and the Quality team is our good friend Manon Laurent who also did a placement with us in 2010 when she was a diploma student.  Manon is now in her Masters year and contacted Ron Dillin to say that she would love to do another placement at Stow since she had such a great time here in 2010.  She found the staff to be really friendly and loved the Glasgow culture and nightlife (especially the Guinness).

Manon is helping John by writing programs to allow results of complex queries to be displayed easily in graph or table form.  The college has a Qlikview program which is a graphical interface to Unit-E, our student records system.  Manon is tailoring Qlikview to be more helpful in enabling complex queries, reports, tables and graphs to be produced in a few clicks.  Susan Conway in IS has been invaluable in explaining the ‘dark art’ of Unit-E to Manon.

Jason is a big rock fan (he will get on well with Billy Taggart) who plays excellent guitar in a left-handed fashion just like Jimi Hendrix and Paul McCartney.  He brought his beautiful Hagstrom Les Paul guitar with him from France.

Last Friday, David Hughes, Ron Dillin and Anne Porter took the students to the wonderful Mackintosh-designed Willow Tearoom in Sauchiehall Street for lunch.  On the way, they stopped in at the Art School and were lucky enough to be taken to the magnificent library there.

At the Willow, our French friends sampled haggis, neeps and tatties while trying not to look bored when Ron insisted in telling the story of Rabbie Burns, the Burns supper, Auld Lang Syne…they eventually nodded off.

So then back to the college where Jason and Ron performed some classic songs to a small but appreciative audience of three.

If you have time, try to catch up with our friends from Reims and say ‘Hello’ or ‘Bonjour’

It’s That Time Of Year Again; The “Pants” Challenge Is Underwear!

Sorry, I can’t believe I said that either… Anyway, our PJEA students of team ‘keep it in’ are representing Stow College this year and the Pants to Poverty campaign has begun!

The team explained “Our team’s mission is to raise awareness of the importance of ethical manufacture and to encourage social entrepreneurship. How? I hear you ask ‘You too can do good’.  Getting the best quality products available and have fun doing it!”

Lana explained “We want not only to provide a fun brand for our customers, but also to educate everyone about how we can bring joy to the lives of others.”

Tony said “The aim is to raise as much money as we can, by selling pants and pyjamas etc. This will help farmers and communities in India.” Our sales campaign runs from the 15th of April until Saturday the 11th of May. To buy any of our items please follow this link to the Bloom vc site where we have set up a crowd funding campaign. Scottish crowd funding platform Bloom vc have aided us in our quest to raise funding, we knew that we needed to reach out into the community to raise funds for our project and so though of Crowd funding. So what is crowd-funding anyway?  Crowd-funding allows anyone from a charity to student project, even a business to gain the funds they need by offering ‘backers’ a reward for their contribution. A reward could be anything from a product (if you have one) or a one off VIP experience , a popular reward is to thank your backer personally on twitter etc. Big thank you to our first backer Scott Wilson!

Natalie told us “This challenge not only lets us help a community from across the globe, but allow us to put our past 8 months of business learning into reality.” We have produced a video, business plan and developed a sales and marketing campaign in our own time. We aim to use social media promote the business and increase sales. Follow team Keep it in’s progress on and Twitter @keepitin2013

Serign said “We are really lucky that Stow College are acting as our ‘Angel Investor’ investing in a stock of Pants To Poverty items (pyjamas, vests, pants) for our team to sell.”

The objectives for this competition is to promote our business “Keep it in”, sell as much stock and make as much profit as possible. Some of the money collected from the sales will go towards supporting the Government run farmer school, helping farmers and factory workers in India who produce the Fair-trade Cotton and the pants, the rest will go back into our college to help fund future competitions etc. “The biggest challenge as I saw it – and still do – is that we simply don’t realise what is happening in our world and the amazingly powerful and important role that we each can play in putting things right.” Ben Ramsden founder of Pants To Poverty.

If you would like to purchase items and support team “Keep it in” or to request more information about Stow colleges Peter Jones Enterprise Academy please contact Marlyn Totten.

Maggie’s Monster Bike and Hike

Maggie’s Monster Bike & Hike is celebrating it’s 10^th year in 2013 and we need you!  Year on year, our Monster participants tell us that they couldn’t have managed without the support of all the amazing volunteers who help throughout the weekend.  Our volunteers are at the heart of our events and really make a difference to those undertaking their Monster challenge!

Stow College students, we would love for you to come and experience Maggie’s Monster Bike & Hike, an excellent way to give your support to a very worthwhile charity and a positive addition to your CV!

We are looking for fun, outgoing, energetic volunteers to come and support us at our Gold checkpoint in Inverness.  The shift will require volunteering through the evening of Saturday 4^th May. Travel to and from Inverness will be provided as will regular breaks and refreshments.

Maggie’s Centres provide emotional, practical and social support to thousands of people with cancer and their families and friends across the UK.

If you are interested and would like to find out more please contact Rachel Deuchar on 0141 225 0064 or rachel.deuchar@maggiescentres.org

Staff Book Launch

Wednesday the 7^th of April saw the launch of a book of Rock Photography that one of our own staff members, Ken McCluskey, put together for the Photographer Harry Papadopoulos.

Harry is a friend of Ken, who had a brain aneurysm several years ago and is now in a care home. This book celebrates the life and times of Harry when he was working as a photographer for Sounds magazine in the late seventies early eighties.

The book What Presence! captures the essence of one of the most exciting periods of Glasgow’s musical history through the lens of Harry Papadopoulos, who photographed some of the most influential performers from the 1980s.  The book’s editor, Ken McCluskey ( of The Bluebells), presents a celebratory event full of nostalgia, pictures and music.

Ken’s book can be purchased on Amazon and all other good bookshops.

Health MOT Week!

Find out how healthy you are and get advice if you wish – FREE health check.  Next week is Health MOT week where you can come along for a free health check.  Checks include: taking your height and weight and calculating your body mass index (BMI); measuring your lung capacity, flexibility and blood pressure.

Staff will be on hand to offer advice on healthy eating, exercise, and so on if you want it.

Interested? Then come along between 10 am and 1 pm on Tuesday the 23^rd of April, in Cafe Connect on the fifth floor of the City campus, or Friday the 26^th of April between 10 am and 1 pm in Stow West.  Hope to see you at there!

ILS News of the Week!!

It is National Autism Month in April, and to compliment this, ILS has a mini-exhibition autism and Asperger’s related materials on display until Tuesday 30 April.  Why not drop in to see the display and find out more?  You can also find out more about Autism at  http://www.autism.org.uk/

ILS would also like to highlight a new gallery of images now available in the JISC Media Hub – an online collection of images and film clips access via Athens.  The new resource is called Bioscience Image Bank and contains over 6, 000 bioscience images covering a wide range of subjects from agriculture to zoology and includes images of organisms from all the major taxonomic groups.  Many images are accompanied by a short description, and the species name and common name where appropriate.  Images can be used freely for educational purposes in teaching and learning.  Get in touch if you need an Athens account setup to access this resource.

Well that’s us again for this week, but hope to see you all back for more news next Friday.

Equality and You Only Live Once!!

Welcome back to our weekly blog, hope you are all enjoying the last few days of your holiday.  We have a few articles for you this week, so  lets get started.

Equality Outcomes Consultation (12th – 22nd April 2013)

This consultation is seeking the views of staff, students, stakeholders, partners and the wider community.

Under the Equality Act the College has a duty both as an employer and as an educational provider to set out equality outcomes.

We’ve set six equality outcomes together with actions and indicators. Can you help us by reading the following equality outcomes and telling us if you agree that the College should aim to achieve these? Have we missed anything out?

Outcomes:

1. A culture exists where everyone associated with the College is respected.
2. The College’s HR practices are inclusive and fair and all employees are treated equally.
3. A culture of equality is embedded throughout the learner experience.
4. Male and female learner participation is increased in subjects where they are under-represented.
5. The College’s strategic suppliers and contractors are inclusive and diverse
6. Mental health and well-being for staff and students are improved

The survey should take no more than 10 minutes to complete. Please use the following link – https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/StowCollege

You Only Live Once!

It’s now April and the Peter Jones Enterprise Academy students are stepping out into the business world in June, you may remember PJEA student Natalie Morrison who developed her business idea ‘Business Connection Scotland’?

While on work placement at Scottish crowd funders Bloom vc, Natalie was introduced to Saltire Fellow Craig Chatwin, who now are both taking forward a joint venture ‘You-olo.com’

Natalie said” It brings both our ideas together to fuel one goal, making it easier for 16-24 year olds to start their own business!”

So what is You-olo.com? Well as Natalie explained its one place where anyone, not just 16-24 year olds, can gain information and advice on starting up their own business.

At You-olo.com you can post your idea, have it matched to a mentor then use crowd funding to validate the idea and sell your product or services with our help. We also aim to offer a sign posted route to your next steps in the business world. As well as a ‘moneysupermarket’ service for businesses to start-up, which includes services such as ‘Funding Your Business’ info on grants etc. a ‘one-stop-shop ‘of networking events, web templates, business plans and much more.

Craig said “We see entrepreneurship as a career choice. After all YOU Only Live Once!”

But it doesn’t stop there both Craig and Natalie are presenting You-olo.com to the Scottish Parliament this week and hope to secure the support of Gordon MacDonald MSP and Angela Constance Minister for Youth Unemployment for the websites launch in mid-May.

You-olo.com wants to know what you think! Take their 5mins survey and tell them your thoughts http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/M3GKQVS

If you would like more information on You-olo.com please contact Natalie at Natalie@You-olo.com and follow @you_oloHQ on twitter.

For information on The Peter Jones Enterprise Academy please contact Marlyn Totten.

Youth Unemployment Beware!!

Following the success of the inaugural London event at Earls Court in 2012 -Youth Enterprise Live hits the streets of Britain with a 12 City UK wide tour.

As with the London event the tour encompasses the promotion of employability and enterprise for young people aged between 16 and 30 years old.

With the steady decrease in unemployment particularly in the 16-24 age bracket Youth Enterprise Nation aims to continue the national trend by assisting visitors that attend each venue with help and information to help secure employment or even start their own business.

The tour is being supported by O2 Think Big, The Gazelle College network, Rockstar Youth, The Daily Mirror and Fish4 Jobs.

Each location in the UK will be represented by a mix of local and national businesses that can all provide assistance and knowledge to an audience hungry for information and opportunities.

Last years London event was populated with visitors from across the UK however the organisers realised that the event needed to go across the country to the masses in towns and cities in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Therefore came the creation of a tour that will visit each of the four constituent countries and delivers an event in each city or town to benefit young people attending from local schools, colleges or just the local area. These events offer a great source of information for anyone in education, employment or otherwise.

Visiting 12 cities and towns across the UK – the free to attend tour will outreach to a minimum of 18,000 young people and aims to offer around 2500 jobs and apprenticeships to our audience along with support and services to assist others to start their own business or become self employed. This will be delivered through the assistance of partners and exhibitors to the tour that contribute to each location.

The tour kicks off on the 16th April in Glasgow at Kelvin Hall and then visits a further 5 cities before the half term break – Newcastle, Liverpool, Leeds, Belfast and Coventry. The following 6 events recommence in September coinciding with the new 2013-2014 educational calendar.

 

That’s us for  this week, but remember classes resume next week on Monday the 15^th of April.  Hope you all have a good week.

Finalists and Celebrations!!

Time for another update on Stow College’s Blog and this week we have lots of updates and pictures for you.

Show Racism The Red Card – Stow Finalists

The Stow College entry in the FE College Category, of the Show Racism the Red Card Scotland Creative Competition 2013, from Scott Dickson, Adam John Patterson, Stephen Scott, Jay Sinclair and Colin Wilson was shortlisted for an award last month and they were invited to attend an Awards Ceremony.

The drama Students submitted a short video for Show Racism the Red Card Competition, which had the aim of getting across the message that racism and sectarianism has no place in Scotland.

Unfortunately the students didn’t win on this occasion, but were finalists out of over 2000 entries and were highly commended.

The competition event was on Thursday 21 March 2013 at Hampden Park, Glasgow and they got a tour of the park before the awards ceremony.

Congratulations to the students and staff involved in this project.

For more information on the completion visit the Show Racism the Red Card website.  To see a list of finalists visit the SQA site.

Comedy Night – More Details

For the last few months we have been running an “Understanding Comedy” short course. This course, delivered by Raymond Mearns, is intended to take people interested in comedy and get them to the point where they are ready to perform on stage for the first time. The final night of the course takes place at a real venue in front of an audience…Glasgow audiences, of course, being famous for going easy on comedians!

This year our students will be performing on the 24th of April at Maggie Mays – doors will open at 7:30, with the show running from 8:30 to about 10:30. If you can make it along for a few drinks and a bit of a laugh, that would be great and would help our students to get the experience of performing in front of a crowd. If you know of anyone who might enjoy the night, bring them along!

Entry will be £4, just pay on the door. The venue are just looking to make money off of the drinks sales for the night, so any money collected on the night will be donated to the “Friends of the Beatson” charity.

Merger Update.

The following was provided by Brian Mellon, Project Manager for the college merger.

Well things are moving along now and the merger process is becoming a lot more visible.  Our public consultation document has been sent to the hundreds of organisations that we work with, a programme of staff events is running and student events are being planned.

The Communications Facilitators are gathering questions on issues that people would like to know more about – some can be answered now – others will be when the answer has been worked out.  Merging organisations is not a rapid process, and it is most definitely better ‘done right’ than ‘done quick’.  In the meantime keep asking and remember that “don’t know” is not a wrong answer and that the Facilitators are just the messengers.

In the slightly less glamorous world of workstreams, people from across the colleges continue to grind through the process of developing (increasingly long) ‘to do‘ lists that will shape up as the detailed plan to get us from today to a fully merged new organisation.

And so to a new name……….congratulations to the several students aspiring to have the new college named after them.  Well you can’t knock a trier.

New Charity Foundation

One of our Music Business students, Christopher Loomes, has set up a charity foundation and he is organising a gig to help raise funds.

The foundation, called the ‘Kick Cancer In The Balls Foundation’ is to raise money and awareness for testicular cancer.

Chris is putting on a gig on the 17^th of April at Stereo, he has also released a digital compilation on bandcamp and has t shirts for sale on bigcartel.

This is all for a really good cause, so show Chris some support in this excellent project.  Here’s links to the Facebook page, the bigcartel and the bandcamp

www.facebook.com/kickcancerintheballsfoundation

www.kickcancerintheballsfoundation.bigcartel.com

www.kickcancerintheballsfoundation.bandcamp.com

ILS News Of The Week!

ILS now have 58 eBooks available through one of our eBook platforms – Dawsonera.  There are 2 new titles just added:

• HIV/AIDs treatment drugs
• Cancer research and treatments

Both are listed on the library catalogue, the Learning Gateway, ILS Moodle page, and in Dawson Books when you log in via Athens.  Drop-in to the Learning Centre to find out more about these new eBooks and the other  eBooks available, or if you need an Athens account setup.

We would also like to take this opportunity to wish all our users a relaxing holiday over the Easter break.  We will be open both holiday weeks:

Week beginning Monday 1 April :

• Closed Monday and Friday
• Open 10 am – 4pm Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday

Week beginning Monday 8 April :

• Closed Monday
• Open 10 am – 4pm Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday & Friday

Please note:  these times may be subject to change, so if you are travelling a distance to get here, please call in advance to make sure we are open – 0141 332 1786 ext 653.

Get Into Security Celebration.

Tuesday the 26^th of March saw a Celebration Event for our latest “Get Into Security” course. This course is running for 5 weeks and started on the 4th of March. It entails 4 weeks in college doing stewarding training, first aid, Door Supervision, employability etc all going towards final exams that will allow them to go for their SIA badges. Next week they are going to do about 5 days work placement at the SECC working for G4S.

The “Get Into…” programme is all about getting young people into work and security always has a high demand for staff. With the emphasis on events in Glasgow generally but with the Commonwealth Games on the horizon, the hope is that this demand will increase as time goes by.

The celebration event is all about recognizing the progress these young people made – they had to go through a competitive selection process (two stages) to get onto the course, and it’s all hard work and studying for their exams once they get on. They’re now waiting for their exam results and are getting job applications out there and even being interviewed by G4S for potential work there.

At the event Alex McLean spoke on behalf of the college and congratulated the young people on their achievement. Matthew Moir, part of Glasgow 2014, spoke too about the need to engage with the opportunity they have been given. Angela Renfrew from G4S was along and spoke to the students about work opportunities. Eileen Hamill from the Princes Trust compered the event and it was attended by friends and family of the young people themselves.

It’s genuinely good to see these young people come in, gain confidence as they learn new skills and realize that they are getting qualified to work in a new industry. This group have been strong students from day one and I hope they do well as they move on into work.

 

Well that’s everything for this week, there wont be an update next Friday due to the holidays, but we will be back here on Friday the 12^th of April.  Enjoy your Easter and Spring break!!