Welcome back to our weekly blog update.
First this week some news of an enterprise competition. This competition is being run by Pants to Poverty an Gazelle and it’s called the ‘Pantrepreneur Challenge’ and it gives you the chance to work on a ‘real’ business where you will design, produce and sell themed pair of pants. You will get the chance to show off all your business skills including those you have in sales and marketing. Not only will it provide you with an invaluable business experience, you will also have a chance of winning one of the great prizes – including a trip to India!! The competition is open to anyone from the age of 16 plus and Archie Dickson is in the process of setting up teams to take part in the challenge. If you think you would be interested in taking part then please contact Archie. For more information on the Pants to Poverty charity and Gazelle, visit their websites.
Now for another piece by a student, this time it’s by Cherry Hei Tsui, one of our International students. Cherry is studying on our HND Business course and she will be telling us about an important meeting she recently attended.
‘I am Cherry. I am an international student who is studying HND business in Stow College. I have heard this meeting from Douglas, the school Business & International Development Department Team Leader.
The visit is about the Hong Kong Undersecretary for Education would be visiting in Scotland, they would like to invite the student from Hong Kong to have a meeting. The meeting was on Thursday 15 March between 3 and 4pm at the Playfair Library, Old College, Edinburgh University, South Bridge, Edinburgh EH8 9YL.
The meeting was about the 334 system which is the new education system in Hong Kong is practicing in Hong Kong. In the past, Hong Kong is using the 523 system that means 7 years in secondary school and 3 years in the university, but now it has changed in to 334 system which means the students have to study for 6 years in the secondary school and 4 years in the university. This coming year is a special year because it is the first year the system changed and the UK and Hong Kong would like to continue their collaboration. They would like the students in Hong Kong or the UK may have a chance to study overseas.
The Hong Kong delegation were using a chatting group format. They came and chatted with you one by one, they asked about your background and the living life in Scotland. Also, they have introduced themselves and give us some advices. Overall the meeting just wanted to know more about our studies in Scotland and give us some advices for our future.’
Thank you to Cherry for this insight into her meeting with the Hong Kong Under-secretary for Education, we appreciate the time she has taken to share this with us.
Next a little health information. Each year one in 4 people experience a mental health problem. By tackling stigma and discrimination around mental health problems in the workplace, employers can make a positive impact on the lives of people who are experiencing, or have experienced , mental illness. Challenging negative assumptions about mental health problems and recovery from them helps everyone, and means people are more likely to seek help earlier and recover more quickly. ‘see me’, is Scotland’s national campaign to end the stigma and discrimination of mental ill-health.
Every employer has a legal duty of care to ensure that their employees mental health is taken into account and Stow College is no different. We take a comprehensive and integrated approach to mentally healthy employment, including promoting he mental wellbeing of all our employees and of course students.
Stow is currently aiming to get the Mental Health and Well-being Commendation Award. The Commendation Award sets a workplace standard for good practice in promoting positive mental health and well-being, supporting staff with mental health problems in the workplace and reducing barriers to recruiting staff with a history of mental health problems. There are only a handful of employers in Greater Glasgow and Clyde NHS region that hold both the HWL Gold Award and the Mental Health Commendation Award. We are making every effort to add the Commendation Award to our Gold HWL Award.
Finally for this week a wee update on Moodle. The college is currently using Moodle version 1.9. and Moodle community support for this version will end in July 2012. Moodle 2 is the latest version of the platform and has a number of changes in its operation for both staff and students. To help us prepare for the new Moodle we have been putting a strategy in place for the changeover. One of the aims of this will be to provide an ‘Introduction to Using Moodle 2’ course for students. This will be piloted April to June and rolled out in August 2012. The underlying principles behind the introduction to Moodle 2 course is that:
- It will be a taught course delivered by Faculty staff
- It will be accredited
- It will provide students with the basic skills to navigate around and use Moodle 2 confidently
- Completion of the introduction to Moodle 2 course will allow students to access Faculty based teaching and learning materials
Something to look forward to, remember to visit your Moodle site regularly.
That’s us again for this week, but be sure to come back next Friday for more news and updates.
