Due to yesterday's closure of Southampton airport, I've had to postpone today's "Moving from Group Work to Team Work" workshop on the South Coast and stay home watching cricket on Sky instead.
Jet2 have agreed to refund my airfare to/from LBA, but DeVere Hotels are still charging me £95 as I didn't (couldn't) give 24 hours cancellation notice and won't take my weather-enforced non-appearance into account for any future booking when the training day gets rearranged.
Am now wondering how the snow is costing British industry £oos of millions a day (ref: Sky News during the lunch interval) since although I've incurred some expenses without any income, DeVere have benefitted by that same amount without incurring any costs, and the college still has the funds they were going to pay me, all the money involved is still in the system somewhere.
Isn't it?
Wednesday, 6 January 2010
Thursday, 17 December 2009
Steeling myself against the weather....
Contextualising workshops to suit the subject area of the participants isn't easy, but fortunately one of today's Research and Scholarly Activity workshops was with engineers, and the other was in an area I've worked very closely with in the past: Art/Design/Media.
This in some ways made up for today's sessions clashing with my friends and ex-colleagues' christmas dinner in Loughborough, but has now been more offset by only having to drive home from Sheffield in a very surprising amount of snow.
Can't remember the last time so much fell in such a short space of time, or when it fell this side of the New Year, but at least that's my travelling done for three weeks so it'll be "working from home" and golf until early January.
This in some ways made up for today's sessions clashing with my friends and ex-colleagues' christmas dinner in Loughborough, but has now been more offset by only having to drive home from Sheffield in a very surprising amount of snow.
Can't remember the last time so much fell in such a short space of time, or when it fell this side of the New Year, but at least that's my travelling done for three weeks so it'll be "working from home" and golf until early January.
Thursday, 10 December 2009
Strategic Priorities and Managing Risk Conference
The big day!
After 3 months of planning and publicising, 85 (who according to their feedback sheets were very happy) delegates attended what will now be an annual HE/FE conference organised in association with EIAT Consultancy.
Keynotes were delivered by John Widdowson: Principal and Chief Executive, New Durham College & Chair of the MEG Group, David Jenkins: Director of Educational Partnerships, Staffordshire University, Executive for Associate for Collaborative Provision, and Charlie Woodcock: Executive Director Business & Community Development, Chester University, and I ran two workshops on "Scholarly Activity and Applying for Third-Party Funding to Support it" with Madeleine King.
Not only will the conference pay for two weeks somewhere equatorial in the new year, but 4 colleges offered me staff development work in February/March and one of the delegates asked if I could help her put together a Scholarly Activity conference next Summer.
Full programme details can be found at http://www.eiat.org/hefeconference.php
After 3 months of planning and publicising, 85 (who according to their feedback sheets were very happy) delegates attended what will now be an annual HE/FE conference organised in association with EIAT Consultancy.
Keynotes were delivered by John Widdowson: Principal and Chief Executive, New Durham College & Chair of the MEG Group, David Jenkins: Director of Educational Partnerships, Staffordshire University, Executive for Associate for Collaborative Provision, and Charlie Woodcock: Executive Director Business & Community Development, Chester University, and I ran two workshops on "Scholarly Activity and Applying for Third-Party Funding to Support it" with Madeleine King.
Not only will the conference pay for two weeks somewhere equatorial in the new year, but 4 colleges offered me staff development work in February/March and one of the delegates asked if I could help her put together a Scholarly Activity conference next Summer.
Full programme details can be found at http://www.eiat.org/hefeconference.php
Wednesday, 9 December 2009
Strategic Priorities Conference Dinner
Queens Hotel, Leeds
Spent a very enjoyable evening at our pre-conference dinner discussing amongst other things (leaving the "work talk" until tomorrow) such random topics as phantom whippets and pigeons with the Association of Colleges HE Policy Manager Madeleine King, why there's no real ale south of Sheffield with the Mixed Economy Group's Chair John Widdowson, and how LUFC will be back in the big time possibly at Stoke City's expense with David Jenkins from Staffordshire University/SURF/ACP.
Although the company has been stimulating and the food/wine excellent, unfortunately it's bedtime as there's serious work to be done in the morning...
Spent a very enjoyable evening at our pre-conference dinner discussing amongst other things (leaving the "work talk" until tomorrow) such random topics as phantom whippets and pigeons with the Association of Colleges HE Policy Manager Madeleine King, why there's no real ale south of Sheffield with the Mixed Economy Group's Chair John Widdowson, and how LUFC will be back in the big time possibly at Stoke City's expense with David Jenkins from Staffordshire University/SURF/ACP.
Although the company has been stimulating and the food/wine excellent, unfortunately it's bedtime as there's serious work to be done in the morning...
Wednesday, 11 November 2009
Acronymed Out!
As I'm now on a train heading North after attending today's HEFCE FEC Data Day at the Regent's Park Holiday Inn, I'm wondering who decided that everybody in education had to have some sort of snappy acronym to confuse first-time delegates at these kind of events.
In no particular order there was NUS, HEA, IFF, HEFCE, TQI, NSS, IM, QAA and many more mentioned in the presentations, all of which I knew but there were many delegates puzzled by what some of them stood for. Time for conference organisers to include a glossary?
Memo to self - add one to next month's Strategic Priorites pack after I've read the presentations.
In no particular order there was NUS, HEA, IFF, HEFCE, TQI, NSS, IM, QAA and many more mentioned in the presentations, all of which I knew but there were many delegates puzzled by what some of them stood for. Time for conference organisers to include a glossary?
Memo to self - add one to next month's Strategic Priorites pack after I've read the presentations.
Monday, 7 September 2009
Strategic Priorities Conference
Having now agreed to be party to the organisation of a national conference for HE/FE - this blog entry exists only to publicise the date & venue, December 10th, Queens Hotel, Leeds.
Working with EIAT Consultancy it's going to bring together expertise and experience to assist colleges in developing their strategies to manage risk through informed choice.
More details to follow on both the main PlayingwithLearning website, and the EIAT one, but I'll be helping to set it up, publicising it to the world (you heard it here first!) & running workshops on the day.
Working with EIAT Consultancy it's going to bring together expertise and experience to assist colleges in developing their strategies to manage risk through informed choice.
More details to follow on both the main PlayingwithLearning website, and the EIAT one, but I'll be helping to set it up, publicising it to the world (you heard it here first!) & running workshops on the day.
Thursday, 3 September 2009
It's Grim up North (& South, & West & East probably)
Am now sitting waiting for my train home after delivering a day's staff development for a college management team & reflecting on how I don't miss the annual nightmare of enrolment week.
I think everybody working in education would agree that the treatment students receive at enrolment informs their impression of what to expect on their course and needs to be a positive one, but while we've been coccooned from the world in our team building workshop, prospective students have been in the main hall getting agitated by not being able to get answers to their questions as the poor lecturing staff on the desks are repeatedly interrogated on courses about which they know nothing.
Don't have an answer as to how colleges can solve this problem without securing increased funding, but until some system (on-line enrolments? in-depth FAQs? Admission Tutors? available ex-students?) is put into place, they'll always be considered as inefficient by their local community in comparison to any local HEI, even if the course delivery/management is in reality far better.
I think everybody working in education would agree that the treatment students receive at enrolment informs their impression of what to expect on their course and needs to be a positive one, but while we've been coccooned from the world in our team building workshop, prospective students have been in the main hall getting agitated by not being able to get answers to their questions as the poor lecturing staff on the desks are repeatedly interrogated on courses about which they know nothing.
Don't have an answer as to how colleges can solve this problem without securing increased funding, but until some system (on-line enrolments? in-depth FAQs? Admission Tutors? available ex-students?) is put into place, they'll always be considered as inefficient by their local community in comparison to any local HEI, even if the course delivery/management is in reality far better.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)