The Buddy Scheme is back for a third year and there's still time to sign up before the deadline on Friday 18th October 2024!
Aimed at student engagement practitioners working in students' associations and institutions across Scotland, by signing up to the scheme, you are paired with a buddy, to give you the opportunity to discuss and have a sounding board external to your own institution.
Last year we had 8 pairs signed up, some of them returning from the previous year. Participants worked in 12 different institutions, neatly split into 6 colleges and 6 universities.
As part of the evaluation of the scheme, buddies were asked to provide some feedback on the scheme. Among the replies, participants reported they were able to meet at least three times in the academic year, both in person and online, with some suggesting it would be interesting to visit each other’s institutions to see how things run in a different organisation.
Topics discussed were not always pre-arranged, however they spanned from recurring themes that they were dealing with, student engagement, course rep system, elections and governance.
All buddies said it was a positive experience that they would like to carry on going forward. For one participant, it was very valuable to have someone to talk to who is in a similar work position, as sometimes the role could feel a bit isolating.
The Buddy scheme fits within sparqs resources for professional development for students’ associations' academic co-ordinators. See our Induction guide for Academic Representation Co-ordinators, which is updated annually, the new version of which will be published soon.
Sign up for 2024-25…
If you are interested in signing up this year, you can do that by completing the online registration form by Friday 18th October 2024.
Queries
For any further details, please contact Gloria Laurini, Development Consultant - gloria.laurini@sparqs.ac.uk.
