As we gear up for another bumper year of Course Rep Training it's worth reflecting on last year's achievements. Due to the success of our Institutional Associate Trainer (IAT) scheme, the number of students trained rose from 3,305 the previous year to 4,200 in 2013-14. Importantly, the quality of the training remains at an excellent standard - the proportion of course reps trained by IATs who would recommend it to others was extremely high, with most institutions over 90% and two at 100%.
In the coming year eight universities and two colleges are taking part in the scheme. Students from these institutions recently joined the sparqs student trainer team for our annual four-day residential training event. In all, 36 students undertook a range of workshops to equip them not only with training skills but also to explore learning and teaching issues and help reps contribute as experts in shaping learning.
The IAT scheme has been extremely important in increasing capacity. Institutions have also used their student trainers in a variety of ways, adding value to a range of other activities as well as providing development opportunities to the student trainers.
This year we hope to explore extending the scheme to more colleges. This presents an opportunity to develop internal expertise and capacity in colleges, developing the role of the students’ association and solving some of the logistical challenges some colleges are experiencing this year due to offering training across the new larger regional colleges.
David Scott, our Institutional Support and Development Manager, will be exploring this with colleges in due course, but if you would like to discuss this with him please get in touch – david.scott@sparqs.ac.uk
