Working closely with NSoAS, the National Society of Apprentices Scotland, and the National Union of Students, sparqs is preparing for a series of apprentice voice events across Scotland to coincide with Scottish Apprenticeship Week, running from 29th February to 4th March 2016.
With an increasing emphasis on improving the learning experience of apprentices coming through at a national level, and increased drives by the Scottish and UK governments to get more young people into apprenticeships, there is a renewed focus on the quality of that experience.
Part of sparqs’ work with NUS is to support the work of NSoAS, speaking to as many apprentices as possible to equip them to have their say about what they want their learning to look like. With the emphasis sparqs places on the quality of the learning experience, we will be focusing on how apprentices can have more influence on their own learning, especially with regard to matching up what apprentices learn in college with what they learn on the job.
sparqs is also working on a project that will see us working across Scotland with engineering and construction apprentices within businesses to carry out apprentice voice training. Aiming to build the capacity of businesses to increase their apprentices’ involvement in the curriculum, and to open up spaces for apprentices at work to talk about their work and what they learn, we are piloting this project in the first quarter of 2016.
At sparqs we think that learners are experts in their own learning. Apprentices are both workers and students, and as such they should also have the opportunity to feed back about how they learn and where they learn. Whether this is content of the courses they take at college, or the methods of training and teaching they get on site, apprentices should have their say.
NUS UK has already contacted the colleges involved, so watch this space for the reports from the events!
For further information please contact Phil McGuinness, Development Consultant – phil.mcguinness@sparqs.ac.uk
