Speak out for change case study 2: West Thames College – Feltham Skills Centre
Students present their video
Public speaking opportunities through lobbying, presentations and campaign events
About the organisation
Students speak out to an invited audience about why they made a video raising awareness of the benefits of the 'safe haven' scheme aimed at keeping young people safe in their communities.
Feltham Skills Centre in West London is part of West Thames College, a higher and further education college with around 6,500 full and part time students, studying mainly for a range of vocational and specialist qualifications. The college has two sites, the main Isleworth campus and the Feltham Skills Centre. This smaller campus caters for about 650 students studying trade courses to gain the practical skills needed for careers in motor vehicle mechanics, engineering, catering and construction trades.
Introduction to the project
The students working on this ‘Speak out for change’ project were a group of 14 Level 1 Engineering students, with the project forming part of their Functional Skills English qualification and focussing in particular on the speaking and listening element of this.
Citizenship activities
At the start of the year the project began with a six week introduction to active citizenship, with students discussing their ideas - what they thought it meant and going on to take part in activities to explore some key concepts, including diversity and British identity and how communities can work to include people from different backgrounds.
Choosing project issues and strategies
The next step taken was to discuss and then narrow down students’ ideas about issues of concern to themselves to focus on for their own active citizenship projects. This had to be something specific, that they would like to see change, to make a difference in their community. This process was quite a challenge, with students having to agree on one or two issues to focus on. Eventually a point was reached where two sub-groups were formed each with their own project issue to work on, although interestingly both were based on aspects of community safety.
One group decided to seek change within the college - wanting to find out how safe people felt on the Skills Centre site and how security could be improved. They researched this through a questionnaire survey among students and staff, asking for different ideas about improvements in security. Arising from the survey results a decision was made to focus on the idea of a swipe card system for entry to the building, something already in place at the College’s main site. The group explored the cost of the system and this became their campaign - the change they wanted make.
The second group also took up a safety issue but this time in the local community with a project related to a wider campaign in London called ‘City Safe Haven’. This initiative, supported by Citizens UK and prompted by the threat of street violence facing young people, includes a scheme where, with police and council support, local shops agree to act as ‘safe havens’ – a place of immediate refuge for anyone fearing they are about to be attacked.
The aim of the project group was to lobby for support for a Safe Haven scheme to be started in Feltham and Hounslow while it’s main activity was to make a campaigning video, taking the form of a dramatised street scene to demonstrate the impact that a Safe Haven can have. This would to be presented to relevant agencies at a launch event with group members speaking publicly about their work.
Public speaking skills and outcomes
Developing new skills
Also at an early stage of the project, in parallel with the introduction to active citizenship, the group discussed their attitudes towards public speaking - if they had done it before and how they felt about it. A bench-marking exercise, re-visited at the end of the project, was carried out where students rated themselves on a scale of one to ten on how confident they were with speaking in public in different situations, including in class and outside to new groups of people.
To follow-up these early discussions and self-assessments, the development of speaking skills and preparation for the public speaking events ahead revolved around a half-day specialist workshop from the Speakers Trust, part of provision from the Speak out for change project as a whole. To begin with most of the students weren’t really keen and only one or two of them had done anything like this before. However both sub-groups grew in confidence throughout the workshop session and not only managed to improve their speaking skills but also developed more ideas for their campaigns.
Public speaking events
The group working on college security gave a presentation on their proposal for a swipe card entry system to a group of college managers and other staff. During the presentation they provided information about their survey findings, other research on the system and their specific suggestions for change.
After some delays and technical problems the Safe Haven group managed to complete their video in time for a launch and explanation of the project at a special event held at the Skills Centre. The event was attended by 40 guests including students, the College Principal and other managers, a senior police officer, a local councillor and a representative for the local MP.
Learner achievements and links with qualifications
All the students passed their Functional Skills English qualification at Level 1, with the project tasks providing a wealth of evidence for the requirements of the speaking and listening units of work in particular, with the sophistication and level of challenge in some of the successfully accomplished aspects of project tasks – in particular speaking to a large unfamiliar audience at the final events – going well beyond the demands of a Level 1 qualification. Just as importantly nearly all the students involved – mainly having been very nervous indeed before speaking in public – experienced a huge jump in their confidence and sense of personal achievement having gone through with the challenge and received really positive reactions from their audiences.
Lessons and legacies
As well as establishing a precedent and profile for active citizenship and public speaking at the Skills Centre (where none had been done before), following the events to launch each campaign there is a strong chance that both sub-groups can go further with their campaigning efforts. Both sub-groups got a great response from the audience at their launch events, with the Safe Haven group also receiving specific offers to follow things up further. This includes further meetings with the local police who want to collaborate on a campaign locally to establish the Safe Haven scheme in Feltham and Hounslow. The Principal has also offered the full support of the college in taking this work forward.
Project resources
A range of resources were created for the project, both for classroom sessions on active citizenship and the development of public speaking skills, and by the students themselves in the course of developing their own campaigns and preparing for their lobbying and campaign launch events.
What are you doing? is an activity produced early on in the project to help with the development of young people’s questioning skills – part of a repertoire of speaking and listening skills in preparation for the public speaking opportunities within their projects.
The CitySafe Haven video made by one of the project groups and described above is an accomplished and effective short campaigning film which can be shown as an example to other groups of young people.
Video making for active citizenship is an activity based on the video referred to above, which invites future groups of learners to view and critique this example of a campaigning video and to use this as a basis for developing their own citizenship and public speaking projects.
Project contact
Hollie Gillen, Project Manager, West Thames College (Feltham Skills Centre)
hollie.gillen@west-thames.ac.uk
About the organisation
Students speak out to an invited audience about why they made a video raising awareness of the benefits of the 'safe haven' scheme aimed at keeping young people safe in their communities.
Feltham Skills Centre in West London is part of West Thames College, a higher and further education college with around 6,500 full and part time students, studying mainly for a range of vocational and specialist qualifications. The college has two sites, the main Isleworth campus and the Feltham Skills Centre. This smaller campus caters for about 650 students studying trade courses to gain the practical skills needed for careers in motor vehicle mechanics, engineering, catering and construction trades.
Introduction to the project
The students working on this ‘Speak out for change’ project were a group of 14 Level 1 Engineering students, with the project forming part of their Functional Skills English qualification and focussing in particular on the speaking and listening element of this.
Citizenship activities
At the start of the year the project began with a six week introduction to active citizenship, with students discussing their ideas - what they thought it meant and going on to take part in activities to explore some key concepts, including diversity and British identity and how communities can work to include people from different backgrounds.
Choosing project issues and strategies
The next step taken was to discuss and then narrow down students’ ideas about issues of concern to themselves to focus on for their own active citizenship projects. This had to be something specific, that they would like to see change, to make a difference in their community. This process was quite a challenge, with students having to agree on one or two issues to focus on. Eventually a point was reached where two sub-groups were formed each with their own project issue to work on, although interestingly both were based on aspects of community safety.
One group decided to seek change within the college - wanting to find out how safe people felt on the Skills Centre site and how security could be improved. They researched this through a questionnaire survey among students and staff, asking for different ideas about improvements in security. Arising from the survey results a decision was made to focus on the idea of a swipe card system for entry to the building, something already in place at the College’s main site. The group explored the cost of the system and this became their campaign - the change they wanted make.
The second group also took up a safety issue but this time in the local community with a project related to a wider campaign in London called ‘City Safe Haven’. This initiative, supported by Citizens UK and prompted by the threat of street violence facing young people, includes a scheme where, with police and council support, local shops agree to act as ‘safe havens’ – a place of immediate refuge for anyone fearing they are about to be attacked.
The aim of the project group was to lobby for support for a Safe Haven scheme to be started in Feltham and Hounslow while it’s main activity was to make a campaigning video, taking the form of a dramatised street scene to demonstrate the impact that a Safe Haven can have. This would to be presented to relevant agencies at a launch event with group members speaking publicly about their work.
Public speaking skills and outcomes
Developing new skills
Also at an early stage of the project, in parallel with the introduction to active citizenship, the group discussed their attitudes towards public speaking - if they had done it before and how they felt about it. A bench-marking exercise, re-visited at the end of the project, was carried out where students rated themselves on a scale of one to ten on how confident they were with speaking in public in different situations, including in class and outside to new groups of people.
To follow-up these early discussions and self-assessments, the development of speaking skills and preparation for the public speaking events ahead revolved around a half-day specialist workshop from the Speakers Trust, part of provision from the Speak out for change project as a whole. To begin with most of the students weren’t really keen and only one or two of them had done anything like this before. However both sub-groups grew in confidence throughout the workshop session and not only managed to improve their speaking skills but also developed more ideas for their campaigns.
Public speaking events
The group working on college security gave a presentation on their proposal for a swipe card entry system to a group of college managers and other staff. During the presentation they provided information about their survey findings, other research on the system and their specific suggestions for change.
After some delays and technical problems the Safe Haven group managed to complete their video in time for a launch and explanation of the project at a special event held at the Skills Centre. The event was attended by 40 guests including students, the College Principal and other managers, a senior police officer, a local councillor and a representative for the local MP.
Learner achievements and links with qualifications
All the students passed their Functional Skills English qualification at Level 1, with the project tasks providing a wealth of evidence for the requirements of the speaking and listening units of work in particular, with the sophistication and level of challenge in some of the successfully accomplished aspects of project tasks – in particular speaking to a large unfamiliar audience at the final events – going well beyond the demands of a Level 1 qualification. Just as importantly nearly all the students involved – mainly having been very nervous indeed before speaking in public – experienced a huge jump in their confidence and sense of personal achievement having gone through with the challenge and received really positive reactions from their audiences.
Lessons and legacies
As well as establishing a precedent and profile for active citizenship and public speaking at the Skills Centre (where none had been done before), following the events to launch each campaign there is a strong chance that both sub-groups can go further with their campaigning efforts. Both sub-groups got a great response from the audience at their launch events, with the Safe Haven group also receiving specific offers to follow things up further. This includes further meetings with the local police who want to collaborate on a campaign locally to establish the Safe Haven scheme in Feltham and Hounslow. The Principal has also offered the full support of the college in taking this work forward.
Project resources
A range of resources were created for the project, both for classroom sessions on active citizenship and the development of public speaking skills, and by the students themselves in the course of developing their own campaigns and preparing for their lobbying and campaign launch events.
What are you doing? is an activity produced early on in the project to help with the development of young people’s questioning skills – part of a repertoire of speaking and listening skills in preparation for the public speaking opportunities within their projects.
The CitySafe Haven video made by one of the project groups and described above is an accomplished and effective short campaigning film which can be shown as an example to other groups of young people.
Video making for active citizenship is an activity based on the video referred to above, which invites future groups of learners to view and critique this example of a campaigning video and to use this as a basis for developing their own citizenship and public speaking projects.
Project contact
Hollie Gillen, Project Manager, West Thames College (Feltham Skills Centre)
hollie.gillen@west-thames.ac.uk