GFTU BGCM Minutes 2017

students are already doing or workers are already doing as they become

students. I suppose two final threads. One is around distance learning,

distance education, seeing if we can help. We have got a very skilled distance

learning unit who are very capable of looking at a current face to face delivery

and advising on how that might be translated into something that you could

have more access online through a blended opportunity and seeing if we can

do something there to support this issue and, finally, in terms of your face to

face provision at Quorn, whether we can help in terms of the development of

the facilities there, making sure that they are absolutely fit for purpose for

education for the next 10 or 15 years.

That is a starting point. I think the other thing I would say is that there is no

barrier to anything. If anyone has got a good idea we would happily talk about

it. We may not always be able to accommodate it or accomplish it, but we will

certainly have a go and we are certainly very keen to carry on that dialogue.

The final thing, just reflecting on colleagues who have sent correspondence to

universities, speaking as somebody who lives within that world, it is often very

difficult to find the right person to talk to. You can have a very good link, but

some colleagues in academic departments can be quite divorced from the rest

of the university organisation and maybe not know how to get a message out,

so I was thinking practically, we have all got lots of contacts, if we could put a

mailing list together or maybe put you in touch with organisations like the

Higher Education Academy who have those mailing lists already set up, so if

you have a wonderful advantage like your essay competition, which I can see

students snapping your hands off, and if they are not snapping your hands off it

is because they do not know about it, so maybe we could help there in terms of

publicity and promulgation of advice there. (Applause)

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much indeed. Peter, do you want to say

anything by way of rounding up?

PETER SLEE: I do. I think that for a lot of people who perhaps left education early

to go into work sometimes the concept of coming back into study is quite scary

and I think the approach that we have developed in concert with lots and lots of

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