Last day at CC

Hi, everyone!

Today was my last day at Canterbury College. I spent it at Learners' Resource Centre (LRC). It is a kind of library where students come to sit in silence, work, do their tasks and learn. A very cute thing which attracted my attention was the machine which gave out laptops to the students who needed one for work. Here are some pictures.

I also visited my students for the last time. They were having their Friday lesson with Silmara and I must state that their English has improved a lot. they have done a great job!

Thus, my internship here is finished and in my opinion the greatest thing about this trip to the UK was that it made me analyze and think about what we do. Thank you, Erasmus+!!!

New people & new opportunities

I had an interesting meeting with Zoran from Media & Communication department at Canterbury College. Zoran showed me the media learning environment, spoke about what opportunities the students have, what they learn and what projects they make. We have a lot in common, students work in video and sound studios, do animation and graphic design. One of the most popular courses here is game development. We visited one of the classrooms where the students were working on a game in teams. Zoran said it is a very growing business and some students have made games which were bought by Sony.
We discussed also the possibilities of send our multimedia students for internships at CC.

I have also visited our students in their companies. Jaroslav works as a chef at a very nice Cafe Du Soleil and Jevgeni is at Mulbery Cottages that works with tourists and rents flats/houses. 

 

Students' Union

Hi!

Today I spent some time with Tony Pane from Students' Union. He talked about their activities, introduced me to some of the volunteers at the Union and we discussed what the Union does, the problems and achievements they have, compared with our experience at IVKHK. The main message was that the Union aims to create a good reputation for the school through making the students feel
they are part of the community.

in the evening i also visited one of my students Richard Mägar, who works at the restaurant at a very luxurious hotel called Abbots Barton. Richard seemed to be very happy with the placement and stated he learnt a lot.

Weekend in London

Hi, everyone!

It would have been a great mistake not to have visited the capital while being in the UK. That’s what I did this weekend. London is a diverse city - luxurious and poor, sometimes ideally clear and very dirty at the same time, very green and full on concrete and glass architecture. To cut short it is a city of controversies. But no doubt it is the imperial capital and the spirit of the British empire is everywhere – magnificent monuments of various royalties, cathedrals and churches, palaces and parks. It is very multicultural, multireligious, multilingual and a lot of other ‘multi’s can be found here. The city is full of people from all over the world and especially those from former colonies like India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and also Arab and African countries.  Therefore, my advice to you is that if you want to see authentic Britain and British culture, don’t go to London but better head to the counties like for example to Kent.

Apprenticeships and Spa

Today I spent a couple of hours with Lindsey Biggs from Apprenticeships department. She spoke about the system, how it works and how they collaborate with employers. This system is a bit different from what we have, i mean the work/based learning or in/service system, but it has a lot in common. We agreed that this kind of models are the future of VET. 

I also visited "The Canterbury Spa" at the college. Since we have this course as well, it was very interesting for me in the context of organizing mobilities for our students in the future. Here are some pictures. 

Later on I visited my students at their working places and talked to the mentors. The students are really excited and love the experience they have here. The mentors are happy as well. I still believe that a traineeship abroad is a big challenge, students are taken out of their comfort zone and left on their own. This definitely brings to their growth both psychologically and professionally, and the cultural aspect is an added value.

Marketing and public relations at EKC

Hi, everyone!

These two days here in Canterbury have been full of impressions and very informative. I had a chance to spend very interesting time with a couple of colleagues from Canterbury College, see the school and have a better understanding of British VET system and the learning environment.

The Head of International at EKC Brian Jones gave me a tour around the college and spoke about their curricula. We have a lot of course in common which makes our further cooperation perspectives much wider. Brian stated they are ready to host more students, but we have to make sure the level of English of the students is good enough. Brian spoke a lot about their international activities, projects with Sweden and Denmark schools.

I had a very interesting talks with Nathan Hunt from Marketing and Jamie Weir from Public Relations, we discussed the strategic plans of the college, the shared their experience on how they build their communication and marketing activities, and the publicity events they hold. The main aim and key idea is to make the students feel that the school is their community and they are part of it. In this case the students will be ambassadors of the school.
We have a lot in common but these kind of meetings always make me think and analyze my work which is the most important.

I also spent some time with our students who are on mobility here and enjoyed the architecture and parks of Canterbury. 

7 May is a bank holiday

Dear All,

I have eventually arrived at the place and got accommodated at a small hotel in the heart of Canterbury called The Pilgrims. Since it is a bank holiday today and i was free, I decided to walk around the town and enjoy the amazing atmosphere here. The town is inhabited by around 55.000 people but I believe there are twice more tourists here at the moment. The town is full of medieval churches and houses, green parks and boat-rich canals. I enjoy walking along the cobbled streets which seem to have been preserved from the 14th or 15th century. Tomorrow is a working day. Meanwhile, please, enjoy some pictures from Canterbury.