Learning from Experience Award
An award for an individual or team who have learnt from experience and used it to improve practice.
The shortlisted nominees in this category are:
Julie Tong
Head of Catering and Foodservice, Campus Services
Julie has been nominated because:
- As a long-term member of the Campus Services team, she has built up a wealth of experience and saw potential to improve a number of services in her new role.
- Since January 2015, Julie has delivered a clear plan for change by redeploying resources across campus (saving thousands of pounds in agency workers) and refocusing teams with clear objectives.
- She has amalgamated two teams with approximately 100 FTE staff, without significant upset or complication.
Key quote from a nominator:
“Over the years, Julie had experienced areas where standards and procedures could be improved… [her changes] will save the University £140,000 per annum, and further efficiency savings and customer experience improvements are planned for the future.”
Stephen Haley
Senior Laboratory Manager, Technical Services
Stephen has been nominated because:
- In 2013/14, Geography was one of several departments faced with a formal radiation inspection from the Environment Agency. Several areas required improvement.
- Stephen learnt from the experience, vastly improving safety and working conditions for the return inspection.
- Stephen has introduced new records keeping and data management systems, safe working practices, an improved physical environment, and team training.
Key quote from a nominator:
“Steve has attended every safety training course we have available (by choice!) and has made it his business to learn from his experiences for the benefit of the students and his colleagues in CLES.”
Josie Turner
Employment Services Officer, Education and Student Experience
Josie has been nominated because:
- She manages all aspects of employer-led employability support for students at our Penryn Campus.
- This year she took a bold step to completely redesign the Penryn careers fair, receiving positive feedback from students, academics, and employers.
- Previous careers fairs saw approximately 400 students and 50 employers attending, but with the introduction of a new suite of sector-specific fairs, more than 1200 students have been engaged by 150 employers.
Key quote from a nominator:
“Josie’s excellent relationship with colleagues across all of our colleges has meant that there has been universal buy in to this programme of fairs and has directly contributed to the satisfaction of our students across the Penryn campus.”
Business School PGT team
The Business School PGT (Postgraduate Taught) team have been nominated because:
- In 2013/14 Postgraduate Taught recruitment fell, and team developed an ambitious plan to achieve the 2015/16 target.
- The team setup a task group, working across the University to audit and review communications to students.
- Between July 2014 and June 2015 a number of new activities were added or enhanced, including live webchats, monthly e-newsletters, student life videos, virtual tours, and more.
- As a result, the Business School are expected to be over target for 2015/16.
Key quote from a nominator:
“The new and improved activities were added to the existing workload and the team re-engineered their working practises, working tirelessly to manage and maintain momentum.”
Nigel McAlwane
The Stannary Manager, Falmouth Exeter Plus
Nigel has been nominated because:
- As The Stannary [a Penryn Campus bar and venue] Manager, he spotted the opportunity for students to gain practical experience in employment.
- Using his industry experience, he developed ‘The Stannary Academy’, which offers bar skills, cellar training, and licensing law training to all students.
- Participants in the four hour session receive certificates for their CV, and so far more than 400 people have been trained with a further waiting list of 180.
Key quote from a nominator:
“The Academy has been so popular that even parents are signing up students at Freshers' Week to take part, knowing how important it is to have an employable skill.”
A former FXU President said:
“The Stannary Academy bar training was really useful for me. Although I was fairly sure I already knew how to pull a pint it gave me the confidence to say that I definitely did and a lot of other important knowledge about working in a bar environment. I was employed in a pub in Falmouth after attending the course and I'm sure that confidence and knowledge contributed to that success.”
