It is important that as SWRAC grows so does its inclusion of students in the involvement and strategic development of the organisation as a whole. As such, SWRAC have created a Learner Council.
The Learner Council will represent each provision of SWRAC:
- Alternative Provision
- Prep For Life
- Prep For Work
- Get Into Work
- Traineeships
- Outreach
Learner Council Aims
The SWRAC Learner Council aims to create a communication channel between learners and management. This channel involves learners in decision making and allows management to be aware of how changes may be affecting learners. The learner council meetings allow learners to share any thoughts, feelings and ideas each provision have, keeping management in the loop and the ability to shape SWRAC even further into an education organisation that has the learner’s needs in the forefront.
Being involved with the Learner Council is also a great way for SWRAC learners to gain skills and experience that will be beneficial to their CV, ranging from leadership to teamwork to communication. Hopefully being a part of the Learner Council will also encourage confidence in the learners themselves and with authority, better enabling them for the world of work. A large part of the Learner Council is learning about democracy, politics and why councils exists.
Learner Council Role
The SWRAC Learner Council role is to:
- Have an active role in SWRAC
- Inform the staff and senior management as to how the learners are doing within each individual provision
- Propose any new ideas that would be a good fit for SWRAC and its learners
- Two Reps to feedback to the Board of Governors once every 3 months on the learner position within SWRAC
Student Introductions
‘I wanted to be student council because I wants to get my confidence up. I think it will also help with my communication skills. I hope to get a good experience. It’s also good for my CV.’
Ryan, Student Council Rep
‘The reason I went for Student Council rep was because I would share my views and opinions and share feedback from other students very clearly to solve the problem/change something, or just get something all students are interested in getting for the community.
I think Student Council is great for helping students in the future and is good to have on your CV, that’s the other reason I went for it.’
Harry, Student Council Rep
Meeting #2 – 22nd November 2018
The second Student Council meeting was held at the Boscombe campus again. Due to a resignation of Tiffany from Weymouth and the new students not arriving until 3rd December, the meeting consisted of 3 learners – Ryan, Harry and Robyn (deputy rep) – and 3 members of staff – Adrian (MD), Becky (Tutor) and Sarah (Marketing Coordinator).
To read the full meeting notes, click here.
Meeting #1 – 30th October 2018
The first Learner Council meeting was held at the Boscombe campus. The Learner Council was established before the new learners arrived in November so the new learners would have the opportunity to be involved as soon as they started and it would be a seamless transition. The new learners also indicate a significant growth in SWRAC and it was decided that this was the perfect time to set up the Council. The initial meeting was small, with 4 Learner Council members – Harry, Ryan, Tiffany and Annie – and 3 members of staff – Adrian (MD), Becky (Tutor) and Sarah (Marketing).
As this was the first meeting, the majority of the time was spent welcoming the learners and the SWRAC staff who attended the meeting. The role and aims of the Learner Council was discussed, as was the decision behind the creation of the Council. Each provision representative shared some thoughts that had been collected from the learners within their provision.
To read the full meeting notes, click here.