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London South Bank University has set a vision for itself to be London's Enterprising University
and as part of that vision Enterprise is of critical importance to everybody in the University.
For academic staff Enterprising activity brings them closer to industry, gives them real industry
experience and very first hand experiences to share with their students.
For students therefore it gives a richer learning experience and but also in so much as students
can get directly involved in Enterprising activity it gives them a better work experience
but it also improves their employability in a whole host of other ways.
For support staff I think there are great opportunities to improve the efficiency of
the University at the impact of our work both internally and in the externally facing support
roles. Following the success of the Vice Chancellor's
Enterprising Staff Awards last year we've expanded the scheme still further to make
sure that they cover even a wider spectrum of staff activity an staff contribution. So
we've introduced more categories, more prizes to spread the recognition wider as it deserves
to be. We're Sandie and Geoff we're the overall winners
for the Enterprising staff awards. Well we entered the staff awards because we
wanted to really promote the programme, it's a fairly new programme Clinical Technology
and we're really trying to get the message out about what we were doing about promoting
clinical technology as a programme for technicians, working with people with prosthetics, orthotics
and special seating. We were looking for a University that could
provide both clinical input and engineering input and we initiall through our clinical
contact with London South Bank, contacted the health sciences and that's how we got
to know Sandie Woods and then realising that most of the course would be engineering we
contacted Geoff Goss at the Mechanical Engineering department.
The course is a fusion between mechanical engineering and design engineering modules
and healthcare modules with some bespoke specialist modules for special seating, prosthetics and
orthotics. So it's a really interesting and unusual mix between different disciplines
in engineering and in healthcare. We've found out that we're able to work together
looking at all the different dimensions bringing them together looking at the technical side,
looking at the design and the materials but also looking at developing the staff skills
to work with people who've had traumatic injury, long term conditions and finding solutions
where there's not an off the shelf answer to a problem.
I mean as patients we helped to bring the patient pathway on the contractors and the
service providers to work collaboratively to make a course that was relevant to patients
and providers so the patients actually improve their outcome.
Sam and Steve were really important because as users they were telling us what kind of
thing they actually wanted. The key thing here is that technicians have closer work
with the actual users in other words the patients. They will adjust your artificial limbs, they
will make sure that any sort of orthosis you're wearing is adaptable and is working very well.
And they will make sure that your wheelchair is functioning properly - very highly skilled
electrical, mechanical work and they are hands on with the patients and so their patient
skills are absolutely vital. We're very fortunate that we've got such a wonderful crowd of students
here that are keen to get on in the world and look after people.
The course is unique because for a start it's working with technicians and what we recognised
was there isn't enough training for people at that level so people who are working on
the bench who are doing a lot of the hands on work with people but not necessarily having
the training, for example, degree programmes. It's also a work based programme, so it's
about earn and learn so people who can't necessarily afford to go off on a full time programme
they can be working four days a wekk and one day at university studying.
I'm a clinical technician here at the RHND, I've worked in the department for ten years
and I'm in my second year of the clinical technology course at LSBU.
I wasn't too sure at the start how much it would influence my work and my role within
the hospital but I do feel it has changed a lot how I look at what we do. Previously
it was just a systematic there's a patient, this is what they need. Now I'm more aware
of the actual health assessment and looking at what the patient requires from that health
side. Er the benefits of the course are already
being felt by patients because the students are taking the theory that they're learning
and actually using it immediately in the centres, in fact yesterday I was at my centre and I
met one of the students on the course. There he was in reception talking to a patient,
fantastic, it was great to see. In terms of developing the course there's
still some progress to be made because what we want to do is not only widen participation
but we also want to make sure people can progress so can go on to become prosthetists. Some
we're seeing are already working with the therapies and the developing their technical
skills but we want to look at where there's a market and where there's a need so people
can progress. We're looking at a variety of options at the moment so that they can take
their foundation degree to an honours degree or beyond.
To win the award is a really positive thing. If you're doing something that you put a lot
of energy into and you really think it's worthwhile it's really good to have someone else tell
you that it is worthwhile. It's a boost and it increases your morale, it increases your
sense that it's worthwhile doing that extra bit of work that you do beyond your job.
It's been a really good learning experience and it just shows we can all work together
even though services are different at times. So it's been good.
It's like two very different worlds Engineering and the Faculty of Health. It's totally different.
We've learnt a lot. Hi I'm Mark Ellis. I'm one of the overall
of the Vice Chancellor's Enterprising Staff Awards
Winning this award was a huge honour. I wasn't expecting it at all. It was very nice to be
put forward for it. It's obviously always very nice to get that acknowledgement for
doing a bit of work which is perhaps slightly outside of your job description but it's a
piece of work that you really care about. Young people who've been in care who have
left care and are living on their own don't have the kind of conversations at home that
many of us take for granted. Conversations about how parents got to University or maybe
friends of the family got to University. Some research that Sonia Jackson did for the
Institute of Education a few years ago showed that care leavers found quite a few problems
when they got to University so even when they got there and that was an achievement in itself,
there were still issues often around isolation about feeling disconnected from the life of
the University and specifically from the lecturers at University.
The programmes that we've put in place for care leavers support them in various ways.
One of the ways is that we provide 365 day accommodation for them, this is really important
if a care leaver moves from another part of the country to come and study here because
it may well be that they don't have a flat or any accommodation to move back to during
holidays. We also offer any care leaver student the
immediate opportunity to sit down with an advisor who will go through their financial
situation and make sure that they've got everything that they're entitled to.
I've had quite a lot of support from the University as a care leaver. A bursary, from the top
of my head that was about £1000 and that's helped to go towards my books as well as my
travel - that can be quite hard dealing with everything financially, it's helped a lot.
We then invite their social worker to have a meeting with one of us, with the care leaver
just to make sure there's a channel of communication between the University and the local authority
that the care leaver comes from. The role that I have is as an academic mentor
and as such we kind of have an open door policy with care leavers - it works to have an initial
meeting with them to establish a relationship but really just to be there for the care leaver
and helping them to negotiate University. Trust is fundamental and you establish that
from the beginning in the tone of the email you send to them, making sure they know that
what they say and what they share is confidential and that your role is not there to monitor
them in anyway but really to support them. It is a space in which they can feel free.
In terms of the impact of the work that we do and the kind of support we offer has in
terms of their success, their retention and their progression and them graduating I think
it is hugely important. I also think that it's fantastic that Mark
has received recognition for the work that he's done. I've had the pleasure of working
with Mark for the last few years in this context, around being an academic mentor. I just think
it's great that he has been recognised. He's just one of those superstars here at South
Bank and one that I have a huge amount of respect for in terms of the work that he does
and it is incredibly important to the University and important that we recognise people like
Mark as it works to keep him here doing the fantastic work that he's doing.