Profiling the nominees for the Educator category.
Sponsored by Agored Cymru.
This category recognises an individual, teacher, lecturer or work-based trainer (e.g employed in schools, colleges, universities, work-based training or community education) who has pioneered an initiative which has been hailed as an example of good practice in their locality, region or throughout Wales.
You can watch the video of the shortlisted nominees in the Educator category below:
The nominees are:
Scott Mckenzie, Cardiff University
Mckenzie has project managed the Discovery Synopsis: A programme of events aimed at raising aspirations of young people aged 14 – 19 with Asperger Syndrome and other high functioning autistic spectrum disorders and encouraging them to go on to higher education in its entirety, and voluntarily doubled his workload in doing so. The Discovery programme of activities (including the summer school, mentoring project, SENCo conference and visit day) are aimed at raising aspirations of young people with Autistic Spectrum Disorders (ASD), giving the opportunity to experience student life in a safe and supported environment, and ensuring their teachers and parents have access to the right information too. As change can cause a lot of anxiety for young people on the spectrum, the three elements of the programme compliment each other. McKenzie continues to project manage and oversee the work, which has seen the number of visitors grow year on year.
Dawn Evans, Ajuda Limited
Dawn set up Ajuda Limited 4 years ago after her daughter choked on a sweet. She realised that if she hadn’t had essential First Aid skills her daughter could have died. More importantly the mothers with her that day said that they would not have known what do if it was their child. Dawn became a First Aid trainer and started teaching mothers, teachers, crèche assistants, schools & colleges in First Aid.
Ajuda Limited, formed in October 2009, is a specialist Health & Safety training provider based at Cardiff bay. Today Ajuda runs over 50 different Health & Safety related subjects, we own our own Training Academy in Cardiff Bay with over 30 professional trainers delivering training throughout the UK. In addition to her role as Company Director at Ajuda, she is also a Role Model for the Welsh Government Big Ideas Program.
Julia Terry, College of Human and Health Sciences, Swansea University
Professional education programmes in Higher Education now require the involvement of service users and carers/local patients in the planning, teaching and delivery of programmes. This is to enable students to better understand the patient perspective, hear their stories, and interact with them in a neutral environment when they are well.
At Swansea University there were examples of good practice of involving local people with long term health conditions in a few modules, but no overall strategy for user involvement, and far more user involvement was required across all programmes to benefit student learning. In 2010 eight local people attended a workshop to set out what was wanted in a nurse, in nurse education, and in health care. This formed the basis of the new Nursing 2012 curriculum for adult, child and mental health nursing programmes. The idea to set up a user involvement group was agreed. In 2010, Terry was awarded a Florence Nightingale travel scholarship to explore best practices and processes in user involvement, and visited 15 universities across the UK and Ireland. Led by Terry the findings were then implemented at Swansea University, which included a user involvement strategy, a user involvement training programme, and clear payment processes, which has resulted in improved outputs for students, service users and staff. Terry is now the College’s strategic lead for service user and carer involvement.
