In this column, some of our academic colleagues share their experiences of working with Venture Matrix and explain how their students benefit from engaging with work-related learning experiences as part of their courses at Sheffield Hallam University.

ASHLEY BARNES – STAGE & SCREEN

“I often think that the most powerful learning comes from the experience of being ‘moved’. At Universities we can often be too focussed on educating, as Ken Robinson once famously said “from the neck upwards”. Emotion is a powerful tool in instilling memories and making things meaningful and, as educators, we shouldn’t ignore this.

In the Performance team we would consider ourselves to be unafraid of expressing emotion. In our learning and teaching  we think about, with our students, how you can recreate emotions on stage. The best student performances are often those that are technically adept, but also communicate the feelings of the character. However, as a team, we also acknowledge that there is a ‘line’ and at times we need to be very conscious of protecting our students from dealing with issues that are too ‘close to the bone’. Therefore, when, on a visit to St Luke’s Hospice, one of my students sobbed uncontrollably at a memoir written by someone that had lost a parent, I was very concerned that I had stepped over that line.

The students were at St Luke’s as part of their ‘Applied Theatre’  module and was organised with the support of Venture Matrix. They had been commissioned to write and perform a piece that encouraged people to discuss their feelings and attitudes to death. It was to be performed to staff at St Luke’s at Christmas time and then again for a Health & Well-being summer event called the Death Café. When selecting the students to undertake this commission, I had been careful to rule out anyone that had declared a recent bereavement in the family, but death is a powerful subject for any of us to consider.

I offered the student in question the opportunity to work on a different project, but she was having none of it. It was clear that the whole group had all been ‘moved’, but not in a negative way. They had heard stories of great heart break, but also stories of immeasurable courage. It was a sad experience, but also an inspiring one. For them the project had become more than just a module to pass and a box to tick. It had become something that they all felt was important. More important, even, than their studies.

Their performance work, driven forward by this extra commitment, was excellent. The senior Chaplin at the hospice wrote to us afterwards to say it had been a privilege to be at the performance and other emails said things such as “Wow! What a Performance”. The students are going to perform again at the Health & Well-being Death Café 2016 on Weds 11th May and are as committed as ever. After the original performance, they set up a Just Giving Page and passed a bucket round at a Performance Students cabaret evening.  This type of learning opportunity that Venture Matrix source for our students creates a powerful and ‘deep’ learning experience for them and I would suggest that, long after they graduate from the University, it will be one of the most abiding memories of their time at SHU.”

BETH FIELDING-LLOYD – SPORT

DANNY BACCHUS – CREATIVE MEDIA

“Each year the Venture Matrix provide a range of live client briefs spanning a broad set of creative media disciplines for the third and fourth year Digital Media Production students. These provide a valuable opportunity for the students to gain some real world professional experience in a relevant industry environment. The students complete the projects to produce a portfolio of work that represents the culmination of the skills learnt during their time on the course. The added benefit of working with the Venture Matrix is that the students also generate a network of industry contacts and gain highly sought after skills working in a professional environment that sets a strong foundation when moving forward into employment after the degree. The support offered by the Venture Matrix provides a secure environment for the students and clients to work effectively, managing client expectations and ensuring client briefs conform to course assessment requirements. Many students find opportunities for additional paid work after engaging with clients provided by the Venture Matrix during their studies, which sets a good foothold into industry employment immediately after completing the course.”

EVE STIRLING & SALLY BILLAU – DESIGN

The Collaborative Exhibition Project

“As senior lecturers in Interior Design, we recognised that there is a wealth of curriculum design research with a focus upon employability.  However, we found that there was a specific lack pertaining to our subject discipline.  Therefore, we took positive steps to rectify this with the introduction of the “Collaborative Exhibition” project, which involves a second year Interior Design BA (Hons) module. The project was designed to provide the students with the opportunity to develop as a reflective practitioner and progress an understanding of different professional contexts in which they may work and enhance their ability to contribute to them. By working with a range of external ‘experts’ (who offered a research topic or design brief) the project aimed to engage the public and the student designers together with complex research and societal issues.

The learning outcomes of the module were designed with a key focus on the need for the learners to develop an  interdisciplinary and collaborative approach to their learning. The prime focus was concerned with providing opportunities for the transfer of learning from the University environment into the workplace environment, and then to incorporate that learning back into the students’ learning.

Students were encouraged to be experimental in their approach, take risks through the development and creation of their ideas and to work effectively within their teams managing their own project delivery with their client. This method of working and project delivery helped students to develop key skill sets of negotiation, timekeeping, problem solving and the sharing of information and ideas that will contribute to student employability and ‘graduateness’.  Although students were supported in the project through a series of workshops and tutorials, tutors were aware that the scope of the project required students to cope with a higher level of uncertainty and self-direction than in a more formal studio project setting.”

KAREN QUINE – BUSINESS

“Venture Matrix have been the 4th Emergency service for many of my Level 6 students who need to find a work experience project to complete their Work Based Learning module. Many students who worked with Venture Matrix stated that not only had Venture Matrix been a ‘life saver’ but they genuinely enjoyed the project experience too. Often I have seen students become reengaged with their studies and the employability agenda during and upon completion of their VM projects which is both heart-warming and  greatly enhances  the student experience of learning.  As a tutor I personally would be lost without the team and the projects they provide for my students undertaking research and employability modules.”

PAM DEWIS – EARLY CHILDHOOD

“Health education, an essential aspect of health promotion, is widely recognised as everybody’s business, most especially practitioners working with children in early years settings. It is well understood that what happens during a child’s early years lays the foundation for their future life, health and learning. With this in mind, I would go as far as to argue that early years practitioners have a moral obligation to promote children’s health, through effective health education and other health enhancing activities within their gift, such as making the healthy choice the easy choice (to quote the World health Organisation).

Students studying early childhood are, by and large, future early years practitioners and, as such, need high quality education in both theoretical and practical aspects of health education. During their second year, early years students at SHU do a module called Children’s Health, which focuses on effective planning, delivery and evaluation of health education within the context of health promotion. Holding with Kolb’s theory that experience is fundamental to learning, as module leader I was delighted to discover Venture Matrix!! They were able to partner with a local school so that students can deliver health education to very young children for real (!), making their learning so much more meaningful. Not only has this experiential learning opportunity benefited students’ grasp of the theoretical content of the module, it’s also contributes massively (as reported by the students themselves) to the development of a whole range of graduate attributes, not least their level of confidence. The health day, as it now known,  has become an annual event, and year on year I revel in witnessing students move through a disconnect between their perceived level of competence and the challenges associated with the health day, to a point of massive enjoyment and sense of achievement. Thank you Venture Matrix!!”

RUSSELL JACKSON – PUBLIC RELATIONS

“Over the past several years many of our Public Relations, Media and Journalism students have benefited enormously from our collaborations with the professional, passionate and flexible staff at the Venture Matrix. Our students undertake a broad mix of professional, practical and theoretical modules and we’re always exploring opportunities to put academic theory into real world practice.

The Venture Matrix facilitates student engagement with ‘real life’ clients from many sectors on a diverse range of live projects. This real life engagement always helps students to cement abstract learning, equips them with the transferable skills, experiences and knowledge they need to make the transition from full-time study to professional employment, helps build relationships between the University and our local and regional community and sometimes leads to longer term collaborations between individual students and the groups and organisations which act as clients during the projects. The projects are usually embedded within discreet modules and clients are included in briefing students about the project and assessing the quality of their outputs.

For instance, on our ‘Event Management’ module students have worked with numerous clients including:

• AFC Unity, an alternative football club for women
• Art in the Park, a Sheffield based environmental arts organisation
• Cavendish Cancer Care, a local charity which supports local people who are living with cancer
• SACMHA, a charitable organisation established in 1988 in response to the mental health needs of people of African or Caribbean descent
• Sooper Troopers, a charity theatre group for adults with learning disabilities
• Student Sport Magazine
• Under the Stars, a not for profit social enterprise based in Sheffield running and organising nightclubs and music workshops for people with learning disabilities

Engagement with local groups and organisations – as you’ll see from the list above – is a great fit both with Sheffield’s tradition of having a strong sense of social justice and inclusivity and the aspiration of Sheffield Hallam University to become the leading ‘applied’ university.

The Venture Matrix enables identification of suitable clients and projects, helps co-ordinate communications between students, academics and clients and provides support and advice on ensuring academic conventions and regulations are adhered to throughout.

I wholeheartedly recommend fellow academics engage with the Venture Matrix as it benefits academics, the University, the wider local and regional community, the clients themselves and especially our students: it improves the student experience, enhances their transition to employment and gives them the direct and invaluable experience of providing innovative, usable solutions to sometimes complex real-world problems.”

VICKY HEAP – CRIMINOLOGY

“As part of their university course, a cohort of criminology students undertook a four day criminology event in the 2015/16 academic year, working with local school pupils to educate them on the key issues affecting the local area.

University students worked in association with South Yorkshire Police to teach more than 130 school pupils, about a range of crimes affecting the local community, from hate crime to burglary, among others.

South Yorkshire Police initially set a brief for students to support local school pupils in exploring the issues and the undergraduate students then set about designing, and then delivering, a variety of engaging activities for school pupils, to explore the causes and solutions of each type of crime.

The activities involved real case studies and practical activities, such as court room drama roll plays and creativity tasks, looking at solutions and ways to promote help services. Pupils also undertook reflective tasks to help them understand and reinforce what they had learnt throughout the sessions.

Listen to Vicky Heap talk about her students experiences within the event here“

EXTERNAL EXAMINERS

“Certainly based on student’s work I have seen the Venture Matrix scheme offers an impressively wide range of opportunities for students looking to gain experience across many sectors and roles. The nature of many of the projects means students have responsibility for particular tasks from the very beginning, hence affording plenty of scope for them to develop self- and project management skills as well as communication, team working, problem solving and many other attributes to enhance their employability and readiness for whatever they wish to do after graduation (employment, self-employment, freelance work, further study). This means lots to reflect upon in their assessments! I would encourage students who have a particular career area in mind, or who are unsure but want to try something different and challenging, to consider what they have to offer.

Dr Jessica Jung – External Examiner – Humanities – Newcastle University

 

“Students on the Digital Media Production course have a great opportunity to work with real world clients as part of their coursework. This is a valuable experience that allows students to contextualise their work in the modern marketplace and experience the varied and challenging demands in working with clients. The work demands good project planning in order to deliver a strong outcome to brief on time, and gives a great insight into working practices. Opportunities such as this ensure that students’ knowledge is current and relevant whilst experiencing delivering a live commercial product whilst they study.”

James Thompson – Principal Lecturer in Film, Media and Performance – University of Central Lancashire