South West College played host to the Higher Education Enhancement Conference in it’s Dungannon campus. This was the first in a series of collaborative events that will be designed to support continuous personal development within the Higher Education sector.
Approximately 70 delegates from across the sector attended the event. Staff from the six regional further education (FE) colleges, work shop facilitators, representatives from the Department for Employment and Learning (DEL), Department of Education (DE) and Pearson’s, as well as, key note speaker Barbara Edwards from the Quality Assurance Authority (QAA) were all present.
The rationale for this conference is to bring those who teach and manage higher education in further education colleges in NI together, so collectively we can begin to explore what this concept means in practice and decide what steps we can take to improve the learning experiences for our Higher Education students.
Gerry Campbell, CEO, Colleges Northern Ireland said:
"The further education colleges continue to make a vital contribution to the delivery of higher education. Nearly 20 per cent of all higher education students in Northern Ireland are studying at one of our six regional further education (FE) colleges - where they are equipped with valuable professional and technical skills to compete on today's workforce.
This event is the first in a series of continuous professional development conferences being organised across the FE sector and is evidence of the strength of collaboration and eagerness for sharing of best practice between out six economic powerhouses"
Elizabeth Shackels, Quality Manager, commented on the success of the event
“South West College was honoured to host the first of six collaborative events. It is important to deliberate the steps we take as educators to promote the quality of learning opportunities and by sharing good practice, together as a region. We were delighted to hear that the delegates and facilitators found the workshops inspiring, engaging and innovative and we look forward to the next events in the series.”