Staff join forces for another successful staff conference
On 18 and 19 January 2008, some sixty staff from the five consortium colleges attended the second staff conference at Staverton Park, Daventry.
The theme of the conference as around “moving forward our business developments around the environmental, sustainability, land use, and food chain agenda; and maintaining our staff capacity and capability to deal with the rapidly changing market”.
We were fortunate to attract three noteworthy key note speakers.
Peter Nixon, Director of Conservation with the National Trust spoke about the challenges which face his organisation and how with 3.7 million members, it is a significant voice in terms of environmental matters. Of particular interest were some of the challenges facing national parks and other National Trust properties as a result of climate change. Peter went on to talk about a new village built on National Trust land which has made every effort to take on board principals associated with environmental and sustainability best practices such as rain water harvesting, the use of renewable materials, and positioning houses so as to make best use of natural light. Peter gave an insight into how the National Trust is seeking to source locally produced food for sale at their properties. Any one who was not a National Trust fan before the speech was certainly a convert afterwards …
Paul Pritchard, Head of Learning and Development with JCB Excavators spoke about the new 14 to 19 Academy which will be launched by JCB in 2009. This will draw on schools in the Staffordshire area and will offer a curriculum which focuses on developing the science and technology skills needed by JCB. The academy will be built in a converted mill and will make use of the existing mill race to generate electricity together with biomass heating and ground water cooling. With such innovation, the building is likely to be energy self-sufficient. Students and staff of the academy will work to the same hours and holiday patterns as the main JCB factory at Rocester. Paul reinforced the skills espoused by the founder of JCB – Joseph Bamford, namely positive attitudes, emotional intelligence, intellectual horsepower and appropriate competencies – things which we would wish for in all our learners …
Dr Jonathon Scurlock, Chief Advisor in Renewable Energy and Climate Change with the National Farmers Union focused on agricultural impacts and opportunities arising from this complex and topical subject. As an expert in the relevant legislation and developments, and close to government in terms influencing policy, Jonathon gave an interesting account of matters current and topical trends in climate change together with illustrations of some of the developments and opportunities such as growing energy crops and producing bio-fuels. Jonathon concluded by stating how land managers can make a significant contribution to energy supply and climate change mitigation and colleges need to consider new opportunities to address sustainable development and the low-carbon economy
Posted February 2008
