East College Scholarship in Action - The Yarrow Hotel at East Kent College: interaction between theory and practice and its effect on learner progression

Introduction East Kent College, formerly known as Thanet Technical College, has its roots in the technical colleges of the last century and the School of Hotel Management and Catering Trades was housed until 1970 in a former hospital, previously known as The Yarrow Home for Convalescent Children of the Better Classes in Road, . Sir Alfred Yarrow, a prominent Victorian shipping magnate, philanthropist and contemporary of Thomas Barnardo, founded the hospital in 1894. His work continued until the 1960's when it became a Technical Training School. Following the construction of a new teaching block in 1970 the building continued in a variety of guises until 2012. In recent years, the building was considered too expensive to maintain and planning permission was submitted to demolish it, however as there was much local opposition, permission was refused. The building is now Grade II Listed and, following a grant of £9.7m from the Skills Funding Agency, is being converted into a four star 28 room hotel, with restaurant and conference facilities, to be used as a training environment by students at the college.

The launch of this building coincides with the inaugural year of higher education (HE) delivery for the tutor involved in this case study. In addition to several practical challenges, it gives him the opportunity to strategise how he will ensure the successful launch of a new programme of study, how to support/facilitate the transition between Levels 3 and 4, encourage retention of current students and support the tutor’s own transition into HE. The tutor is also particularly engaged with the widening participation agenda which allows for students from disadvantaged backgrounds, perhaps with previous vocational qualifications, an entry point into HE via Level 3 courses such as Diploma in Food Services progression routes.

Aims and objectives This project concerns itself with a particularly difficult issue within further education colleges delivering HE - progression, from existing Level 3 students and the problems associated with attracting external applicants. The connection with facilities and the choice to study somewhere is well known throughout the University sector, and this case study provides an opportunity to see if it can make a very real difference to East Kent College’s associated programmes. One of the main aims is to assess the extent to which having a significant work-based environment to tutor, train and assess students can influence internal and external progression. One of the key objectives is to increase said recruitment to existing and new courses, as the Yarrow will be used across all levels of teaching. The tutor has been planning the use of the new facility in a HE context for a couple of years and the design of units and assessments have been undertaken with the new environment in mind. A new collaborative partnership with Canterbury Christchurch University will see the development of Level 4 programmes to facilitate the progression of current students toward degrees via the HNC provision Canterbury Christchurch University already recruit a student cohort onto their Hotel Management degree programme under the umbrella of the Faculty of Social and Applied Sciences and collaboration with Canterbury Christchurch University contextualises their academic strengths into employable skills. Capturing how effective the development of said skills and the impact on the cohort’s scholarly activity, progression to and beyond Level 4 are all aims of this project. Due to the nature of this project and its connection with existing academic departments, work within the community and employers and impact on curriculum design, it could be argued this lends itself to all four of Boyer’s scholarship categories - discovery (new research for the tutor and team at Canterbury Christchurch University), integration (use of said information and future environment to develop teaching and training strategies), application (the employability angle offered by Yarrow) and teaching and learning (curriculum design influence).

Progress and outcomes Programme design for the HNC has already been completed, so it will be a matter of developing strategies to capture data in relation to the areas discussed in the previous section. This will include the identification of potential barriers/inhibitors to progression, whether current Level 3 learners are aware of the opportunities being offered by the Yarrow project. This could be compared directly to the present situation, which promotes the joining of graduate trainee programmes with large international hotel chains (East Kent College currently work with high profile employers which have proved to have a positive motivational and aspirational impact in the past).

To generate a baseline of information with regards to the impact Yarrow may have on existing Level 3 students and their life choices, the tutor initially approached a Level 3 student who had expressed an interesting in giving their perspective on the issues concerned with making their future choices. Interestingly, a number of other Level 3 students have heard of the project and are keen to be involved and discuss their thoughts on progression. This material has already been assembled and will be used as evidence for the project’s development. To this end, it is the view of the project data management, the organic process that is happening with this project should also be evaluated; it started with a single individual and a qualitative approach, but with the potential involvement of the students growing virally the nature of the information being gathered could be re-aligned. The next stage is for all of the Level 3 learners to be formally approached and requested to fill in a questionnaire. The tutor will also generate evidence towards how course and assessment design are integrated so they are align to vital employability skills. The title of the project includes the interaction between theory and practice, and this would be one way of showing its effectiveness. The same goes for identifying and recording the interaction with employers and industry in the development of curriculum and assessment design, with all of this data helping to explore the relationship to progression and recruitment.

Please note: this project is not yet complete and this case study will be updated as baseline data is gathered and the programme launches in the next academic year.

Credits Stephen Kendall, Lecturer HNC Hospitality and Catering Dr Chris Dows, Project Development Manager for East Kent College and project partner [email protected]