NewcastleCollege– Providing flexible aviation qualifications to the airline and airport sector
LifestyleAcademy Background
The LifestyleAcademy comprises courses in Hospitality and Culinary Arts, Travel and Tourism and Aviation, Beauty, Spa and Complementary Therapy and Sport courses at NewcastleCollege operates over three sites:
- £8.6m was invested in creating a state-of-the-art training and commercial centre at Sandyford road in 2007.
- The £17m LifestyleAcademy was opened by The Chairman of the CBI in December 2006.
- The £3.3 million AviationAcademy based at NewcastleInternationalAirport was opened in 2009.
Training facilities at the at the Aviation academy include and outdoor Boeing 737 passenger jet and inside the purpose built 12,000m² aircraft hanger, a BAC 111. This is one of the largest training schools in Europe. The LifestyleAcademycurrently has 163 staff, 1370 Further Education (FE) and 420 Higher Education (HE) students over a range of full and part time courses from level 1 to level 6.
The Aviation Sector
Around 8 years ago One North East purchased a Boeing 737 for NewcastleCollege to allow it to expand the aeronautical engineering qualifications. With such a resource parked landside at NewcastleAirportit was an ideal base from which to develop cabin crew and airport related qualifications.
Several employers within NewcastleAirportshowed interest in developing HE qualifications in the shape of Foundation degrees in 2004/5. The companies wereSwissport and Servisair (Ground Handling Agencies), Newcastle Airport itself which includes Security, Car parking, Ground Maintenance, Air Traffic Control etc plus other companies such as the catering provider both landside and airside. They were concerned that a traditional full time qualification would not be possible for their staff because of the variety of shifts that their staff work during a typical week. In additionNewcastleAirport is a seasonal airport so it was decided to design a blended learning programme between October and April (low season) where the learning materials would be on line and thus accessible wherever a student had an internet connection.In several meetings with employers the module subjects and learning outcomes were agreed.
“We have built an excellent relationship with the AviationAcademy at NewcastleCollege over recent years, where they have assisted us in meeting with the learning and development needs of our employees. We have found the Academy to be highly responsive to our needs, in that they offer holistic solutions to help support the achievement of our business objectives. Furthermore, they always adopt a flexible approach to teaching and assessment and this assists us in balancing the need to maintain an effective operation, with the need to further develop our staff”. I have no hesitation in endorsing them as a learning provider”.
(Keith Faley, HR Manager, Newcastle International airport Ltd)
The Foundation Degree
The programme Foundation Degree Airline and Airport Management was approved and validated by LeedsMetUniversity in summer 2005 and a pilot programme ran 2005/6. The college recruited the necessary staff to teach all the specialist and technical modules and in order to offer this programme, the delivery materials were written by the staff themselves as at that time there were very few textbooks in this field. These delivery materials have been improved year on year and now include video clips, podcasts, journal articles, textbooks as well as the lecturer’s own knowledge and industrial expertise. All the blended learning materials are posted on the College’s Blackboard Virtual Learning Environment which can be accessed by staff and students 24-7 via the internet.
The Programme
Tutorials are arranged on one day per week at theAviationAcademy which is situated landside along the side of one of the runways at NewcastleAirport. This means there is easy access for those students employed at the airport. Students are expected to attend approximately 2 hours per week for tutorials with the relevant tutors, on one specified day per week. Those who cannot attend in person are encouraged to use a webcam either EPop (available through Blackboard) or Skype/MSN outside normal college hours. Other students are contacted by the tutors via email or phone. The programme is organised on a ‘roll on roll off’ basis which means that students study one module for approx 6 weeks and are then assessed and move on to the next module – the work based learning module and personal and professional development module are year long.
The Students
Students are expected to spend a significant period of time outside the tutorial sessions engaged in further study such as reading, research and work based learning. There is a strong emphasis on work based learning as in the original discussions with employers it was important that this programme provided students with a better understanding of their own organisation in order that were equipped to develop practical solutions to work based problems.
The Assessments
Students are expected to create draft assignments, which are emailed to their tutor who marks these on line and which are then emailed back to the student. All assessments are run through the plagiarism software Turnitin.
World wide students
Initially the programme recruited students from NewcastleAirport. Since then the students have come from Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Cyprus, Pakistan, EastMidlandsAirport, LondonCityAirport, Manchester and Edinburgh airports etc. In addition to those students employed by the individual airports students are now employed by BMI Baby, Emirates, Etihad, KLM and BA. The aviation world is now the market.
BA (Hons) Airline and Airport Management
When the first cohort of students completed the Foundation Degree they wanted to progress onto the top up qualification. A similar exercise then ensued i.e. various employers at the airport were contacted for their input into this qualification and it was approved by LeedsMetropolitanUniversityin July 2007. It has been very successful, with 6 students gaining first class honours in 2010 primarily because they were the ‘captains’ of their own particular industries.
“There is nothing else out there like this for the Airline and Airport industry. The Foundation Degree and the top up in Airline and Airport Management provide the students with a flexible framework for improving their job prospects and the employers with highly qualified airline and airport managers”
(Dave Shields,UK and Europe Commercial Manager for Swissport & BA Airline and Airport Management graduate 2010)
Benefits
It is very apparentthat these qualifications fill a big gap in the provision of HE qualifications within the aviation industry. In addition, this form of delivery ie blended learning,specifically designed for those in work looking for part time study, is proving very relevant in a number of other LifestyleAcademy vocational areas i.e. BA (Hons) Hospitality and Culinary Management, BA (Hons) Travel and Tourism Mgt, BA (Hons) Business Travel Management and also on the FdA Hairdressing Management.