Supporting your officers when they return from an Officer Development Programme course SU Conference 2014

This session will cover: Course lead developers Big changes to ODP 2014 U-Learn Pre and post training conversations Key activities for each course Key questions to ask officers

Course lead developers David Malcolm (Head of Social Policy) Welfare and Community course Bethan Payne (Regional HE Consultant) Education and Representation course Rosie Hunnam (Student Opportunities Co-ordinator) Leading Student Active Involvement Amanda Stanford Getting to Know your Membership Small and Specialist Students’ Unions Lead and Change

Big changes to ODP 2014 Opening up the final days of Education and Representation and Leading Active Student Involvement to front-line staff Delivering Lead and Change in partnership with Movement for Change Pre-course learning and materials will be available to delegates on NUS U-Learn platform

U-Learn

Pre-training discussions Why you are attending the course? What topics does the event cover? What development objectives do you hope to achieve? What you would like to be able to do differently/better after attending? How might you share the learning with other officers and/or staff? Amanda to deliver

Post-training discussions Discussion 5-10 days after attending: Course content What was the officer’s overall view? What elements did the officer find most, and least, useful and why? How relevant was the content to the officer’s area of work? Amanda to deliver

Post-training discussions Learning What has the officer learned from the event? Has the officer acquired the skills and knowledge expected? How will this be applied to their role? What new ideas has the officer returned with? Discuss issues surrounding barriers that may arise to hinder the application of the learning Amanda to deliver

Post-training discussions Sharing learning: How will the officers pass on any key learning points to other officers and/or staff Deliver a presentation Create a blog – written or video Sharing course materials Work with other officers to see if any learning informs any planned activities, e.g. campaigns What other practices do you use? Amanda to deliver

Any questions?

Welfare and Community Key activities: Consider the role and context of welfare and community work, both on a national and a local level Consider their objectives for their term in office and the other pressures they will deal with Reflect on the challenges in policy or practice they face and how to tackle them Develop the skills to build successful campaigns and achieve change

Welfare and Community Key activities: Attend a number of interactive knowledge and skills workshops delivered by key experts Consider the importance of evaluating and celebrating their work Develop a strong network of other welfare and community officers for the year ahead Test what they have learned

Welfare and Community Questions to ask officers when the return? How do they view the role of the welfare/community officer now? Do they need to challenge any attitudes in the students’ union? What impacts/outcomes do they want to focus on this year? Who do they think they need to contact now to build key relationships/a coalition with this year?

Welfare and Community Questions to ask officers when the return? What focus will they have on the general election? What do they believe their ‘new deal’ asks should be? How will they build in evaluation into their work now? Have they identified any further training/development needs?

Leading Active Student Involvement Key activities: The valuable role of student opportunities within society Reflecting on the terms ‘employment’ and ‘employability’ Participation in guided visualisation of homophobia Developing tools and ideas for driving up quality within student opportunities Teaming up with 4/5 likeminded officers in an ‘action learning set’ to support each other over the year ahead

Leading Active Student Involvement Questions to ask officers when the return? Which workshops did they attend? How can we change and update our processes and systems to make them work better for students? Who is in their action learning set and how are they going to work with them this year? How do they see themselves as a leader?

Education and Representation Key activities:

Education and Representation Questions to ask officers when the return? INSERT

Any questions?

Getting to Know your membership Key activities: Participation in a guided visualisation of homophobia Cluster activity in relation to different questions that will explore the diversity within their training group Participate in the ‘Here I stand’ exercise to explore their opinions/beliefs (without judgement) on difficult issues Final reflection activity delivered as a ‘goldfish bowl’ exercise Identify personal learns and potential actions

Getting to Know your membership Questions to ask officers when the return? Feeling or reflections on the different exercises of the course? What workshops did they attend ‘Light bulb’ moments of a change in their viewpoint on a particular issue What actions did they wrote on their postcard to achieve in: 1 month 3 months 6 months

Small and specialist students’ unions Key activities:

Small and specialist students’ unions Questions to ask officers when the return?

Lead and Change Key activities Exploring the role of an organiser for change and the difference between a leader and an organiser Exploring the meaning of power in the context of community organising and students’ unions Negotiation skills practice session Recognise the power of a public narrative and practice their own compelling political story Developing 1-2-1 skills in a real-life listening activity Amanda to deliver

Lead and Change Key activities Participation in an exercise to explore their power and privilege as an officer Define strategy and tactics for a change campaign – whilst working in partnership with the institution/community Set up a support network with other officers through action learning techniques Fibchester exercise – practicing skills and using the tools they have acquired during the course Amanda to deliver

Lead and Change Questions to ask officers when the return? What is their understanding of power? Any new knowledge or perceptions? What is their understanding of organising for change? Leading change? What new negotiation techniques have they learnt? How do they plan to apply these? What was their key learns from the 1-2-1 listening activity?

Lead and Change Questions to ask officers when the return? Who is in their support network? Plans to keep in touch/work together? What are their key learns from the Fibchester exercise? What was their strategy for change (campaign)?

Any questions?