Something Unforgettable for Merthyr Students

Last summer one of my 18 year old students was given the opportunity for a weeks work experience at Green Man Festival in the Black Mountains. Jon went to Green Man a shyish, quiet student, fresh from his level 3 BTEC, but left a few short days later a more confident, capable, young man.

This might seem a bit of an overstatement for what a few days can do, but I’ve seen Jon continue this approach to life throughout the first year of his degree with us.  Last year Jon; Fiona Stewart, the Managing Director of Green Man; and Richard Davies, the head of Media at Merthyr Tydfil College, all wrote inspirational blogs on the experience and the need for these sorts of placements in the current climate and industry. This year I’ve decided to write down some of my thoughts on how a big opportunity like this can have some really little, but very poignant effects – mainly in the hope somebody might agree with me and I won’t feel quite so daft for bringing them up…

As course tutor for the college level 3 BTEC, I’m faced every year with tutorial sessions which influence young people on whether or not to go to University and what to do with the rest of their lives. We run a Foundation degree at the college which is fairly popular with students who have previously studied with us. It provides a familiar and safe pathway for type of students who have the talent, intelligence and drive for higher education but perhaps not the confidence to move away and study at a big university campus. If this course means only one student per year continues on to degree level, where previously they may have shied away, then it is well worth it in my book.

… However, I sometimes worry that in keeping our students in this safe place, they miss out what the danger offers: in particular the “freshers” first week of a new Uni, where the student lifestyle slaps you in the face! You get dropped off and left in a new strange place and suddenly realise you don’t know a soul, where you are or quite what to do… But somehow find your feet amongst the chaos of cheap drinks; weird fancy dress and several thousand other people who are in roughly the same boat as you. The sink or swim moment – quite literally on some rainy nights out!

That, Merthyr Tydfil College cannot offer students. But what we can and do offer is courses that are almost inseparable from the south Wales creative industry. When Fiona Stewart agreed to be the patron of our course and to offer a work experience placement opportunity at last years Green Man I was silently terrified something wouldn’t go well, there would be some problem – surely this was too good to be true? Yet here we are a year later about to sent off four students to this years festival with a slightly larger package.
We do a fair bit of film work locally, and this year we’ve put a lot of the profit from that into funding the experience. This week I’m buying tents and waterproofs – definitely wellies. The students will also hear from some guest speakers on career development (so some secret learning can talk place). Whether it’s from the producer of the Bethan Elfyn Show who worked with Green Man last year; or an English teacher who quite likes writing blogs and will give the students a hand organising their thoughts – I’m looking forward to some improvement in their essays next year?!

Our students may not get a uni sports team hoodie – but a Merthyr Tydfil College @ Green Man one I reckon is better!
These may all seem like quite trivial moments compared to the mass influence and change that work experience can provide. But for me it’s often the little things that are most important: When we took the students to London for an interview at Green Man HQ, the parts I’ll remember aren’t the breathtaking buildings or the incredible work gone into the build up for the Olympics… but that half the group wouldn’t eat in a Prêt a Manger chain because they thought the sandwiches were too fancy, then were too shy to nibble on the biscuits that bought for them by the Green Man staff… Or perhaps the student who loudly declared on the underground that it didn’t look safe and was surprised it was still working. Definitely the one who was perplexed when he was told a pint was over £4 at the bar in Kings Cross station and walked back to the table empty-handed in disbelief.  We joked on the train back to that you can take the boy out of the Valleys… but what I’m hoping is that in taking them the 30 miles up the road to Glanusk, we might just reveal a whole other world to them.

Nicola Ebdon is a teacher at Merthyr Tydfil College