it's been eFIXX's absolute pleasure to get out and start doing college connections
and the first one we've done we've come down to London we've come to Waltham Forest to see Craig
Buist and the team down here and we're just going to go through in this video some of the
things we got up to so in case you're thinking about having a college connection from eFIXX
you get an understanding of what the day looks like Craig what did your learners get out of the
experience that we've given them in the last 12 hours well for us it's been great because
they've gone from having talks generally about industry experience that hearing from somebody
who's not their teacher every day which is like the parent syndrome isn't it yes and having that
different exposure with yourself and Shahid and looking at the Regs and the input but also the
master classes that have been taken place they're developing working my level three students on the
testing and challenging them that step further that's slightly outside of the course but still
stretching them to what they need for the real world it's been a real benefit to us so when
other colleges looking at and thinking shall we have a fix team come in and spend a day with us
you think possibly it's a benefit for us to come in 100 at no point can employer engagement ever
be a bad thing and that training and empowering and opening up students eyes to cpd events and
other options that are out there and different possible career opportunities that have taken
place in talks over the last few days have been really helpful yeah and from my point of view it's
really lovely to get in front of students again and talk about some of the things that we offer
at ethics so we we talked about the cpds and we've been given every learner that we've touched a safe
isolation kit and on that safe isolation kit is a link to the cpd so they can add a certificate
to their portfolio and we've found that quite interesting people are going one hour's worth
of learning i can get a certificate and the ones that it's dropped for they're thinking that makes
them maybe more employable yeah and that's been a huge asset is to have those conversations around
actually how are you different to the 20 other people going for the same job and
using the certificates using cpd using some of their experience conversations around social
media they're not always the most forthcoming conversations happening in a college and therefore
it's really good to see that insight taking place yeah and you touched on it somebody else telling
them stuff that the colleges have been saying and i back the colleges i've been a former college
lecturer myself i'm actually on your side but it's nice to be maybe in between as well and sort of
say to learners maybe if you were 30 years old and you came and met your 16 year old self
maybe some of the information the college lecturers and on say in would be helpful maybe to
get into the industry and certainly make the most of your opportunity and we're all about that efix
making the most of the opportunity we understand that some learners won't continue on necessarily
to be electricians but i would like to say at waltham forest how polite and how respectful every
learner's been and no rude words either haven't heard anything like that so even if potentially
they don't go on and complete their dream which i think here and we'll talk about the facility
in a minute they've got a great opportunity actually we're getting well-rounded people for
the workplace which is also important for me now i've looked at your facilities and we know it's
a work in progress but you've got some fantastic new innovations within your college and this is
something that we'd like all colleges to really grasp and you've had to push personally on social
media yeah an area you're really comfortable with social media or not great i hate social media
but for me if we want to be putting colleges in the next step and actually closing that gap
that we've all seen over the years of industry and education we can't keep saying the same thing city
and guilds or eel courses aren't good enough what are we doing in that bit in the middle and for me
that meant i had to put myself out there and it's had some good benefits for us
good and i think Shahid gonna also who's coming on this from the ECA he's going to take this up
as well but i've seen an air source heat pump i've seen a EV charger i've seen smart technology in
the form of control 4 which i'd like to say from my experience in FE is way above and beyond but is
it surely this is things that our learners should be touching and experiencing so we can best meet
the needs of industry so we can get somewhere closer to what they're going to be doing in the
real world as well as understanding those basics isn't it we've been clipping cables to boards
we've been bending conduit we've been looking at simple tests but it's that added value and i think
here at wolf and forest you add in value Craig which is really good to see so your roundup words
for people that are considering maybe having an ethics college connections what would you suggest
definitely do it the involvement and support from the team has been great it's not just
the last 12 hours you've seen on social media it's been a whole journey into this point and
the knowledge for teachers for students for staff and everybody in around that environment has just
been really powerful to see and the impact is having on students that want to be here want
to be in these sessions wanting to be meeting the eFIXX team is incredible and really helpful
to us thank you team at eFIXX would also like to thank the brands have supported us we've brought
you in tools we've brought you in different connectors we've got that safe isolation kit
and the one thing that i was really keen to do was bring more visual display boards out
that show the latest technologies and some of those great companies that are supporting
us on this eFIXX college connections doing them every year we're in 2022 now we're obviously
taking effectively bookings for 2023 Craig suggests it's a good idea i'd love to get out
to more colleges so we'd like you to interact with us we'll leave a link in the description
we can reach out to us on efix.co.uk reach out to us and say you'd like to be added to the college
connections and maybe we can get out and see you at some point in the future thank you very much