On Tuesday 12th December, we officially launched our brand new, state-of-the-art T Level facilities. Joined by friends of NHC, partnered employers and the construction team who helped build these incredible new spaces, it was a fantastic opportunity to celebrate our commitment to maximising our learning experience.
The launch kicked off in our Employer Zone with a few words from our Principal, Kit Davies along with the Deputy Chief Executive of Stevenage Borough Council, Tom Pike.
Then, we set off on a tour of the new areas, starting with our new Mock Hospital Ward. This new space has been designed to replicate a real-life hospital ward setting. In fact, the mock ward is set out to NHS standards from the equipment and beds used, right down to the clearance zones between each bay. We’ve even included dummy patients so our learners can practise their bedside manner.
Our learners impressed visitors with demonstrations of how they use this zone, moving a patient from their bed into a wheelchair and using ECG training equipment.
Next stop on the tour was our Independent Living Space. Our new mock Independent Living Space is designed to emulate an assisted living flat. The area is fitted with a range of accessible technologies including a hoist, so our learners can get hands-on, vocational experience using these tools ahead of working in industry. There’s even functioning kitchen and bathroom facilities so learners can experience working with patients in their own homes.
During this stop on the tour, our learners demonstrated professional use of the hoist system, moving our resident dummy patient, Fred, from his bed into the bath successfully. Fred proved popular with our guests!
We then headed off to our Nutritional Suite, a fully functioning kitchen area designed to maximise the learning experience of our budding Early Years Educators. Early Years Education T Level learners regularly use this space to develop engaging lesson plans which incorporate the curriculum while promoting healthy eating habits in young children. Our visitors were treated to some naan bread and dips made by our learners, yum!
The Early Years Nursery was our next destination, this space has been transformed into an industry-grade nursery classroom environment. It features a host of educational toys, costumes for immersive learning and a sensory tent to provide a comfortable space for children to unwind. Our visitors had a go at looking after our new programmed babies, each one programmed to react to different stimuli. After they all decided to start crying in unison, we quickly moved on!
Our tour continued through our new Lecture Hall. This large open space makes the perfect location for larger teaching sessions, furniture can be moved around to suit the needs of each class – whether it’s smaller breakout options or a standard lecture hall environment.
We progressed into the Gaming Suite, a state-of-the-art learning environment equipped with high-spec technology to maximise the learning experience of our Digital T Level groups. It features specialised gaming chairs, monitors, a range of consoles and a streaming suite. Visitors were impressed with the video games our learners had developed themselves and blown away by their gaming skills.
Next stop on our tour was the Health Lab. This dedicated space was designed to help our Health and Social Care learners develop their understanding of the science behind key concepts like bacteriology, immunology and infection prevention. Visitors had the opportunity to explore a range of specimens under microscopes and were very impressed with our learners’ knowledge of their subject area.
Our tour then moved to our Digital Suites. We’ve invested in graphics cards, gaming chairs and high-spec machines to allow our Digital T Level learners to code and program to their hearts’ content. We watched as learners showed off their skills in coding and programming, impressing our guests from Digital industries. One of our most celebrated digital learners, Luna, demonstrated her networking skills using our industry-standard server cabinet.
The launch came to an end in our immersive room, where visitors were taken on a 360° journey through the human digestive system. This new immersive space provides an engaging learning experience to learners on all our courses, enabling them to understand key concepts in a fun, innovative fashion.
The launch was a huge success, our learners demonstrated just how valuable our new T Level facilities are in providing realistic, industry-grade, vocational education. These spaces equip learners with the specific skills needed to thrive in their chosen industry, replicating the facilities they will use in the future.
We’d like to extend a huge thank you to everyone who joined us for the official launch of our T Level facilities, we had a wonderful evening!