Working with the Women’s Institute

In the 2012/13 academic year a local education provider (National Institute for Women: Denman College) (NIfW: Denman College) enquired as to whether computing students from Abingdon and Witney College would be able to provide in-class support (similar to that of Teaching Assistants) to their students who were studying computer based courses; primarily ancestry subjects. The students who attend Denman College do so on a residential basis and in many cases they are using computers for the first time. The vast majority of students to Denman College are aged 65+ ladies and are members of the national Women’s Institute organization. 

During the second and third terms of the 2012/13 year a number of students (around 10 2^nd years) volunteered their time to provide students at Denman College support as they investigated their family histories. The events took place at weekends and would run between 9am and 6pm.

Although the original hopes for supporting Denman College was to allow computing students to experience providing support for computer users, especially those with little or no experience, more has happened. During the ancestry courses students were not only able to provide the support that they were there to give, they were also able to learn about the backgrounds and histories of the ladies in the room. Whilst working with these ladies the students discovered more about the history of society in the country (i.e. the class system), social acceptability (e.g. relationships and children born out of wedlock) and the information that can be collected through documents such as birth, death, wedding and census records. The students fed back that they found these sessions extremely enlightening and they thoroughly enjoyed learning about the history of individuals and the challenge of using the ancestry resources to find information.

During the 2013/14 year the approach to students supporting Denman College has changed. Previously the setup had required staff members to be available to attend sessions on weekends under the requirements of health and safety. This has now be changed and Denman College is now registered as a work experience provider for the college. As a result the support that can be offered by students from Abingdon and Witney College can now be more responsive. In addition to this the support does not need to be only offered at weekends but can also be done during the week.

 
In January 2014 the first group of Work Experience students (2^nd year Extended Diploma students from the Witney Campus) visited Denman College to provide support. This was very well received by all parties and has re-ignited the partnership between Denman College and Abingdon and Witney College. The new arrangement will allow students to provide support for a range of different subjects too. In addition to ancestry there are e-Bay courses, Photoshop courses and others. The intention is to continue developing this partnership so that it can become a staple opportunity to all students in the computing department at Abingdon and Witney College.