As UEL is a careers-led university, we understand the importance of a comprehensive re-skilling plan due to the rising unemployment in the UK because of the pandemic. For example, UEL has a Knowledge Dock Business and Innovation Centre that continues to encourage and support all alumni and students in any start-ups or entrepreneurial journeys.
Here are a few more examples of how UEL continue to highlight the differences that we are trying to make to local places and communities, either through a partnership with a voluntary sector organisation, local government, or industry – or collaborating with employers on education and training in order to meet skills needs.
Project partners: NHS and UEL School of Health, Sport and Bioscience
Advocates: Jane Perry, Dean of Health, Sport and Bioscience and Rob Waterson — Director of Careers and Enterprise, School of Health, Sport and Bioscience
The NHS has been instrumental in supporting our country during Covid-19. UEL has stepped in to support the NHS through various examples: From providing vaccinations to the homeless in the local Borough through to students manning a testing centre on campus, it’s been hands-on. Senior lecturer, Earle Abrahamson, has also been instrumental in successfully working to re-categorise soft tissue therapy in-line with healthcare provision – allowing hundreds of practitioners to remain operational, and patients to receive treatment throughout the pandemic.
The latest example is that of the NHS Nightingale hospital which had become a focal point in the country’s efforts to cope with the pandemic, opened in record time and manned by students, professionals and volunteers alike. Given its transient nature, the hospital was given just a fortnight’s closure notice in early March, leaving hundreds of staff needing to quickly plan their next steps.
Rob Waterson from UEL volunteered to step forward, delivering a presentation to over 60 staff, to talk them through of the range of possibilities open to them at the University of East London. From zero-cost, short courses looking at general healthcare through to the pathways available in a range of other disciplines – nursing, physiotherapy, and social care, among others – Rob then followed up directly with close to 20 Nightingale staff to advise on their future plans.
Rob Waterson said, “Playing an active role in our community is important to us, and we will continue to provide support for Nightingale staff seeking their next step, be it in the classroom or professionally.”
Participants will reflect on the nature of their surroundings and in turn, their surroundings will be reflected back to them through radio installations and performance workshops, led by UEL students. The brickmakers will learn about the history of bricks and brickmaking, labour and construction, the commodification of housing and the very earth beneath their feet as they work.
The event will begin with a week-long residency for the young brickmakers and conclude with an open weekend for the public to enjoy the artistic expression of Newham young people in a safe and accessible environment. This has been an ongoing project during lockdown, but the final performance will take place end of May 2020.
The Shed-Life project was launched in 2018, with funding from the National Lottery and others, by residents of the Thames View Tenants Association, Humourisk director Susie Miller, and community and business partners. These groups partnered with the University of East London to design a next- generation ‘super shed’.
The exterior design began in 2019 courtesy of UEL’s postgraduate architecture programme, led by Alan Chandler. In October 2020, postgraduate interior design students, led by course leader Dr Anastasia Karandinou, began designing the interior of the shed with concepts developed in consultation with the local community. The build is due in summer 2021.
Susie Miller Oduniyi, artistic director of engagement enterprise Humourisk, a project partner, said, “Collaborating with UEL’s MA Architecture and Interior Design students and their lecturers has been an amazing experience for the Shed-Life steering group, giving us the opportunity to co-design an inspiring and ambitious ‘shed’ that exceeded our expectations.
“This project engages many who have not had very positive experiences of formal education; co-designing the shed with UEL has exposed the group to an academic environment and given them an understanding of the complexity and considerations of user-centred design. UEL listened and respected the expertise of the steering group as local people and the process has kept the project alive and vital during a very challenging year.”