Earlier this week, SMB College Group’s Early Years Education team welcomed students, parents and local professionals to a T Level Launch Event and Conference at their Melton Campus.
The event, which took place on Tuesday 6th December, aimed to showcase the college’s brand new Early Years facilities, officially launch the exciting new T Level and degree programmes on offer, and provide a forum for sharing expertise amongst industry professionals.
A true celebration of the Early Years Education sector, the event was attended by the college’s first cohort of Early Years Education T Level students, a range of industry-expert staff members from the college, and an array of local employers and professionals, including the Education and Training Foundation, De Montfort University, and a range of local nurseries and pre-schools.
Some excellent Key Note Speakers delivered presentations on their specialist areas, including ‘Have You Filled Your Bucket Today: Exploring Your Cultural Capital’ (Laura Sanders, SMB College Group Early Years Lecturer and Owner of Little Stars Nursery) and ‘The Experience of Students With Autism’ (Louise Wardle-Millar - Head of Support and Inclusion at SMB College Group).
The college’s Foundation Degree Childhood, Education and SEND students also presented a fantastic talk on the rationale around the sourcing of Early Years classroom resources.
Louise Jones, Area Relationship and Development Lead (Midlands) at the Education and Training Foundation commented ‘It was a pleasure to be a part of the Early Years launch event and conference at SMB College Group, and to see its new Early Years facilities. It was an absolute privilege to be able to share this with the college family. The ETF looks forward to continuing to support SMB College Group on its T Level journey.’
Talitha Bird, Head of Division for Education at De Montfort University, added ‘I am so glad that I was able to attend this wonderful event, as the passion and dedication that radiated from SMB College Group’s Early Years Education team was infectious! The students were also a credit - standing-up and presenting for the first time in front of a general audience is not an easy thing to do, but they seemed genuinely as enthused as their teaching and learning team. I was also very interested by the research projects that were spoken about during the conference.’
SMB College Group is proud to work alongside De Montfort University to provide degree level programmes in Childhood, Education and SEND. Courses are available on a full-time or part-time basis and are taught at the college’s Melton Campus, situated in the heart of Melton Mowbray.
The college also offers T Levels in Education and Childcare for post-16 students who are looking to progress onto an Early Years Education course upon leaving school after Year 11. T Levelsare exciting new qualifications that are 80% college-based and 20% work placement-based.
T Levels are equivalent to three A Levels and allow students to either progress on to University or directly in to the workplace. Find out more and apply for September 2023 at www.smbcollegegroup.ac.uk
