The College Merthyr Tydfil visit Dubai
Jonathan Davies, Head of the AMBE (Advanced Manufacturing and Built Environment) division, and Lewis Jones, Lecturer at AMBE from The College Merthyr Tydfil, went on a mobility to Dubai as part of the consortium project managed by ColegauCymru. They wanted to find out how they could learn from a city that’s at the forefront of construction technology worldwide to feed into the development of a new A-level qualification for their learners.
We set up our A-level built environment course in The College Merthyr Tydfil and had some difficulty in recruiting learners and raising the awareness within feeder schools. We felt we wanted to do something that was really going help us achieve this objective, so we decided to aim high.
My colleague Lewis and I decided to go out on a staff mobility to Dubai and we were literally blown away with what Dubai had to offer, from the point of view of construction. It’s no secret that Dubai attracts the world’s best architects, where you find the world’s best construction, trades and everything else. So, we decided to learn from the best to try to improve our provision and learner experience in Wales.
There were so many good things about the experience. We realised that by learning from the construction industry and the world of urban design in Dubai, we could then give our learners a richer course experience. A lot of our learners come to The College or apply for the construction course with limited knowledge of what it actually entails. I think that their conception is generally more down the construction and the hands-on approach with regards to the trade areas. But we really wanted to promote the architectural side of things, to capture the global awareness of the construction industry, its diversity, and the career opportunities that exist within it.
We didn’t really think about renewables and the environment before going out there. Dubai is quite a complicated area to build, a really harsh environment. So, we began to learn about the complexities that designers and architects have to overcome when thinking about projects in Dubai, like sourcing materials, which is obviously very difficult, and then you’ve got the health and safety implications of working in extreme heat. We started to realise that there were many strands to what we were trying to achieve and different avenues that we could go down.
The main focus of our learning as staff was architecture, and the broader aspects of the build environment. But very quickly during our visit out there, we realised that the heritage and the cultural experience should be important aspects of any future learner mobility. In Dubai you find the coming together of the traditional with cutting edge technology. Our initial insight was probably looking at the traditional building methods and the souks (markets) in Dubai. And then there is the transition progressing to the mega structures, and the skyline that we know globally. It’s fascinating to see how both blend together.
Going forward we’re planning on taking learners to Dubai. Most of our learners are from the local area and this will give them an opportunity to embrace a different culture, one which is very different to the one that they’ve been brought up in. It’s going to give our learners an unforgettable experience they would not find anywhere else. The cultural exposure, the academic growth and enrichment our learners will get is going to be immense. This will also contribute to the development of their soft skills going forward and expand their understanding of the possibilities they can find in the construction industry.
From the point of view of the senior management at The College Merthyr Tydfil, it’s evident that these international exchanges benefit the staff enormously. Staff motivation is higher, and they feel more confident to try things that they probably wouldn’t have thought of if they hadn’t gone. Their relationship with the learners is also so much better.
If any college or any institution has got aspirations of fostering global citizenship on any level, this is the best way to do it. In all honesty, you can sit in the confines of a building and watch videos, but to immerse yourself in the culture of another nation and embrace it is completely different. It brings a level of awareness that you just can’t teach. Enrichment is perhaps an undervalued part of education and the spin offs and the gains are incredible. And I think sometimes we fail to notice that in what we do. We are preparing our learners for the future – an international exchange enlightens them and gives them a head start, especially for the learners who are almost on the verge of working professionally.
