This week (5-9 March) marks the 11th annual National Apprenticeship Week.

The week provides an opportunity to celebrate, promote apprenticeships and explore how Apprenticeships can benefit people and organisations. To show our support for Apprenticeships within Kent for both employees and academic schools (who want to explore how to deliver them), the Learning & Organisational Development Team and the Centre for Higher and Degree Apprenticeship wish to invite any member of staff to join us to learn what Apprenticeships can offer you, at our Apprenticeships Tea & Talk.

The sessions will take place on:

• Thursday 8 March at Medway campus (Rochester Boardroom) from 15.00-16.00
• Friday 9 March at Canterbury Campus (Darwin Boardroom) from 10.00-11.00

Apprenticeships are paid jobs that incorporate on and off the job training. A successful apprentice will qualify with a nationally recognised qualification/standard on completion of their apprenticeship.There are no age limits and existing staff can access training via the levy as well as new recruits.

With a large range of standards available that can support and develop staff, different levels of apprenticeship allow people of all levels of experience and capability to access structured training and development. Levels vary from intermediate level 2, advanced level 3 and higher level 4, 5, 6 (equivalent to Certificate, Foundation degree and above) and 7 (equivalent to Masters).

At the Tea & Talk will be representatives of Learning & Organisational Development and the Centre for Higher & Degree Apprenticeships.

Employee Apprenticeship Support, the Learning & Organisational Development Team are on hand to support any staff member who is looking to develop their skills by completing an Apprenticeship Programme. There are many Apprenticeships to choose from that can support staff in many different roles.

The Centre for Higher & Degree Apprenticeships (CHDA) supports opportunities for Academic Schools and Centres to develop new Higher and Degree Apprenticeship Programmes. The next round of internal funding to support programme development in Schools and Centres will be announced in March. CHDA can provide advice about opportunities available to develop programmes and the support CHDA offers Schools and Centres including programme recruitment and administration.

For further information contact: Loretta Izod (L&OD), ext 16567/email l.j.izod@kent.ac.uk or Hannah Sullivan-Guckian (CHDA), ext 8467/email h.sullivan-guckian@kent.ac.uk

This is to bring you up-to-date with the latest situation regarding the industrial action involving some members of staff at Kent who are members of the Universities and Colleges Union (UCU). The dispute is over proposed changes to the Universities’ Superannuation Scheme (USS), one of the pension schemes provided by universities for their employees.

This a national dispute concerning a large pension scheme involving many UK higher education employers, whose interests are represented by Universities UK (UUK). Although, we are not free to resolve this dispute on our own, or with our own staff, we have been lobbying hard to encourage those involved to return to discussions to reach a resolution.

Therefore, we welcome the announcement that UCU and UUK have agreed to involve the national conciliation service ACAS in the next stage of their talks to help reach an agreement.

In the light of this recent news, the University has made an offer to all members of staff who have taken industrial action over the past five days. If they agree to suspend their action and now work normally, we will not deduct any pay for lost working time. We are aware that some of those taking industrial action have described this as a bribe, and regret the use of such language in response to an offer which was made in good faith and which is in line with our ongoing commitment to minimise the impact of this action on our students.

We have now heard from the local UCU that this offer has been rejected outright but we will continue to keep our offer on the table. Our aim is to ensure our students are not disadvantaged by this industrial action and, as such, we have a duty to try to move this situation forward. A continuation of this action can only have an increasingly negative impact on our students.

We truly hope that the national discussions lead to a resolution in the very near future. There is no doubt that this is a difficult situation for all concerned and, while we have the greatest sympathy with those who have concerns about the future of the pension scheme, the interests of our students remain at the forefront of our activities.

In the meantime, all students should work on the basis that your studies will continue as normal, unless told otherwise. This means aiming to attend scheduled teaching, completing and submitting assessments by the relevant deadlines, and continuing to plan for any examinations.

Further information, including FAQs, is available here (https://www.kent.ac.uk/academic/industrial-action/index.html).

Kent’s outreach debating programme aims to raise the speaking and listening, confidence, teamwork and leadership skills of secondary school students and we are recruiting Kent students to work as tutors to help deliver the programme.

Working hours are variable and flexible, on campus and in secondary schools, and will generally be Monday to Friday 09.00 – 15.00. Previous experience of debating is not essential as full training will be provided.

Salary is £14.99 per hour.

How to apply:

Email your name and a short statement explaining why you would like to be a tutor to outreach@kent.ac.uk .

Application deadline: Thursday 22 March

Assessment and Selection Day: Saturday 24 March, Canterbury

If you have any questions, or would like further information, please email outreach@kent.ac.uk .

To find out more about Kent’s outreach programme please visit our website.

The Centre for English and World Languages (CEWL) is offering Individual Writing Tutorials to give you the opportunity to discuss your academic writing with a member of staff from CEWL.

Advice will be given on the language, structure and coherence and cohesion of your work. Individual sessions last 20-30 minutes each and are free of charge.

Tutorials are available all year. To make an appointment, please email us at cewl@kent.ac.uk.

Please note that this is not a proof-reading service.

Following yesterday’s (27 February) informal talks between representatives of UUK and UCU aimed at finding a way forward and resolving the current USS related dispute, we have been advised by UUK that the talks were positive and that UCU proposed a further potential solution, closer to the employer position, which can form the basis of further talks.  Both sides agreed to involve ACAS in the next stage of their discussions.

The University is pleased that there seems to have been this progress, in line with the representations we have made to both UCU and UUK to return to discussions. We are writing now to all staff at the University to ask all those who have participated or intend to participate in the industrial action to suspend their action in the interests of our students whilst these negotiations continue. In return for the suspension of action locally, the University would not make any deductions from those staff who participated in the first five days of industrial action.

I am writing to acknowledge the difficult situation we all find ourselves in with regard to the national situation on USS pensions. I absolutely respect colleagues’ right to take action in the way they are, in response to a situation that we all thought had been resolved a few years ago now. I and many of us across the University have urged for, and will continue to urge for, ongoing discussions at national level to resolve this issue and have consistently raised questions over the decision to de-risk the USS investment strategy with UUK and USS. However, we recognise that there are pressures from the Pensions Regulator and from other member universities to ensure that the scheme has a lower risk profile and that the Joint Negotiating Committee has had to balance the competing views. We all wish to see a sustainable pension scheme that does not require revision every few years, with the uncertainty and disruption that would be brought by this.

In the meantime we are seeking to mitigate, as far as is possible, any impact of the proposed industrial action on our students by implementing approaches adopted in the past at Kent. We will keep our colleagues and our students up to date as the situation relating to any strike action unfolds. Please visit the following web pages for more information and our position statement on this issue: www.kent.ac.uk/human-resources/pensions/uss-industrial-action2018/

Karen
Professor Karen Cox | Vice-Chancellor and President

The Learning & Organisational Development team has been developing a Women’s Leadership programme. This pilot programme has been targeted at women across the University both professional and academic staff and who have previously completed the University’s LASR (Leadership for Areas of Significant Responsibility) programme.

The purpose of this programme,  is to deliver four high level workshops, each individually designed to complement and enhance the learning from the central LASR programme, whilst exploring new innovative leadership capabilities exclusively for women leaders at Kent, so they feel equipped, and empowered to challenge the current leadership gender imbalance.

The first workshop took place in January which included an external facilitator discussing Women’s Leadership: Perception vs Reality. The feedback received from the cohort was very encouraging and positive:

“Excellent opportunity to share views and experiences”

“Chance to understand and work on the issues faced by women outside the university, because it put our experience at Kent into perspective”

“I was heartened to see the amount of support and dedication for women’s leadership in the learning and organisational development team. I thought the session with the external facilitator was very good in terms of addressing personal and emotional barriers to feeling confident at work”

There will be a further three, half-day workshops running over a five-month period, focusing on the themes of:

• Strategic Career Planning and Management
• Work life balance: The challenges and adjustments
• Leading through Change Creatively and Dynamically

The overall structure and content of the programme has been overseen by the Learning & Organisational Development team.

Any questions regarding the programme, please contact Lucy Fuller, Senior L&OD Coordinator l.d.fuller@Kent.ac.uk

Dr Ruth Herbert, Lecturer in Music Performance in the School of Music and Fine Art, will perform with her trio Table Music at Schott Music, London on Friday 2 March, from 19.30-21.30.

They will be joined by renowned jazz pianist Tim Richards and Ruth’s daughter Asha Parkinson (BBC Young Jazz Musician Award semi-finalist 2016) on soprano sax for an evening of music featuring contemporary, jazz and world influences.

The evening will include commissioned works from Tim and Asha, plus works by Piazzolla and Zimmerli.

For reservations, ring Schott Music: 0207 534 0710. Tickets: £10 (full-time students £5) https://schottmusiclondon.com/

Formed early in 2017, and at core a piano trio, Table Music break new ground with a focus on new, recent and 20th century music displaying a rich mix of influences: contemporary classical, jazz and world, sometimes incorporating improvisation and other instruments. An album is planned for 2019.

As a professional pianist, Ruth has performed with various ensembles, notably recording soundtracks for silent films commissioned by the British Film Institute (BFI) with the piano trio Triptych, subsequently touring these works at major venues in the UK and USA (eg Barbican and Lincoln Centres).

Academic positions held include Head of Performance Studies at Dartington College of Arts and Lecturer in Music for the Open University. Prior to her appointment at Kent, Ruth held a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Faculty of Music, University of Oxford and a Junior Research Fellowship at Jesus College, Oxford.