33 Ways to Inform, Discuss, Contribute and Motivate Yourself or Your Staff in the 2001-2002 Academic Year
Unipol Training is currently assembling its 2001-2002 programme and details and a preview of the overall programme are given here. As events become settled over the next few weeks, specific agendas will be available and some already are.
This year we will be undertaking 33 events, five of them residential. 8 will be in Leeds, 14 in London, 6 in York, 2 in Manchester and three have yet to be settled. Hopefully, this geographical spread will reduce travelling times and expense for many delegates.
Salient features of the programme are:
Three one day Modular Seminars for Senior Staff on Leasing and Outsourcing, Performance Monitoring and Personnel and Staffing Issues (TUPE) in Outsourcing. The first seminar is held in London in November, the second will be in January in Leeds and the third will be in March, again in London.
These three seminars are being held in conjunction with Pinsent Curtis Biddle and will be led by acknowledged experts in the field who will bring experience of outsourcing and facilities management from other sectors into the educational arena.
Unipol Essentials is a new venture - a low priced training option for those who are at the coalface of service delivery. The first in Leeds in October, the second in London in December and the final event back in Leeds in April. All are concerned with housing management and service delivery issues.
It is hoped that this special low cost series of events will enable those on limited budgets who find training costs difficult to meet, can partake of Unipol's programme.
Residential Courses
There are five residential courses planned. A new two day course is being held in November in York designed specifically as an induction into housing management for new staff. The course will cover an introduction to housing management, techniques to get things done, how to follow verifiable routines and customer service issues. More importantly, the event will be designed to provide a philosophy and motivation to those working in student housing in the sector.
Another new two day course is being run in London in December geared specifically at residential staff managing or working in institutionally provided accommodation. The course will deal with the special problems that residential staff face, employment issues, health and safety, techniques on how to deal with problems together with a legal briefing on drugs, rights to privacy and the development of ethical behaviour in a residential context. All of this training will be grounded in practical advice for those who have first hand experience of the issues and problems involved.
A third new two day event is being held in December in London looking at Students in the Community. Building on the success of last year's one day conference, this two day event will be split into a one day conference dealing with policy initiatives on students in the community. The second day the event will focus more specifically on the promotion of existing good practice in the sector and look at specific community initiatives. Day one is designed for anyone in educational institutions concerned about maintaining and developing a full, meaningful community strategy and day two will have a more specific application for those staff involved in the comparatively new area of community liaison and promotion. The second day will be highly participative and workshop based.
The ever popular two three day modules Essential Housing Advice and Advanced Housing Advice are being run in January and May in 2002, both in the popular location of York.
New Issues
New one day events are being held on:
- Disability and the Disability Discrimination Act
- Housing those under the age of 18
- Mediation and inter tenant friction techniques
- Health and Safety and the new Government Fitness Standards
- How to evaluate student accommodation and accommodation services and how to interpret the results of research
Special One Day Events
are being held on Voluntary Accreditation Schemes and Architecture and Design and its place in enhancing the academic environment.
Housing Management
Continues to remain a strong theme with events on Electrical Safety, Fitness Standards and Housing Management Techniques including a new delegate participatory Any Questions Module.
Legal Advice
Remains a strong theme with further events dealing with Human Rights and Ethical Behaviour, the popular Contracts Clinic and a new module on Unfair Terms of Trade.
Training Resources and the Training Team
Once again we have been fortunate in securing the services of the barrister John Martin who continues his mission to motivate and enthuse those who work in housing rights.
Hilary Crook and our training partnership with Denison Till also continues in a strengthened form - Hilary is now widely acknowledged as the foremost expert of student accommodation and contractual issues and is rightly admired for her ability to absorb institutional cultures whilst offering practical and realistic legal advice.
In the areas of Housing Management and Student Accommodation Policy Martin Blakey, Chief Executive of Unipol, will continue to play an important leading role, bringing together best practice and innovative ideas from within the sector. Matthew Guy, Unipol's Housing Manager, will also continue to play an important role in bringing his practical and methodical expertise to the knobbly area of facilities management and delivery of a customer friendly service.
Liz Beattie, from Edinburgh University adds her expertise on head leasing, refurbishment and design to this area and builds upon her broadening experience of reshaping one of the largest and best run portfolios in the country.
Philip Moxon, an independent environmental health consultant, previously working for Birmingham City Council, spearheads Unipol's training on standards and health and safety matters.
Unipol also welcomes this year's training partnerships with Dennison Till, Pinsent Curtis Biddle and the National Union of Students.
In addition to these core trainers, Unipol draws widely on experts in the field of student accommodation and this year will use over 30 specialist speakers, including some government ministers.
Aims and Objectives of Unipol Training
Unipol runs all of its training on a not for profit basis. Some modules are set at a higher cost than others reflecting a higher quality venue, greater numbers of speakers or the initial cost of putting together the programme. Some cheaper modules are cross subsidised by higher cost events. For smaller colleges and students' unions, Unipol always has a small number of concessionary places available - further details on these are available on request.
Unipol aims to keep those in the student residential sector fresh and well informed of changes that affect policy, practice, legal and physical standards. Unipol's aim is to promote and expand best practice. All of Unipol's events contain space for delegates to participate, either through questions, discussions, group work or in interface spaces over tea and coffee or lunch.
Unipol runs a discussion web site and a mailing list, Click here to sign up .
We are looking forward to seeing you in our next training and conferencing year and I hope you keep in touch with Unipol and our web site.