Coleg Gwent staff shared their expertise with a partner college in South Africa on a recent visit as part of an on-going British Council funded partnership.

Led by Coleg Gwent the partnership with Grwp Llandrillo Menai and Pembrokeshire College aims to share curriculum knowledge and best practice with colleagues at Northlink College in South Africa through visits and exchanges as they work to develop a renewable energy curriculum.

The recent trip to South Africa concluded the partnership project with Coleg Gwent and Llandrillo staff delivering a train the trainer programme to their counterparts in Cape Town. The trip included meetings with local businesses, as potential stakeholders in the new curriculum offer at Northlink.

The trip also coincided with a British Council hosted conference, during which Julian Newberry and the South African partners presented the project to the conference floor, followed by a question and answer session. The presentation generated a lot of interest from those in attendance which included the British High Commissioner, officials from the South African government other educational institutions and international employers such as Ford.

Following the event Mr Newberry said: “We are proud of our track record of excellence in renewable energy curriculum and of the opportunity, provided by the British Council, to share good practice in teaching and learning with our South African partners.

“The project creates a new curriculum area for learners at Northlink College and also within South Africa, in an emerging area of investment for the region. The trip has provided a fantastic opportunity to collaborate with Northlink College and share experiences between our institutions. And by doing so the collaboration has also brought us closer to our Welsh partners.”