But that’s months away!?

Have you ever wondered what goes in to planning all of our courses? Well…it starts a lot earlier than you might think! Just to give you an idea of the timescales we have to work to so that we can provide everyone with the courses that they would like to do, we have to book in courses a minimum of 10 weeks before it’s due to start. This way, we have time to let people know the course is happening, allow people time to book their places and then give our tutors time to make any changes needed for any of our students’ needs. It’s also why we close our courses for enrolment 2 weeks before their start dates.

This is what our college coordinator’s year’s look like (and remember, this is the minimum that they plan in advance).

Course delivery dates

September

October

November

December

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

Term

Term 1

Term 2

Term 3

Holidays

Course scheduling dates (to achieve course delivery dates)

January course deadline

February course deadline

March course deadline

NA

April course deadline

May course deadline

June course deadline

July course deadline

NA

September course deadline

October course deadline

November-December course deadline

As well as this, our coordinators meet with the rest of the team during our regular inset days to discuss our annual planning data, evaluation data and student/tutor feedback to work out what needs to run where, when and how, which courses are still needed and which might need to be parked as they’ve fulfilled their need. They also ensuring that tutors who facilitate multiple sessions with us don’t have any clashing commitments, that they have time to travel between venues and that they have the appropriate equipment for the courses.

So, when a coordinator gets in touch with a partner, volunteer or other co-facilitator to discuss the delivery of something, they have to know everyone’s schedules and be aware of all the cogs in the machine months in advance!! They also only get two months a year where they aren’t scheduling courses; around these times they spend more time working on other projects around college and course improvement, volunteers, forward planning, promotion and engagement, venues, risk and their own career development.

To find out more about our wonderful coordinators and their busy weeks, why not read their “a week in the life of” blogs, posted in 2024:

A week in the life of…Doz – Wakefield Recovery and Wellbeing College

A week in the life of…Emily – Wakefield Recovery and Wellbeing College

A week in the life of…Rachel – Wakefield Recovery and Wellbeing College