Computing Students Design Mental Health and Wellbeing Training

A group of HNC Computing students at South Eastern Regional College (@S_ERC) have designed a series of workshops to raise awareness of the issues that affect mental health

Computer Lecturer, Tracey Davies said,

“Our first year HNC Computing students complete a module entitled Professional Practice where they plan and run a training event. In previous years, students have developed face-to-face training sessions which focussed on digital literacy and online safety for staff and parents in the local community. This year, that format was not possible, so we decided to run an online event in order evidence the criteria.

“With many of our students telling us about their own stresses during lockdown, we thought it would be appropriate to change the focus to mental health and wellbeing. The students have designed training sessions to run over 2 days, Wednesday 24th and Thursday 25th February 2021, which will cover extremely topical issues for all of us including: Understanding Anxiety, Digital Wellbeing, Covid-19’s Effect on Loneliness, Understanding Autism, Understanding Anxiety and Depression and Alcohol & Drug Awareness.

Tracey added, “This is the third year that our students have completed this unit using a project based learning (PBL) approach and we are seeing the benefits reflected in their approach to the work. Feedback from previous groups indicates that the opportunity to run their workshops “for real” rather than as an academic exercise, gave them more focus and confidence. This in turn led to a higher standard in the quality of the workshop content and materials. We are expecting the same high standard from these students who have promoted their training sessions to both students and staff at the College and are set to deliver strong messages, tips and tools for coping to their peers and staff.”