Reaseheath’s Brazilian partnership continues to flourish
International links with similar training organisations in Brazil continue to flourish with an expanding programme of exchange visits and discussions.
Following the success of ‘Skills without Borders’, an Association of Colleges’ pilot social mobility scheme in which six vocational students from Brazil joined Reaseheath courses for two months, a second delegation of government officials and educationalists have visited Reaseheath to learn more about us.
Caption 2: Mark Harris signs the visitor’s book in the British Embassy in Brasilia
Assistant Dean Mark Harris has also been on a reciprocal visit to the Minas Gerais region of Brazil and has continued meaningful talks with CEFET-MG, a federation of vocational technical colleges offering similar, professional, land based HE and FE qualifications and engagement in active research.
It is hoped that the developing partnership will lead to further sharing of best practice and the opportunity for both sides to explore curriculum development at both FE and HE level.
We are also developing opportunities for staff and student exchanges, internships and collaborative research and development programmes, plus the chance for consultancy and the training and development of technical and teaching staff.
The six ‘Skills without Borders’ students, who joined our Level 3 and Level 5 Food and Environment courses from January to March, came from CEFET-MG training establishments and have since given excellent feedback on this valuable student experience. This was officially recognised as best practice with a presentation at the British Embassy in Brasilia, attended by Mark and the students.
In November Ivete Pinheiro, a senior member of CEFET-MG, spent a week shadowing Mark Harris and signed a Memo of Understanding to further explore a collaborative partnership between Reaseheath and her organisation’s training institutions. Mark’s reciprocal visit to Brazil in March was to discuss further the long term sustainability of such a partnership.
Said Mark: “The development of closer links and shared programmes is aimed at helping UK and Brazilian institutions to identify partnership opportunities on behalf of their own organisations and within the wider UK and Brazilian skills sectors.
“Our Brazilian colleagues are particularly interested in the way Reaseheath focuses on STEM subjects within the curriculum and the emphasis put on employers’ input throughout the programme. The latest delegation were keen to see how we support horticultural employers with commercial and research trials and how we have developed our Eden programme to meet local, regional and national skills within the food production industry.”
Header caption: Prinicpal Meredydd David, Assistant Principal Rachel Ellis-Jones and Mark Harris are pictured with visiting Brazilian delegates Paula Oliveira (International Relations Manager SENAI National), Anne Litaiff (Innovation and Education Specialist SENAI Santa Catarina), Luiz Leao (WorldSkills Specialist SENAI National), Paulo Leao (Strategic Advisor, SETEC, Ministry of Education), Cyrio Dellezzopolles (Science and Technology Analyst CNPq) and Anna Connors (Student Support Officer, AoC).
