One of the most exciting, and perhaps nervous, days took place for the latest intake of CMT cadets heading to Warsash Maritime Academy in September this year to begin their cadetship – Induction Day!
As we are still at the initial stages of easing lockdown, however, this event had to take place digitally, which was a first for all involved, but the consensus seemed to be a thumbs-up from the cadets on how they would undertake a blended learning approach as we hopefully move towards full classroom and sea-based phases as we know them.
The main purpose of this event was for college staff to meet the cadets starting with them, show them what college life would look like and entail, and explain the working relationship between the college, sponsoring company & cadet.
Head of Cadet Education, Giuseppe Saieva, was also keen to personally meet with the cadets to discuss any worries they may have due to COVID-19 and reassure them that although additional measures will be put in place, the cadetship will continue as close to normal in September.
We expect the learning environment in 2020/21 to be a mixture of online and face-to-face, and Giuseppe reassured the cadets that the college is following government guidelines and best practice, to make the environment as safe as possible for new starts and staff.
A presentation was shown to the cadets which showed the campus, engineering workshops, classrooms and explained about surrounding scenery/activities. Additionally, Lecturers Lars Lippuner and Suzanne Galloway demonstrated the online learning platform and explained that all lectures are recorded both face to face and online, meaning cadets can access lecturers from a variety of platforms, allowing playback and pause to consider interactive diagrams etc. more closely.
The event also covered areas such as accommodation/student finance and hearing directly from a current cadet about their perspective of living and studying at Warsash.
All in all, it was an extremely successful event, and one we hope to replicate at Warsash and other colleges as we move towards our Aug/Sept intake period.