By Anna McKenna
One of the English Language Centre’s subject specific courses is for students preparing to undertake nursing and healthcare degrees. The programme has been running since 2017 and is growing in popularity, with numbers increasing year on year. It’s taught across 3 semesters and is a thriving collaborative partnership with the ELC and the University of Plymouth International College (UPIC). This year’s course recently ended with 23 students successfully progressing on to nursing or healthcare degrees.
The learning environment is generally rich in cultural diversity with students from a variety of countries, including The Bahamas, Hong Kong, Kenya, Nepal, Nigeria and Zimbabwe. While there is a focus on developing academic skills for university, the content of activities and assessments is based on healthcare-related topics for example, medical ethics, communication skills and reflective practice in healthcare.
Students commented that the foundation programme serves as ‘an introduction to what…activities will be like when I begin my course in September…’, it is ‘insightful and engaging…’ (David Makanjuola) As teamwork in healthcare is so crucial, group work is emphasised, which students appreciate, ‘I enjoyed every group assessment, and it taught me a lot.’ (Albright Okehi) Academic English for nursing and healthcare studies is a consistent focus throughout and receives positive feedback, ‘I will always be grateful for having a chance to learn…about English especially for an aspiring nurse.’ (Rachel Ng’ang’a) We start up again in mid-September with a new cohort – but for now, it’s time to take a welcome break!