Supporting learning at Barnsley College
Stop smoking advisers from Barnsley stop smoking service have been supporting students enrolled at Barnsley College.
The students are enrolled on the Skills for Life course which provides functional skills in Numeracy, Literacy and ICT. To deliver the course in an interesting and useful way different projects are set throughout the term. Students then apply the skills learnt to each project.
The stop smoking team have been working in partnership with Essential Skills Leader Will Roberts, who works in the Learning for Living and Work Department at Barnsley College, to help deliver one of these projects, whilst passing on essential information about smoking and the help available for people quitting.
The idea for the stop smoking project came from the tutor Will, who is in the middle of a stop smoking quit attempt. He tasked the students for help finding out what help was available locally to him and other people wishing to quit and to calculate the impact smoking had on both health and finances. Neil Carr from the service was invited to talk to the group about what help the stop smoking service provides people who want to quit, at the same time as sharing messages to help prevent students starting smoking.
Using the NHS stop smoking cost wheel students were able to use their numeracy skills to calculate how much smoking costs and using their ICT skills learnt they have been able to produce spreadsheets to present the information. Students have also worked on producing posters and leaflets to communicate the key messages about quitting smoking.
Speaking about the group Neil said, “It’s been great to work alongside the students and help them apply their skills to a project. I hope it has been interesting at the same time as thought provoking, providing them with the information they need to make an informed choice about smoking. They have really championed the stop smoking cause and are keen to share this knowledge with friends and family to help them make a quit attempt.”
