The first course to be delivered in a safe and socially distanced manner was the one-day QA Level 3 Award in Emergency First Aid at Work.
Six individuals, who had been identified as first aiders in their workplaces, attended the one-day course which taught them vital skills such as CPR, assessing an incident, managing an unresponsive casualty, how to deal with choking, seizures, wounds and bleeding and much more.
Martin North of Dawsongroup Temperature Controlled Solutions in Sutton-in-Ashfield said: “I’ve learnt how to adapt my first aid skills to post-Covid situations. It’s provided me with a refresher on the old techniques updating them to the new techniques and I’ll be doing the three-day first aid at work course too after this.”
First aid tutor Jo Betts said: “We’ve had six students today on the Emergency First Aid at Work course and everyone has passed. Three of these students will go on to the further First Aid At Work course which lasts another two days.
“Particular attention was paid to how to teach a practical group such as this in safe and socially distanced ways. Class size was kept small and everyone kept their hands sanitised throughout and every student was able to work on their own individual resuscitation doll.”
And there’s more exciting plans ahead for the college’s adult and community team as they launch this academic year’s courses which are held at venues across Mansfield and Ashfield. The team is opening up an extra town centre venue for a range of community courses at the college’s Chesterfield Road campus in Mansfield.
The first programmes to be held at this campus will be the Painting and Drawing – Watercolours course which begins on Thursday 10 September, 2-4.15pm for six weeks and the Introduction to Printmaking course also on Thursday 10 September, 1.15-2.15pm for eleven weeks.
Other courses which will take place at the college’s Chesterfield Road campus will include Functional Skills, Aromatherapy, Making Bath Bombs and Salts, Making Pottery Candle Holders, Reading and Writing Skills, ESOL – Exploring Language Barriers, First Aid at Work, Paediatric First Aid, Singing For Confidence, Acting For Theatre, IT Skills and much more.
Adult and Community Learning Manager Peter Rowley said: “We’re delighted to be launching our new programmes for the academic year. All of our tutors are working in line with social distancing guidelines so that classes are both comfortable and safe. We’re very excited to be using our Chesterfield Road venue for more new classes and it will be a great central point in Mansfield for people to pop in and enquire about their future learning.
“We’re pleased to be offering a free community course to all adults (up to the first 14 hours of learning excluding first aid and food safety), and for adults who need to pay a contribution after this, we are charging a reduced rate of £3.50 per hour until July 2021, in response to the difficulties local people are experiencing due to Covid-19. Our courses will continue to be free for people who are unemployed and on certain benefits, or for those who are on a low income.”
To find out more about the new courses and prices visit www.wnc.ac.uk/communityguide or call the adult and community team on 01623 413602.