Transition Skills and Widening Participation @QUBLibrary

As part of its support and outreach activities the Library at Queen’s has been involved in a number of recent initiatives, two of which are being celebrated by an exhibition in the first floor display cases at the McClay library

Transition Skills

The Library has developed a Transition Skills online training programme to assist students making the transition from school to higher education. This initiative originates from a series of discussions about the challenges met by new students in adjusting to a different way of learning within a higher education environment.

The Library, in consultation with academic staff, held a forum with Principals, Vice Principals, School Librarians and career teachers which resulted in a series of workshops for pupils and teachers. Further development has led to the online training programme which can be found at this site https://www.qub.ac.uk/elearning/transition-skills/

Aimed at year 13 and 14 pupils, the content is of relevance to those embarking on higher education but the skills are transferable and of value to those choosing to enter the working environment too.

There are five components including Academic Expectations followed by four modules: Understanding Research Literature, Searching the Web, Plagiarism and Referencing, Social Media and Email Etiquette. Taking about 30 minutes to an hour, a quiz follows each element and the entire programme can be taken module by module as and when time permits.

The course is free, does not require a login and at the end, a certificate is granted which the participant can print.

We welcome feedback on this initiative and equally if you have any enquiries, please drop Norma Menabney an email at n.menabney@qub.ac.uk

Widening Participation

The library was also delighted to have the opportunity to support the work of our colleagues at the Widening Participation Unit at Queen’s through hosting a series of workshops, visits and lectures over the last few months.

In July, we welcomed students on the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences Pathway Opportunity Programme to Special Collections and Archives where they were introduced to the range and scope of our holdings and took part in a hands-on document analysis workshop.

And in August, library staff contributed to the Senior Academy Residential programme, with a talk on transition skills and on some of the differences between studying at Post-Primary level and Higher Level education.

It was a pleasure to meet each and every one of the young people attending these events and we wish them all the best both for the year ahead and for the future!