EDUCATION
BLENDED LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES FOR TRAINEE DENTAL TECHNICIANS Bridging the gap of education for the laboratory team By Gemma O’Brien I Lecturer in Dental Technology
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A LABORATORY OWNERS OPINION
have been working in Education for the past 6 years. I started as a technical trainer and now work as a lecturer at The Sheffield College delivering on the Dental Technology programmes. Throughout my time here, we have faced many different challenges. The last 2 years have been no exception. COVID affected everybody and left many people having to adapt to new situations, both personally and professionally. Education was obviously one of the biggest areas that proved challenging. Educators needed to find ways to make sure students were able to continue studying, find new ways to keep students engaged on their courses and most importantly ensure they completed and achieved their qualifications.
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This proved difficult with our course; however, staff remained committed to delivering content and developed a programme which saw theory being delivered by online sessions and when restrictions eased the practical content being taught back on college premises. It wasn’t ideal having to cram in lots of practical sessions into such a short period of time, however the challenges brought about new ideas.
As of September 2021, we have now started offering this programme to students who already work in laboratories. Although the course is in its early stages, we have hope that this is something both employers and students can get excited about. As an industry, we need to grow and with the introduction of this blended learning approach, we intend to bridge the gaps in our specialist field, avoiding the need for staff/students to forgo employment to attend their college course. It is our hope that following this initial year, the provision will grow and we will recruit not only from the South Yorkshire region but beyond.
Together, working closely with employers and laboratories this soon developed into what we call a blended learning approach. The purpose of this approach is that the students only attend college for the practical components not covered in their daily working life, whilst completing theory independently with recorded online sessions. This gives the students the flexibility and accessibility to complete the theory and underpinning knowledge required to meet the Btec specification and GDC requirements for a registerable qualification.
Just two weeks into the first term, we are delighted to see a few more students sign up to the Blended Learning programme and now have around 10 students who are already working in laboratories, these students would have struggled to undertake any formal qualifications without leaving their jobs and starting a full time course. As predicted, we have seen students travel far and wide to join the programme. This is a great news for the future of our profession and will hopefully help with the current declining number of registered Dental Technicians.
The blended learning programme has opened up learning opportunities for our team. We have had several laboratory assistants and support staff that have expressed an interest in training as a Dental Technician and becoming qualified. For years this has been a real stumbling block for us as an employer, at the very best we would lose a tram member for as much as 3 or 4 days per week to attend a full time course, which isn’t ideal. We are currently experiencing a real surge in demand for our laboratory services and we are really struggling to recruit experienced dental technicians. Being able to train our own team members is such a positive step forward for us. The college ensure the students get all the support they need for the lab work that they can’t complete in our lab. For instance, we don’t do any Crown and Bridge or Prosthetic work, they get to do this work at college. I hear they have visiting lecturers who come from the industry, this will be a great learning experience for our student technicians. We will be able to support them in Orthodontics and we may even learn something from them too! This year we have sent 5 of our team on the blended learning programme, they hope to complete their studies in 2 years and be able to register with the GDC as Dental Technicians. This is great news for our profession. So many colleges and university programmes have disappeared, I do wish Sheffield College all the very best in developing this blended learning approach and hope to see our 5 complete their studies in 2 years time.
FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE COURSE PLEASE CONTACT SHEFFIELD COLLEGE 0114 260 2600 OR VISIT https://sheffcol.ac.uk/subject-areas/science-dental-and-pharmacy
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www.dentaltechnician.org.uk 05/10/2021 19:28
