Member colleges’ success in UK/China Innovation Challenge Funding

AoC’s international team is delighted that two college applications to the China Innovation Challenge Fund have been approved funding. The fund attracted a lot of interest from universities but the British Council were keen to encourage our member colleges to apply. We wish them well in the development of their projects. Barnet & Southgate College is leading a consortium of four member colleges including Doncaster College University Centre, New College Swindon and Stratford upon Avon College. With Chinese partners in Hebei, Dalian and Changsha, the project ‘Sport for All’ aims to support the development of football coaching skills for teachers in primary and secondary level education in China, and improve the quality and consistency of international coaching education. China announced plans for the growth of its sports sector and in 2015 the Ministry of Education in China mandated that football was to be taught in schools to strengthen competitiveness under a national football reform plan. This college consortium is additionally supported by an impressive list of UK partners including: Tottenham Hotspur FC (BSC offers the Tottenham Hotspur Foundation), Borehamwood Football Club, LTA Hazelwood Tennis Club, Lea Valley Network Wired for Sport (Athletics), SVTS Basketball, London Scholars (Rugby), Stratford Town Football Club, Stratford Rugby Club, Stratford Athletics Club, Doncaster Knights Rugby Club, League Managers Association, Professional Football Association and AoC Sport. City College Plymouth’s project ‘International Dementia Training Hub’ aims to create a joint Training Hub that will be a centre of excellence for dementia training, increasing opportunities for both Chinese and UK healthcare professionals and students whilst enhancing curriculum development and impacting dementia care nationally. The college’s Chinese partner is Huzhou University in Zhejiang Province and they are also working with Plymouth University and Plymouth Dementia Action Alliance. Ian Sheriff is an internationally acclaimed dementia researcher and trainer at Plymouth University and is a member of the Prime Minister’s Dementia Champion group and Chair of the Prime Minister’s Rural Dementia Friendly Task and Finish Group. Ian and colleagues will be delivering workshops and conference speeches in China, and together they will be devising a 3 week training curriculum to be delivered to two groups of 6 students in Plymouth, with a view to holding an international conference in Huzhou at the end of the project in 2018. Main context of the project is the demographic challenges in China with a growing, ageing population (due to the one child policy), and as of yet minimal infrastructure to diagnose and care for dementia patients. There is a lot of new areas of development and funding becoming available for the skills sector working with China. For more information please contact John Mountford or Marguerite Hogg.