***We’re encouraging students and staff to plant a tree for the Jubilee!***

Weston College has joined the national campaign to support The Queen’s Green Canopy (QGC) - a unique tree planting initiative created to mark Her Majesty’s Platinum Jubilee. Our first tree is now proudly planted outside the eco building at South West Skills Campus.

I am now running a student and staff competition for the best picture of you and your tree!  1st and 2nd Prize £100/£50 amazon vouchers.

All Weston College staff and students have free access to LinkedIn Learning, a video training platform for business, creative and technology skills. There are over 16,000 courses on LinkedIn Learning already, and new content is being added all the time. After completing courses, you can share your certificate on your LinkedIn profile to demonstrate your new skills and understanding. 

This week we are bringing you a round-up of some of the most useful LinkedIn Learning courses focused on workplace wellbeing, for both yourself and your colleagues. 

Personal Wellbeing 

Wellbeing in the Workplace 

In this course, explore practical techniques for alleviating anxiety, worry, stress, and other common mental health issues. Learn how to reduce worry, avoid burnout, increase happiness & gratitude, and more. 

Balancing Work and Life 

Learn how to have it all and enjoy it all by balancing your life and work. This talk explores smart strategies to make work a focus at work and give yourself time to enjoy your time at home. 

Mindful Stress Management 

Get a new approach to managing your relationship with on-the-job pressure with the power of mindfulness. You will learn strategies that can help you identify what causes you to feel pressure, how it gets expressed in your body, and how you can mitigate its negative effects. 

Wellbeing of Others 

Communicating with Emotional Intelligence 

Developing your emotional intelligence can help you succeed at any stage of your life or career. In this course, learn how to understand others’ perspectives, balance empathy and accountability, demonstrate listening, and respond appropriately. Using these simple techniques, you can quickly improve your communication and make conversations at work and home more productive and satisfying. 

How to Support Your Employees' Wellbeing 

When your employees are struggling with burnout, stress, work-life imbalance, and other challenges, how can you support them? In this course, UK-based instructor Amy Brann provides specific tools based to help you be a source of strength and support for your employees.  

Managers as Multipliers of Wellbeing 

Most adults spend the bulk of their waking hours at work. Why not leverage that time to improve their health and well-being? In this course, instructor Laura Putnam covers the business case for well-being and the critical role that managers play in empowering employees to engage with their well-being.

We hope you enjoy this selection of courses! To find out more about how you can use LinkedIn Learning to support your professional development, or that of your learners or employees, please visit our LinkedIn Learning SharePoint page or contact learningtech@weston.ac.uk.

Digifest is the UK’s leading learning and teaching edtech conference, annually it brings together the UK’s learning and teaching community to consider the next stage in the evolution of learning.

Run over two days in early March, Digifest shared and showcased digital learning successes, challenges and possibilities while looking ahead to the future education landscape. Its focus was on the issues that really matter, from embracing change and sustainability to the value of collaboration – always putting the student and learner first.

Weston College Group’s Principal and Chief Executive, Dr Paul Phillips CBE, took part in the ‘Shaping a sustainable future’ Digifest theme, which focused on how environmental, technological, and social trends are reshaping how and where students choose to learn and how the education sector can shape its sustainable future. This strand’s sessions was chaired by Steve Frampton, FE/HE Climate Commissioner and John O'Brien, President and CEO, EDUCAUSE and covered topics such as hybrid teaching, flexible learning spaces, developing smarter campuses and best practice in relation to net zero pledges.