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Helping Hands - February 2008 ON BEING A (VERY) MATURE STUDENT Apart from editing this magazine for the Trust,
I have been pretty busy in a couple of other areas in the past year
to 18 months.
In autumn 2006, alongside falconer Jane Robertson, I started a Foundation Degree course in Zoo Resource Management, at Sparsholt College near Winchester. This is a two year course (basically it is the first two years of a full degree), a pre-requisite of which is working at least 20 hours a week for a zoo/wildlife park/nature centre.
Year 2 is conservation and education, breeding programme management, staffing, business planning and finance. And our ‘big’ thesis-style assignment which is an environmental enrichment project that Jane and I are conducting for the large African mixed-species vulture aviary at the Trust. We’ve made posters, written reports and essays, done lots of research, and given presentations. Hopefully by the end of this course I will have learned a range of new skills that will stand me in good stead for the rest of my natural.
I have also started going to BIAZA (British & Irish Association of Zoos and Aquariums) educators’ meetings, which are both useful and fun – we share information, give one another new ideas, and get to see different collections all in one day. I have had great support and encouragement from everyone at The Hawk Conservancy Trust for my course and would like to say a big thank you for the time various people have spent with me, being grilled for information on all sorts of subjects.
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