News
Health and Social Care Students Visit NI Assembly
Belfast Met 2nd Year Health and Social Care students recently visited the NI Assembly as part of a field trip organised by lecturer Gerry Skelton, to help contextualise their social policy teaching.
Commenting on the visit lecturer Gerry Skelton said, “This proved a very valuable teaching and learning opportunity for the students; especially given the absence of the NI Government. However, we were joined by an MLA who kindly gave of her time to address the students and respond to their good questions. The primary focus of the visit is to help establish the absolute importance of our primary political institution in NI, and relating social policy priorities to service provision and users / carers’ experiences. I am proud of the way the class conducted themselves and represented themselves and Belfast Met. My gratitude, as always, for the input of NI Assembly staff who made the whole experience so worthwhile”.
The students thoroughly enjoyed the visit and in reflection said, “We just want to thank Gerry for taking the time and effort to bring our Social Policy group to the NI Assembly. We got an opportunity to apply some of our teaching and hear from an MLA – and put questions to her. It was also nice getting to sit in on the RHI Hearing, even if we were all so nervous.”
Pat Crolly (Course Coordinator) commented, “Well done again! As with last year's visit it is clearly well worth the hard work and effort you put in! The now annual ‘Stormont’ trip provides an enriching and valuable experience for our student. Feedback from the class was very positive; they clearly not only learned about the operation of the Assembly in relation to social policy but also got the opportunity to engage with a researcher and bring back valuable learning to the research methods unit. The experience of visiting the institutions of government and meeting legislators has clearly had a positive impact on our students.”.
For more information on Belfast Met’s health and Social Care courses click here