Hear from Interim Principal & CEO Kurt Hintz on his first month at HSDC and what’s next for our community. This video was filmed in our Space and Satellite Hub at Alton College.
Watch the video below:
Content Summary
Kurt Hintz, interim principal and CEO at HSDC, highlights the college’s strong links with local industries, giving students hands-on experience and work placements, especially in programs like the Alton campus space and satellite hub. He reassures that the college and its campuses are not closing, and the curriculum is expanding, including new level-2 foundation apprenticeships as entry points into careers. He’s also engaging with schools, employers, and the community to enhance student experiences and invites prospective students to upcoming open days in February and March.
This is a simplified summary, please watch the full video for further information.
Transcript:
One of the things that’s really special about the further education sector is how closely we are linked to the industries that we serve. You can see here on the board behind me and in our special space programme that we have running here in Alton for the students how closely linked we are to all of the sectors within that space technologies industry. They are very local, they are very interlinked and students have direct access to all the things that go on in that sector.
So that’s what makes us really special and that’s not just in this particular programme but it’s in all of our programmes. What you’ll find is that when you come to a college, whether it’s our college or any other college, you’ll find that really close relationship. We work very hand in hand with the industries we serve. Often our teachers are actually working in those industries as well as teaching our students in the college. So it’s that close relationship that makes it really special.
Like I say, students always do work experience. They work in the sectors they’re thinking about going into in their future and they’re career focused in every way.
I wanted to talk to you today and tell you a little bit about my first month in post. I’ve been here just one month. You can hear I have a little bit of an accent. In fact I’m from New Zealand originally. I came to the UK in 2004 so it’s been a little while now.
One of the things that I heard when I first arrived, in fact I was in a taxi coming through to the college campus, and the taxi driver said to me, “Is the college going to close? There’s a rumour about the college closing. Is the curriculum going to shrink? My daughter’s going there next year. Is the curriculum still going to be running the course that she’s planning to do going into the future?”
I can tell you right now the college is not going to close. It’s open. We’re here to stay. We’re an anchor institution in the community here in Alton and our two sites down in Havant and South Downs. So we’re not closing the sites. We’re not closing at all. And if you start a course with us, of course we’ll be there for the continuation. So you will start and finish your programme with us.
We’re not shrinking the curriculum down. In fact we’re widening it. We’re thinking about how we meet the needs of the industries that we serve. What curriculum exactly do we need to prepare for the future?
I’ll give you an example of that. The Foundation Apprenticeships are brand new. They’re Level 2, they’re eight months long and they give people a foot in the door, a foot into the sector that they’re working in, without completing a full three year apprenticeship.
Then they can go on to the next stages of the larger apprenticeship scheme over time. So they are a great first step into those sectors and industries and we’re launching those as well in a range of sectors that they are offered in.
Some of the other exciting things that we’re doing across the campus is that we’re working very closely with all our stakeholders. In fact I’m getting out there to meet those stakeholders and learn more about this area. So I’ve been meeting the headteachers in all the schools, meeting our education partners, meeting employers, meeting community partners and speaking a lot with students about how we can improve their experience over time.
So exciting times here for the college. We’ve got a lot going on and a lot planned for the future. I look forward to speaking to you as the year progresses and telling you more about what we do.
But if you’re interested and thinking about coming to the college, we do have a range of open days coming up in February and into March. Take a look at our website, you’ll see them there, and we look forward to seeing you then.
Thank you.