Stealing the Spotlight: Taking ownership of learning and CPD through student-led conferencing

Following an excellent score in the National Student Survey, the Occupational Therapy (OT) school at the University of Derby, UK were given £500 to use to increase the learning opportunities for students across the OT courses... [ view full abstract ]

Following an excellent score in the National Student Survey, the Occupational Therapy (OT) school at the University of Derby, UK were given £500 to use to increase the learning opportunities for students across the OT courses at Derby. Typically, this money would have been used on books, where students maintain a more passive role in their acquisition of knowledge. A committee of lecturers and students decided that a student-conceptualised and student-led conference would be an innovative way of skill-building, skill-developing and peer knowledge sharing; with student leadership and autonomy at every stage. This has allowed students at the University of Derby to not only dictate what they want to learn but how they want to learn it; granting ownership of a wealth of CPD experiences that are rare at undergraduate level.

Student-led conferences not only develop academic rigor and presentation skills but provide students with the necessary scope to develop and invest in their professional interests and identity (Collins et al, 2011). Additionally, obtaining skills outside of the sphere of taught modules, like marketing and networking, expands the breadth of transferrable skills developed by students (Kennedy, 2011) thus enhancing student employability (Tymon, 2013).

The profession are also benefactors of these experiences as work to promote and provide the up-and-coming workforce with a skillset recognised across the continent; these are highlighted in the subject specific occupational therapy competencies by the Tuning Project (2008) and in the ‘Creativity in Higher Education” paper by the European University Associations (2007).