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NTU's first Technician Exchange takes place with Canadian partner

Nottingham Trent University has joined forces with OCAD University in Toronto to offer technical teams the opportunity to visit each other’s’ facilities and work collaboratively on improving how creative spaces are used.

Kerry Truman, Nick Hooped (OCADU) and Jez Keeling at NTU

In January, School Technical Manager, Jez Keeling and Technical Team Leader, Kerry Truman were invited to OCAD University during Toronto’s Design Week to experience how teaching spaces were utilised and how the teams at OCAD U managed resources. Kerry was invited to take part in teaching and creative sessions with students, whilst Jez spent time benchmarking and imparting experience of lean management and large-scale provision from a UK perspective.

The visit to Toronto was supported by the School of Architecture, Design and the Built Environment as part of NTU’s ongoing support of the Technician Commitment, a nation-wide initiative to recognise the contribution technical teams make to Higher Education in the UK and to enhance career development, visibility of staff and to ensure skills are sustained within institutions.

NTU returned the favour and received Nick Hooper from OCAD U onto campus this week, offering first-hand experience of ADBE’s workshops, resources and giving Nick the opportunity to discuss provision in Canada with NTU’s product design students.

Kerry Truman said of the experience, “This has been a great initiative, offering real insight into how universities navigate the same issues around creative education in different parts of the world. I’ve learned a lot from my time at OCAD U and the conversations and experiences I had sparked ideas that me, Jez and the team look forward to putting on the table at NTU. Having a network of like-minded partners around the world like OCAD U is of real benefit to our staff and students and we’ll be looking for more opportunities to embed the collaborative practice this affords us.”

Published on 11 March 2020
  • Subject area: Architecture and civil engineering
  • Category: Current students; Staff; School of Architecture, Design and the Built Environment