“I would describe the Pal Scheme as a student led skills based teaching scheme. Basically we were selected because of our grades last year and have been put together to deliver 4 one hour sessions to the first years. After some trial and error in our first session we’ve focussed on making the sessions skills based with the aim of getting the first years as pro-active and involved as possible. We now have two sessions left and are focusing on making them as relevant to the first years as we can.
Overall the scheme has been great, I was really nervous before the first session as I’ve not done any form of public speaking since I was about 8 and in school plays, but I wanted to take part in the scheme because I’ve been considering lecturing as a career option for a while now. This scheme has really help me confirm that this is what I want to do after uni and has helped me think about what type of lecturer I want to be.
We’re currently in planning stages for the last two sessions and I’m looking forward to delivering them. We plan the sessions ourselves and we have received training on careers and the team work but we’ve been given a lot of free reign over what we cover and how. The aim is just to make them as useful as possible for the first years”
