After a fantastic three months working for Groundwork, my placement is coming to an end. And a few weeks ago, I completed my Diploma Pathway. This is going to be a bit of an action learning review of the two, plus a little bit of whats going on currently.
I shall start with my Groundwork placement. Overall, it went really well! I have developed many new skills, from practical countryside skills such as path laying and drainage; to project management and bid writing. I have attended a range of training courses such as Volunteer Management and Income Development. A couple of weeks ago I attended the North West Social Enterprise Trade Fair as a Groundwork delegate, where I met a lot of inspiring social entrepreneurs, as well as forging some links with Bank Managers.
My largest area for improvement lies in improving my time management and overcoming procrastination! Despite this, my project officer was very happy with the work that I completed, and today I received a glowing final report. It was also brought to my attention that I have been branded 'Perfect Pete' in the office!
I developed a 'Truck Farm' workshop, involving driving a truck filled with compost around the estate and teaching residents how to grow their own vegetables! The council are very keen to fund it! So things aren't completely over with Groundwork, as I will be returning to conduct this workshop and tie up a few loose ends.
Moving on to Diploma Output 1 - the Diploma Pathway. I suppose to some extent, writing this is kind of procrastinating in the sense that I could be updating the output! There are a few things that I want to tweak and improve on. I am going to include a section with a brief description of each project, as I am aware that anyone else looking at my project mind map probably wont have a clue what half of them could be! I have also done a new and improved project mind map, that explores the potential inter-relationships between different projects. This will help inform the reordering of my project pathway.
Feedback from Richard, my Tutor, and the Peer Review from Bethany will be uploaded into an appendix section on the project.
Back to the present. I am now full on unemployed! I had an utterly ridiculous encounter with Jobseeker's the other week, which included them telling me there aren't any jobs in environmental, community, or third sector work (there are), and that I should instead apply for work at supermarkets. Your tax money kindly funded a half hour session in which an ambitious graduate was told that he should dump all aspirations and stack shelves at Tesco. Fantastic!
Next steps going forward, I have plenty of time now to work on the design of my back garden! Pretty excited about this, having wanted to do it for a few years and now have parents approval! And then in January, I am quite seriously considering going to live in a caravan on a farm for 6 months! I went on Saturday to meet the owner, and I think it would be a good opportunity to develop a lot of really useful skills. Here is the link to the farm website. It's a great place with great people and a great vision!
Some other good news, I have found two apple trees nearby! One is just past the end of my street, and I am surprised I have never noticed it before. The other is about 5 minutes walk away. I coppiced a big stick the other day, and I'm going apple picking in the coming days!
All in all, life is going great! I'm not letting stuff like the JobCentre crush my optimism. It's all just part of the journey :)
Thanks for reading my website and blog!
Big Love
Pete
I shall start with my Groundwork placement. Overall, it went really well! I have developed many new skills, from practical countryside skills such as path laying and drainage; to project management and bid writing. I have attended a range of training courses such as Volunteer Management and Income Development. A couple of weeks ago I attended the North West Social Enterprise Trade Fair as a Groundwork delegate, where I met a lot of inspiring social entrepreneurs, as well as forging some links with Bank Managers.
My largest area for improvement lies in improving my time management and overcoming procrastination! Despite this, my project officer was very happy with the work that I completed, and today I received a glowing final report. It was also brought to my attention that I have been branded 'Perfect Pete' in the office!
I developed a 'Truck Farm' workshop, involving driving a truck filled with compost around the estate and teaching residents how to grow their own vegetables! The council are very keen to fund it! So things aren't completely over with Groundwork, as I will be returning to conduct this workshop and tie up a few loose ends.
Moving on to Diploma Output 1 - the Diploma Pathway. I suppose to some extent, writing this is kind of procrastinating in the sense that I could be updating the output! There are a few things that I want to tweak and improve on. I am going to include a section with a brief description of each project, as I am aware that anyone else looking at my project mind map probably wont have a clue what half of them could be! I have also done a new and improved project mind map, that explores the potential inter-relationships between different projects. This will help inform the reordering of my project pathway.
Feedback from Richard, my Tutor, and the Peer Review from Bethany will be uploaded into an appendix section on the project.
Back to the present. I am now full on unemployed! I had an utterly ridiculous encounter with Jobseeker's the other week, which included them telling me there aren't any jobs in environmental, community, or third sector work (there are), and that I should instead apply for work at supermarkets. Your tax money kindly funded a half hour session in which an ambitious graduate was told that he should dump all aspirations and stack shelves at Tesco. Fantastic!
Next steps going forward, I have plenty of time now to work on the design of my back garden! Pretty excited about this, having wanted to do it for a few years and now have parents approval! And then in January, I am quite seriously considering going to live in a caravan on a farm for 6 months! I went on Saturday to meet the owner, and I think it would be a good opportunity to develop a lot of really useful skills. Here is the link to the farm website. It's a great place with great people and a great vision!
Some other good news, I have found two apple trees nearby! One is just past the end of my street, and I am surprised I have never noticed it before. The other is about 5 minutes walk away. I coppiced a big stick the other day, and I'm going apple picking in the coming days!
All in all, life is going great! I'm not letting stuff like the JobCentre crush my optimism. It's all just part of the journey :)
Thanks for reading my website and blog!
Big Love
Pete
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