Industrial visits provide context and realism to academic programmes and can help revitalise students' interest, as well as linking you with new networks.
“We have 100% uptake on this trip each year and the students are able to collect a lot of information towards their work based learning file”. Rose Karensa, Programme Leader FDA Silversmithing & Jewellery, Truro College.
In this section, you will find:
Foundation Degree Silversmithing & Jewellery, Truro College
We integrate our work experience into a study tour of the Jewellery Industry in Yorkshire and the Midlands. This is an excellent opportunity for the group to bond and to experience many aspects of the industry. The Foundation Degree in Silversmithing and Jewellery makes an annual visit to the Spring Fair at the NEC, where a large selection of jewellery, stones, tools and new innovations are on show. The students are able to access first hand information on the latest technology and experience the latest CAD packages for ‘rapid prototyping’.
A visit to David Mellor’s cutlery, situated in the architectural award winning ‘Round Building’ at Hathersage, is a unique small scale English factory. David Mellor’s cutlery has an international reputation for its qualities of design and manufacture, drawing on the old Sheffield traditions of craftsmanship, evolving into a modern product. Here the students are able to witness the designs from concept to finished article and question the production workers and craftsmen about the processes.
Following a short journey over the High Peak Moors we drop down into Sheffield for a guided visit around ‘Cutler’s Hall’. The Company of Cutlers was formed in 1624 by an act of parliament to oversee the making of Knives, Scissors, Sickles and Cutlery within ‘Hallamshire’, a six mile radius of Sheffield. The company took over the responsibility for binding apprentices, admitting freemen, registering marks and devised regulations to ensure the quality of workmanship. Today ‘The Company of Cutlers’ provides a focus for the promotion and support of local manufacturing industries and businesses and the Freemen represent a large base to establish links and networks for Sheffield industries. The students view the collections of cutlery and silverwear through the centuries up to the present day with a number of awards presented for excellence in manufacturing.
In Sheffield the students are also able to visit the New Millennium Galleries dedicated to the work of John Ruskin and the history of Sheffield plate and The Persistence Works run by Yorkshire Art Space which provides affordable studio space and support for the creative community. Here the students meet newly qualified graduates and can ask them questions about what it is like to set up in business.
We finally visit the Birmingham Jewellery Quarter where we visit a jewellery manufacturing museum, which is literally a ‘time capsule’, and the story of the jewellery trade can be witnessed firsthand with demonstrations of the machinery and processes. Within the small back streets we are able to find stone suppliers, bullion dealers, tool shops, casting foundries and jewellers.
The students return to Cornwall equipped with a range of contacts, tools and supplies.
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