GREAT PEOPLE.

We have some amazing staff members at Shipley, Natasha is our Sustainability and Facilities Coordinator and has been nominated in this year's Green Gown Awards! We asked Natasha about her role at the college and why she thinks it's a great place to work:

'I started at the college in February 2019 and last year I was promoted to Sustainability and Facilities Coordinator. There are two aspects to my job, the facilities side and the sustainability side. 

For the facilities we do all the contract management for the college including utilities, phones and routine maintenance. I am also the line manager for reprographics, so I have a small team working on the internal printing at the college. I work closely with the IT team to make sure all machines, phones and specifications are fit for purpose. Myself and my colleague also complete the majority of external orders for the college - we have seen some very random items put through for ordering. It's basically a lot of behind the scenes stuff that helps keep the college running. 

For the sustainability side, one of my main jobs is to promote the SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) and speak to the departments about embedding them into different areas at the college. This year I am trying to do a lot more work with students on sustainability projects. Right now we’ve registered to be part of the Hedgehog Friendly Campus and we are working towards our bronze award. Students are currently completing hedgehog hazard surveys, making hedgehog houses and bug hotels. They are even going on regular litter picks around the village, not just to keep the hedgehogs safe, but to help the local community. This year we’re also wanting to promote more active travel. Over the summer we received a grant to build a bike shelter so we’re really trying to encourage active travel and get people to either walk, bike or run to college. Last year I trained all staff on the SDGs and gave them the knowledge to embed these into their everyday working life. We needed to ensure staff had this knowledge before it could be passed on to the students. 

The college was the first in the world to sign up to the SDG Accord and since then we have been leading on sustainability in the FE environment. We have been the lead college for this year's West Yorkshire Consortium of Colleges SDG project where we have mentored and trained other colleges in West Yorkshire on how they can become more sustainable. Because of this work we have been nominated and are finalists in the Green Gown Awards. We will find out the winner in November. 

I really enjoy my job, I find the sustainability side a lot of fun. I have the freedom to explore sustainability themes in education and I get to be really creative with how I promote and embed these. I also like the organisational aspect of the facilities side of my job so I am getting the best of both worlds!

I love working at the college, it's like a close knit family and I like the fact it's so small, you know everyone on a first name basis. We’re definitely lucky to be working in saltaire, it's really beautiful. It might be more of a struggle to get solar panels on the roofs of the college buildings because we work in a World Heritage Site, but I wouldn’t change it'.

Want to join our team of ‘Great People’? See all of our current Shipley College vacancies here.