BCoT shows support for community during COVID-19 pandemic

BCoT introduces measures to support students, staff and local community during COVID-19 pandemic.

During these unprecedented times, Basingstoke College of Technology (BCoT) has introduced several measures to support its students, staff and the local community while the country is being asked to stay home to prevent the spread of the Coronavirus.

Thanks to the College’s in-house technological skills, on Monday 23 March 2020, all classes were taken online using the Google suite of learning and communication technologies to ensure lessons went ahead without disruption. Classes have been interesting and interactive with great collaboration between students and teachers, including cooking demonstrations via videos and online classrooms where students can talk and work together on projects using live spreadsheets, with teachers being able to oversee everything and provide instant live feedback. The College hasn’t closed completely, and has been open to help vulnerable students have access to the support they need during the pandemic.

To support staff, BCoT is continuing to pay their salaries should they fall ill due to the virus and the Senior Leadership Team have reassured staff that redundancies will not take place due to COVID-19.

BCoT has also been helping the wider community of Basingstoke by donating food such as homemade biscuits, chicken chasseur, frozen sausage meat and puddings made by their hospitality team, canteen and students. The Principal, Anthony Bravo, also hopes to help those in isolation who cannot go out to shops, by providing a shop and drop service to assist with essentials.

Anthony Bravo said: “The health of our students and staff is our top priority and we will do all we can to support them at this difficult time. I am incredibly proud of how staff and students have prepared for this unusual and challenging situation. I am confident that our students will continue their education to the best of their ability online, and I thank the staff at BCoT for their flexibility in teaching remotely under such difficult circumstances - we truly are pulling together and showing that the education of our students is what is most important and can be exciting and challenging. 

It is also crucial that everyone in our wider community feels supported and I believe BCoT plays a pivotal role in this. Basingstoke is our community and we are committed to helping in any way that we can.”

BCoT has been assuring future students that their place is secure for September 2020 and applications are still open at this time.  Apply for a place here.