Like many UK schools, The Sheffield College students have been affected by post-Brexit cuts to the national Turing Scheme, making running future high-quality international placements ‘pretty much impossible’.
Student contributions for future trips will be significantly higher, but The Sheffield College said it will try to make it as accessible as possible.
Despite this, in January 2025, 10 animal care students from The Sheffield College travelled to South Africa with certified B-corp Flooglebinder, thanks to individual fundraising efforts amidst a £22m national budget reduction.
Tilly Bertram, 18, studying level-3 animal management, set up a raffle and stalls around the college to raise the additional funding needed to go on this trip after an initial £50 deposit. She added it was overall challenging to think of what would engage other students with her fundraising efforts.
‘’This trip and qualifications helped me decide on what career I want to go into and I would absolutely go on another trip like this if the opportunity arose.”
The college only received £527,0000 after initially applying for almost £1m grant in their 2024 application to fund this year’s placements.
Alison Jacques, International Manager of The Sheffield College, addressed how the shortfall led to the necessity for additional student fundraising if granted a place on the trip to make it as accessible to students of all backgrounds.
‘She said: “We didn’t want there to be financial barriers with students – we want to deliver quality experiences and learning outcomes on all the trips we run.”
The competitive government scheme to support work placements abroad has been a valuable resource to The Sheffield College for the past four years, sending courses across the college to global locations, the most recent being animal care on their life-changing 15-day trip to South Africa.
Organised by sustainability-oriented partners Flooglebinder, this particular trip was unique and incorporated an internationally recognized cyber-tracking qualification from the FGA (Field-Guide-Association of South Africa). Students left being able to successfully recognize over 50 wild animal tracks, alongside remote first-aid training and new mammal, entomology, and conservation studies.
Academy Director of Service Industries at The Sheffield College Abby Bruce described the experience for her students as a ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ as she went on the trip and watched them adapt to the lifestyle of South Africa.
They woke up at 5am to make meals for the rest of the group and retrieve camera traps capturing rare nocturnal wildlife sightings – students added the highlight being a hyena
‘’It was amazing to watch reluctant teenagers become these proactive young adults that wanted to help.’’
Although Turing scheme cuts will be a setback for the college, they have already started their 2025-2026 application, incorporating Flooglebinder within it to have another chance at giving students life-changing experiences that benefit their education.
