Open university and Hub program

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Transcript

00:00I'm Paul Carlin, I am an academic in the Open University and we're here today to talk to

00:15some of the students and staff who are involved in the HUB programme in Wales which is run

00:20by the WRU and the Open University is a partner in trying to understand what impact that programme

00:28has had over a number of years.

00:34My name's Andrew Newton and I'm a HUB officer here at Dylan Thomas Community School in Swansea.

00:40I think it's really important that we evidence the HUB role and the work that the Open University

00:47is doing is fantastic because it gives us on the ground as HUB officers something that

00:55we can look at and work on in how we can do things differently.

01:00I think it's vitally important that we get that information so our programme can be the

01:06best in the world.

01:08Obviously the Open University as an academic institution can bring some rigour and robustness

01:13to that evaluation and so we partnered and we've been developing this project now for

01:18a number of years.

01:20So we're hoping to get out of the visits this week is a form and a structure that we can

01:24actually seek external funding.

01:27Up to this point WRU and Open University have funded the development of the project but

01:34the scale of the project in the coming years will be quite immense actually and we need

01:41to get external funding to be able to deliver a robust evaluation.

01:46I guess first and foremost it's important to demonstrate the impact of the WRU approach

01:51because there's a lot of investment going into it and nobody wants to spend money whether

01:56it's in your personal life or your professional life without knowing you're getting banged

01:59for your buck.

02:00So I think it's the right thing to do and it's the proper thing to do to make sure that

02:06those people that are employed within our communities, schools, local clubs, the WRU

02:12posts are having the desired impact.

02:15We being a part of the evaluation we're pleased to demonstrate the impact it's having in our

02:20school and hopefully it's having a similar impact in other schools as well because rugby

02:25in Wales is a great driver for developing community spirit, social spirit and we see

02:31that as an important aspect of our work within the school.

02:34What's really, really noticeable is the enthusiasm with the HUB staff who just love their kids

02:42and their skills but also how the teachers and the staff within the schools just seem

02:47to rely and depend on the HUB officers to actually deliver a really valued service.