HSDC South Downs College sees success after taking students on a funded trip to Mexico

A group of 29 students from HSDC South Downs College have had the opportunity to go to Mexico on a fully funded trip. The experience was funded through a Turing Scheme, which allowed the group to take part in work experience and learn about the culture.

Students from across the college’s campuses took part in the 18 day trip, where those studying A-level Spanish had the opportunity to act as translators and saw students on cooking and cabin crew courses work in restaurants across Puebla.

This once in a lifetime experience was documented by a film and media studies student who followed the others around during the trip to make a film giving people an insight to the challenges faced.

Aaron Butson, assistant principal business, employment and skills, said: ‘This mobility proved to be a challenging but rewarding experience for all those involved. For some of the students this was their first time abroad, and so their first flight was an 11-hour journey.

‘Part of the reason d’etre of the Turing Scheme is to offer opportunities to students from more deprived backgrounds and 20 per cent of the cohort that went on this mobility came from postcodes of more deprived areas.’

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The cultural visits included visiting a cactus farm where they harvested the plant to make mezcal and traditional cookery classes with Mexican families where they made things such as chocolate and chilli sauce the authentic way.

Aaron added: ‘Despite the challenges of this schedule, the students stood up to it with amazing resilience. They all threw themselves at it and tried their very best to make it a successful experience. The documentary that has been made since demonstrates the deep level of learning each of them had in both a professional and personal way.

‘The scheme also offered the college the opportunity to forge new relationships with other organisations in Mexico for other potential exchange programmes.’

Due to the success of the trip, HSDC are already planning to recruit potential candidates for the next Turing Scheme project and they are now committed to finding funded opportunities for their students to get involved in.