Confidence and well-being

I thought I'd get an entry going on the "Confidence and Well-being" session. I couldn't make it, so I'm interested to know some more about this. Maybe we could use this space to exchange our thoughts on it.

I feel that when I explain to people who don't work in FE what I do (when I say I teach English or Communication they often have some fantastical idea of me holding court around a small group of bookish, eager and able students) that I use the phrase "confidence-building" a lot. And yes, when I think about it, I spend a lot of time encouraging and supporting students who often have low self-esteem. Of course, my degree or, to be honest, my PGCE, didn't provide me with any in-depth training in this. Like a lot of what we do in FE, it seems to be something what we pick up along the way.

So, yes, confidence and well-being are, without doubt, important (would we argue otherwise?). What I'd like to know more about is how, on a very practical level, we can work on these skills with students in a more structured, conscious and, of course, meaningful way.

What would a confidence and well-being programme of study look like? Would there even be a programme of study? What kind of activities would it involve? Would it be integrated across all points of delivery (this seems, at a gut level, to make sense)? Or would it be a stand-alone programme? What CPD do we need to take this forward if we want to?

These questions may all have been dealt with at the meeting, but the blog might be a good place to archive folk's ideas by replying to my entry by clicking on "comment" below.

Here's the link that Karen provided: http://www.centreforconfidence.co.uk/projects.php?p=cGlkPTM4