JOBS FOR STUDENT-CONDUCTORS
Some ten years ago, in January 2000, the first CE Job Centre opened on the Internet. It soon became apparent that this website was being used by student-conductors seeking for holiday jobs and by people looking for students to employ. One could see the attraction from both sides. One could also see grounds for caution., again for both sides in such transactions.
In response to this, in 2000, some brief notes of guidance were prepared –
Students working in the holidays
In all professions there is a long tradition of students' working in their holidays, not just for money but also to broaden their experience and to see something of the world. There is no reason why students training to be conductors should not do the same.
As well as those opportunities open to all students, possibilities also arise for CE students to work in holiday schemes providing conductive experiences for children and adults with disabilities. Students may find working in such holiday schemes a stimulating and rewarding extension of their studies.
At the moment there are students in training at the Peto Institute, NICE/Wolverhampton University, the University of Keele and Tsad Kadima. Next academic year training will begin at Aquinas College (Grand Rapids), Pfennigparade (Munich) and the Institut Keil (Vienna). There is therefore a rapidly growing potential workforce to assist on summer schemes.
Both students and those who employ them should, however, take reasonable precautions to safeguard their own positions, the welfare of those who use their services and the good reputation of Conductive Education.
1.It should be made clear and explicit to everyone concerned in the scheme that students are not conductors (this should include not only to service-users but also to anyone who might look in on what is being done, including local media, supporters, outside professionals and researchers).
2.Students and organisers of schemes should make it very clear to each other what students' courses have covered up to that point and what not. Students should provide potential employers with a written reference from someone teaching on their course.
3.The level of responsibility for students working in holiday schemes should be clearly defined in advance and agreed by all concerned, especially for the conductors working on the scheme and users of that service. Appropriate reservations should be made for any opinions or accounts of the Conductive Education given by students. Students should not offer unsupervised professional opinions to service-users.
4.Students working on holiday schemes should not be described as 'conductors' but by a term such as 'assistants'.
5.Payment should be at a level appropriate to an assistant, not at the same level as a qualified conductor.
6.For the sake of everyone concerned (students, organisers and users), the scheme should ensure proper insurance (professional indemnity) and this should explicitly cover liability for the actions of untrained staff.
7.Student conductors should never work without the supervision of a qualified conductor who is fully aware of the students' limits and the responsibilities of supervision.
Most holiday schemes employ assistants. Organisers should regard students who spend a working holiday on their scheme as assistants who have, according to the stage of their training, additional understandings and advantages. Organisers should not think of students as 'conductors on the cheap'.
Most importantly, there are unsubstantiated rumours of students' passing themselves off as fully qualified conductors. Whilst one hopes that such accounts are unfounded, organisers of summer schemes are advised to take the normal precautions.
Ten years down the line the course at NICE in Birmingham continues and, in much larger numbers, the Pető Institute in Budapest has recently changed to training a different kind of conductor. Tsad Kadima in Israel is starting up training again, again soon, recast for the twenty-first century. Aquinas College in Grand Rapids may be restarting up again too – also, one gathers, with a modified course. There is also the complication of the training course for 'conductor-aides', recently announced by the Pető Institute, to begin this September.
Like ten years ago, therefore, there is a significant range of courses and, one presumes, a corresponding range of what students need and what they can offer in return.
Two financial points were not mentioned in the guidance of ten years ago, the question of wages (and expenses) and possible insurance problems. Presumably there is useful experience on both to be shared.
In default of anything from other sources, the former document is republished here.
Particularly interesting would be to hear what students think.
