Student Ambassador SchemeSt George’s Student

AmbassadorsOpen day training session

St George’s Open Days

What we’re going to cover• Open days – why, who, when• What happens on an open day• Dos and Don’ts• Your feedback

Open Days – why

• Open days are designed for students who are considering applying to St George’s

• Students (plus parents/carers) want to find out more about us and see our facilities – a degree is a considerable investment!

• Prospective students want to meet current students and we want to give visitors a sense of student life at George’s.

• We want them to choose us!!!

Open Days – who

Audience• Mainly students in year 12/13• Some year 11s• Parents/Carers

Numbers• Varies depending on the time of year – late Spring to

October busiest time• Anywhere from 120 – 250 visitors

Open days – when

• We hold general open days once a month (except December) – this is quite a lot!

• Open days are held on the last Wednesday afternoon of every month.

• We also offer specific MBBS4 open days three times a year.

• This year, for the first time there will be two Saturday open days.

Current Open Day programme (until Feb)

Time Session

13:30 Registration (lecture theatre)

14:00 The admissions process (lecture theatre)

15:00 Students’ Union (lecture theatre)

15:30 Tours (half the audience) Q&A (half the audience)

16:00 Q&A (half the audience) Tours (half the audience)

16:30 Informal refreshments (SU bar)

New Open Day programme (from Feb)

Time Students Parents

13:30 Registration (lecture theatre)

14:00 The admissions process (lecture theatre)

15:00 Tours (or student finance) Student finance

15:30 Students’ Union Tours

16:00 Q&A session

16:30 Informal refreshments

MBBS4 open days – sample programme

• Talk on the admissions process• Talk on the course• Demonstration of PBL (Problem Based Learning)• Tour of St George’s with current MBBS4 students • Students’ Union talk• Film “Help I’m a doctor”(BBC Documentary following

our first cohort of students)

What we can’t do…• Specific open days for each course (we already do 14 open days a year!)• Tours of accommodation as part of open days (but we have new virtual tours!)• Specific tours for each group of applicants (logistical nightmare and not enough of

you!)

What you can do to help!• At the start of your tour, explain what course you are on and that this is your main

area of expertise, but try and find out a bit about our other courses (e.g. who uses which labs) so that you can involve visitors interested in other courses.

• Talk to visitors about your course and your experiences of accommodation• Let visitors know that they can ask course based questions during the informal

refreshments session or in the Q&A.• To help them, find out which ambassadors are doing different courses from you

and direct specific enquiries to them

What do visitors want from an open day?

• Details about the application process, grades required, how to apply etc – student recruitment

• An overview of the institution, its facilities and our ‘selling points’ - student recruitment

• A tour of what facilities we have and an indication of who uses these facilities – you!

• A sense of what it’s really like to study here – you!

Student Ambassador Roles

On an open day you will be allocated one or more of the following roles:• Greeting and directing visitors – at George’s or at Tooting Broadway• Giving a tour• Answering enquiries in Q&A• Informal representative

Key points

• Body language• Audience appropriate language/discussion• Know who to refer a question to• Be positive and honest• Engage with your audience• Prepare if you need to

Final thoughts…

• As we work Student Recruitment, we are expected to be positive about George’s (it’s kind of our jobs!)

• As you have chosen to study here, what you say and how you act can make all the difference!

• A lot of the positive feedback we receive from open days is about your contributions.