April is National Stress Awareness month. This specific initiative has been on the go since 1992, to increase public awareness about both the causes and cures for our modern stress epidemic.
According to the Mental health Foundation, 74% of UK adults have felt so stressed at some point over the last year, they felt overwhelmed or unable to cope. Stress awareness is important!
Millions of us around the UK are experiencing high levels of stress and it is damaging our health. Stress is one of the great public health challenges of our time, but it still isn’t being taken as seriously as physical health concerns.
Individually we need to be aware of everyday stress and learn what steps we can take to reduce it.
We know that pivoting your career and taking an immersive course is very challenging for students and that’s why at CodeClan we have a learning and wellness plan. Hear from two of the Clan who are helping make that difference…
Kat Kiernan, Lead, Learning Support and Accreditation, tells us a bit more about what is offered to CodeClan students as part of course delivery: “We take our student’s welfare very seriously as we are acutely aware of the stress immersive learning can cause.
“We have a number of ways in which we help students. The Successful Learning series – a series of lessons around approaching learning and wellbeing and how to make the best of the course, whilst maintaining your own wellbeing.
“Drop-in sessions for the students most weeks, allowing them to discuss any concerns about the course or the student’s learning with a member of the learning support team.
“We organise a welcome social in the first week of the course to encourage students to bond and create a support network within their cohort. We also organise sessions with external agencies that come in and chat about various topics that are not code or tech related. For example, Gillian Duncan from The Moment is Now recently visited our Edinburgh campus to discuss Mindfulness and will be visiting our Glasgow campus as part of Stress Awareness Month on Friday.”
Emily Milne, Student Journey & Alumni Community Manager, added:“Having been with CodeClan since the first cohort started, it was very clear that the students can very quickly get sucked into the land of coding. Giving them wee nudges to take breaks doesn’t always work so we’ve worked with them to develop ideas and activities which will be valuable to them.
“We are dedicating space in each campus to post helpful de-stressing guides and pointers and we plan to add to this over time and as students submit their ideas. We hold Wellness Wednesday’s where our break out rooms are for non-screen time, we encourage playing games, moving to different locations on the campuses and to ask for mentoring.”
Despite this awareness initiative is only a month, we want to continue to develop what we offer students to help combat stress and try to give them space and time for wellbeing all year round.
In addition to our talk this month we will also be conducting some research with our alumni, asking them about areas of stress, how they combatted it and advice for others. Please do keep an eye out and contribute if it’s relevant.
