A creative collaboration between two Forth Valley College Departments has resulted in a new award designed for accounts students.
When Business Department Curriculum Manager Jennifer Hogarth saw the Traditional Kelpie that was created by students and staff from the Department of Applied Science, Maths and Mechanical Engineering, early in 2017, she was convinced they would be the ideal team to make a new trophy which her students could be inspired by.
After a short meeting with ASME Curriculum Manager Dougie Ross and welding lecturer James Constable – who was the brainchild behind the Traditional Kelpie – the engineers set to work on a design for the Business Accounting Challenge trophy.
Using recycled wood, metal and nuts and bolts they designed an innovative – and quirky – award that FVC Accounting students will be aiming to win in the first Challenge event to be held on Monday December 4.
Jennifer, said: “We love it. We gave Dougie and James a brief that the award was to be more about people coming together, analysing data in the business context in order to work through problems and issues, rather than the stereotypical image of endless calculations or number crunching which is often associated with accountants. This is one of the key messages of the conference and the trophy reflects this perfectly!”
Carol Venesky, Business Lecturer (also pictured), said: “It is awesome. Our Business Accounting Challenge will be like a ‘Dragon’s Den’ style event and will consist of teams with students from NC to HN level. It will tackle issues relating to the job - not just about numbers – but about the ethical issues and giving a real sense of what accountancy will be like.”
Dougie Ross, said: “This has been a great project to work on and we were delighted to create this for the Business department. Both James and I had a lot of fun working on this and fitting the award to the brief given by Jennifer. This is a great example of cross departmental collaboration, recycling and we can’t wait to tackle the next idea!”
James added: “During the initial discussion Jennifer said she did not like the stereo typical image of accountants. After a bit of deliberation I decided to create a group of people with nuts and bolts and also ‘Debit the dog’. All concerned were delighted with the final result.”
Thanks goes to ASME Lecturer John Potts who engraved the trophy.
