Project Overview

This project is being set up with professional colleagues Mr Manso and Ms Doris Bah from the Food Safety Unit of the Ministry of Health and Sanitation in Sierra Leone. The participants in the project will be a cohort of 6 final year Environmental Health students and 3 professional colleagues and myself and it will run along side the 333BMS Practical Food Inspection Module.

It is hoped that both the students and professionals will work collaboratively to discuss a variety of Food Safety issues and problems experienced within the UK and SL and find solutions.

OIL Outcomes

The aim of this OIL project is that students will develop a knowledge of Practical Food Inspection within the context of an international country which is outside the confines of the EU where the majority of our legislation is currently set and with which the students are currently familiar.

It is also hoped that this experience will reinforce their knowledge of the UK policies and procedures relating to food inspection as the students will be answering questions from our colleagues in Sierra Leone.

In addition, it is hoped that the students will enhance their professional skills in relation to communicating to colleagues on an international level and that both the students and professionals will work collaboratively to discuss issues and problems experienced within the UK and SL and find solutions.

OIL Activities

Each week, a student from the Environmental Health cohort will have the opportunity to ask a question of our colleagues in Sierra Leone via WhatsApp. The question must relate to the topic which we have been studying during the sessions. This may for example relate to the legislative framework, enforcement powers or types of foods (fish, meat) in Sierra Leone.

Due to data protection restrictions, the question will then be posted on WhatsApp and I shall manage the reponses by posting them to the Moodle discussion forum for the students to see. It is hoped that in the future, we may be able to set up a closed discussion group in Open Moodle but at the moment, WhatsApp is preferable to our partner.

Our colleagues in SL which also have the opportunity to post questions back to the students for them to either research or present.

Type of Interaction: Debate and critical reflection of the information provided.

OIL Outputs

The expected output will be a series of collaborative posts on WhatsApp with these transferred to the Module discussion forum on Moodle.

Method of capturing intercultural development or of assessing OIL outcomes

The OIL outcomes will be assessed continuously as the weeks progress. Each question and the answers provided by our Partners will feed into the next session with an opportunity for discussion and reflection around the the interaction.

 

 

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