Richard Wilcox

Background

About Richard Wilcox

Hi – this was written by the editor of the SIT magazine. Her summary and although not too sure of it in some places, here it is pretty much verbatim.For most of his working life, Richard has been helping people help themselves. He’s developed programmes, trained people, been involved in research leadership and led/managed at senior and director levels. So when he joined the SIT2LRN facilitator team three years ago he was able to draw on all those experiences to offer his students the best learning experience he could.Originally from the United Kingdom, Richard has a background in developing and providing resources aimed at retraining and upskilling health professionals, complemented by a Masters in Education alongside a multitude of needs based academic achievements.Much of Richard’s most recent work history in New Zealand has been centered on teaching English to speakers of other languages (ESOL) and developing course content for them. It was this that prompted him several years ago to do the Certificate in Environmental Management through SIT2LRN.And he did the certificate well. So well, in fact, he was deemed an ideal person to become a course facilitator and so he did that, too. Now he oversees the whole shebang. “I have 60 students, on average, a year, with four intakes of 17 weeks each. They come from all over the world – South Africa, the UK, Australia and New Zealand - ranging from 18 to 60 years-old and with different learning experiences and abilities.Richard describes the case-study based programme as an “intensive little course” which isn’t solely focused on New Zealand environmental issues. It helps students develop their research and writing skills, encourages them to think critically and is a good fit with other subjects such as renewable energy and horticulture.