We Won an Award!!

Join the University of Chester's Academic Skills Team for The Skills Pod. In this special episode we chat about our recent success at the Educate North Awards and use this as a chance to reflect on The Skills Pod: why did we start the podcast? What's next? This episode features Anthony, Emma, and Liz. 

Transcript

Emma: Hi, everybody. Welcome to this special edition episode of the Skills Pod, where we have some exciting news to share. Go on, Tony, you're jumping in your chair.

Tony: Oh, okay. Well, everybody, we are now an award-winning podcast! How cool is that? So as of Thursday, the 3rd of April, 2025, we won the Student Experience Award University Sector for our Skills Pod at the Educate North Awards. We're still buzzing, aren't we? We're just not expecting it. It was a very fancy kind of award ceremony. And yeah, we are very, very grateful to all of our listeners. And yeah, to get this award means a lot, I think.

Emma: It's like he's just been presented with an Oscar, isn't it? "I'd like to thank..."

Liz: It's an Oscar speech! It's a cute award. It's really colourful, I like it.

Tony: It's colourful and it's shiny. It's hefty. It's got our name on it. And any students who are coming into one-to-ones at Exton Park, do have a look, get a selfie with it, you know.

Emma: So I thought, because we'd won an award, it would be nice to kind of reflect on the Skills Pod. So Liz, you started the podcast in 2020. I realised I should have said 1850, but then I thought there are so many issues with that joke because electricity wasn't, you know, the internet wasn't there. Forget electricity, the internet didn't exist. So you started the podcast in 2020. Tell us more. Why did you start it? What were you hoping for?

Liz: Well, I had been doing a radio show on the student radio for about 10 years. And I was known as Library Liz because my job before I moved into academic skills was in the library.

Emma: I didn't know this! Library Liz.

Liz: Library Liz. And then when I moved into academic skills, I did the two jobs in conjunction with each other for quite a few years. And I was talking to the then head of academic skills, and we were discussing, because I got people to come onto the radio show a few times and talk about academic skills as well as library stuff. And there was a training course being run over two days in the summer of 2019 on podcasts and how to make stories and do a narrative and get a feed through and having a quick look at some of the software that you could use to do it. And it was run in-house by some of the radio staff.

So myself and a colleague, we went to that, and we got quite a few ideas of how we were going to set it up and how we wanted it to be something that was sort of useful for the students, something that was conversational, something that was quite informative, but it wasn't formal so that we'd get a bit of engagement. And it would be something that students could potentially listen to, just have it on in the background and, you know, they could potentially request particular things that we might talk about, all that sort of stuff.

So we did the course, that was 2019. We started trying to go forward with it and find ways to record it. But believe it or not, it wasn't that easy and straightforward to record and we needed to use the software. And so we would try to record things on little handheld dictaphones and then download them and upload them and all kinds of things. So actually, it was COVID that made the difference, that enabled us to really do the podcasts and launch forward with it.

So once COVID started, we switched everything to online, everything that we did through academic skills. And we found that through Microsoft Teams, we could actually record people, and that's the basis of how we would do the podcast. So after having about five or six months of trying different things with the podcast and it not really working or it being a lot of work, COVID came along in March 2020, and that's how we sort of started the whole thing. So we started recording it in Teams.

And then in 2021, we had quite a lot of changes within the team.

Tony: Just a few. I arrived. Hi everyone.

Emma: And the team has never been quiet since.

Liz: Yeah, it's true. It's true: And quite a few people left.

Tony: Not because I joined, just want to make that clear. It's just a coincidence.

Liz: You say potato, I say potahto, all that kind of thing. Anyway, so we had quite a few changes in 2021 and I was sort of doing the podcast with a couple of colleagues, one in particular, Jen, who left the team. And so we were trying to cover things and there wasn't as much time to do it. And then when Tony and Emma started and joined the team, it was a really good time to revamp everything and move forward sort of 2022 with renewed vigour and really trying to take it to the next generation, as Emma so kindly pointed out, because I'm the old generation.

Liz: New and improved instead of old and inferior.

Tony: So yeah, that's kind of it, I think.

Emma: Do we have some fab stats, Tony?

Tony: We do. I've got our fab stats up. So as of today, the 8th of April 2025, we have 13,444 downloads. We, drum roll, in terms of countries, 115 countries and territories. Can you have a guess who our top three listeners are? Obviously, the first one will be quite easy. Where are most of our listeners from in terms of countries?

Liz: Oh, England, UK.

Tony: UK, yeah, UK. In second, and just so you know, about 77% of our listeners are from the UK.

Liz: America?

Emma: India.

Tony: So United States, America are third.

Liz: Okay. So India is fourth.

Emma: Second?

Liz: So Australia people wouldn't be.

Tony: Australia are fifth. Who would they listen to? It's second.

Liz: Not India.

Tony: No, it is Sri Lanka, believe it or not. So our top ten are United Kingdom, then Sri Lanka, then United States of America, then India, then Australia, then Germany, then Ireland, then the Philippines, then Canada, and then Nigeria. So yeah, and again, just looking at some of the cities, they've obviously got Chester, we've got Winchester, Colombo District, Cardiff, Manchester, Liverpool, Newport, Coventry, Bristol and London as our top ten. We have reach.

Emma: But yeah, I mean, should we tell everyone what the judges said about...

Liz: Oh, yes. Have you got your best voice?

Tony: Oh, I did. I never said anything about the name. We had quite a few.

Emma: Yes. Why are we called the Skills Pod?

Liz: We had quite a few different names that we were trying to work out and there were quite a few that were sort of alliterations and a few bits and pieces. And we didn't want it to focus on one aspect of the academic journey, hence we went with skills. And we just quite liked to keep it short, having the 'pod' rather than 'podcast'. Yeah, we did have a few conversations about it. I think about five or six of us that ended up just voting for it and the Skills Pod won.

Emma: Can you tell us any names that were rejected? Can you think, can you remember any?

Liz: At one stage we did quite want to get 'groovy' in there. So we ended up calling the channel on Teams 'The Groovy Skills'.

Emma: That makes sense now.

Liz: Yeah. But it was things like 'Academic Chats' or 'Conversations in Academia' and that sort of thing. And they're all too long.

Emma: They're quite snappy enough.

Liz: Yeah. Maybe, maybe like now award winners, we should call it 'The Skillz Pod' with a Z because we're cool.

Tony: When I say skills, you say pod, skills pod! That's what we should do. But yeah, it is a great name and I think it's something that a lot of people have kind of connected with, which is great. And obviously the judges did as well. So the judges praised us for its innovative and accessible approach to academic support, using podcasts to effectively reach and engage students. By delivering academic and interpersonal skills in a bite-sized conversational format, it demonstrates impressive impact and forward-thinking solutions to growing student demands. So that is really good, isn't it? You know, so from all the things from way back in 2020 to where we are today, you know, every single episode has had an impact, which is great. And, you know, we get feedback from tutors, from students who find it really, really beneficial to listen to them.

And yeah, I think podcasts are just a great... I mean, podcasts have really taken off, haven't they, over the past couple of years in general. And it just so happens that we've kind of been on that wave. But yeah, it's not an award that we expected to win at all. I mean, when there is a video you'll see on our socials, potentially when we won the awards. So we are genuinely so shocked because particularly for the E&A, you know, it's a really, really prestigious awards. But they even said this was the highest ever year of entries that they've had across all of...

Emma: And I think we were up against eight people, I think, in that category.

Tony: So, you know, we had no expectations. We loved the podcast and we loved working on it, but we did not expect it to get the awards that it did, which is amazing. So yeah, you know, it's a big thank you to both of you as well for, you know, Liz starting thing, giving birth to the podcast.

Emma: I was thinking about Liz birthing it. Yeah, birthed it.

Tony: And then Emma came along and was, yeah, like a nanny and has educated and has pushed it on. And I'm just the weird uncle that comes along and does some tech stuff from time to time.

Emma: I think that's a great thing about the Skills Pod is that, you know, when I heard that we had a podcast when I started, I was really keen to kind of, I mean, I love chatting. So, you know, and at the end of the day, the Skills Pod is a group of humans, friends, colleagues who get together, who respect each other and are genuinely interested in different kind of approaches to learning, to developing academic skills. And it's a joy to do, like it's so fun and it's so great to kind of, you know, it's so good to kind of hear different people's, you know, strategies, how they've overcome things. And I think that's the heart of it, isn't it? There's a group of humans chatting and sharing ideas with other humans, which hopefully, you know, students and all, you know, everyone who listens to it, to see that, you know, it might feel like an impossible task to master critical thinking or referencing. And we've all been there, we've all had to develop these skills ourselves through our own studies. And, you know, we've done episodes on things like resilience and time management. Me and Liz have recently recorded one on procrastination. So it's, you know, these are all things that we've come across as well and had to develop strategies for. So, you know, what I'm trying to say is at the crux of this, it's people helping people.

Tony: Yeah, and what you hear is what you get. Like, you know, this is not some sort of act that we put on for the podcast. If you had a one-to-one with us, this is sort of, yeah. So, yeah, it is good. And obviously we've got to thank, you know, all the staff and students who've collaborated with us over the years as well. You know, it's... it can be quite daunting, can't it, coming on the podcast, but you know, exciting times ahead. I know we've got big plans for the podcast, got lots of episodes coming up, a lot of joint ones as well with staff and students. And yeah, we're just going to keep making content until nobody listens and even then I'll listen.

Emma: And also it's a really good time to talk about our work-based learning project as well. So we're going to be gathering some research on the Skills Pod. So if you do listen to the Skills Pod and you're a University of Chester student or staff member, do keep an eye out for our questionnaire, which we'll be sending around. We're keen to get feedback on the podcast.

Tony: Yeah, probably early May. So yeah, keep an eye out on Portal, your emails and stuff. Because it's a shame not to write it up as a paper.

Emma: And also, I was going to say, if you want to collaborate with us on the podcast, if you're a staff member at the University of Chester and you feel it would be beneficial to record a collaborative episode on a topic, drop us a line: ask@chester.ac.uk.

Tony: Yeah, and if you're a student and you've got some ideas of things you'd like to hear, it'd be really useful as well.

Emma: We are very excited about the future of this.

Liz: We are, and you know, and please do, you know, leave us comments. If you listen to it on Spotify, you can leave comments, Buzzsprout, you know, really get it to grow, you know, like the episodes. So, share them.

Emma: Yeah, you know, yes, we're primarily here for University of Chester students, but if that helps somebody else, you know, develop their academic skills, then that's what we're here for. So, yeah, you know, or if there is anything you're like, "You know, I really want you guys to do a podcast on this," email us, you know, because we've done that before. I think we did one fairly recently, which was student requested. So, yeah, we are now an award-winning podcast.

Liz: Yes.

Emma: And I guess on that note, we should round up.

Tony: Okay, well, thanks everyone for listening. Keep listening. And we'll be back to our normal scheduled program in our next episode, I'm sure.

Emma: Bye, everyone.

Liz: Bye.

(Outro Music/Information Segment - Emma or pre-recorded voiceover):

Hi there. If you're a University of Chester student, these are ways that you can access support from your academic skills team. You can access our Moodle pages via the green training and skills tile tab on Portal. On here, you'll find a wealth of information discussing a variety of different skills such as referencing to planning to writing.

You can send an extract of your work to our feed forward email assistance service by emailing ask@chester.ac.uk. You can send us 750 words or three paragraphs per assignment and an academic skills advisor will get back to you within three working days with generic and developmental feedback on aspects such as criticality, paragraph structure and referencing.

You can also use our one-to-one service. Here you will book on our system and meet with an advisor for around about 30 minutes, be that online or in person, depending on your preference, where the advisor will meet you and discuss any skills-related issues you have, and also talk through the comments that they made on your work to help you progress in your academic studies.

If you and a group of your course mates or friends are struggling with the same academic skill, then you can book an Ask Together session. And you can do this by emailing ask@chester.ac.uk with details of the skills that you want to talk about, how many people are in your group and your availability. We can look to arrange a bespoke session with an academic skills advisor.

Of course, you've got the Skills Pod. And if there are any topics that you'd like us to cover or suggestions, or even if you'd like to get involved with the Skills Pod, drop us an email at ask@chester.ac.uk. Ask. Supporting your success.