12th May 2016

South Devon College hosted a talk from a member of the House of Lords to encourage students to become more engaged with the political and parliamentary process.  Lord Teverson met with A Level History, Politics and Law students for an hour to talk about the work and role of the House of Lords. This was followed by a question and answer session on various aspects of the parliamentary process and life at Westminster generally. He was most recently the Liberal Democrat Lords Principal Spokesperson for Energy and Climate Change and also Transport.

Lord Teverson said, “I have really enjoyed my time at South Devon College, it has been worthwhile coming to see how the College is progressing and meeting a group of students who want to address and discuss issues that affect all of us. I hope the importance of voting and getting involved practically in democracy has been highlighted. I also hope it has got the students thinking about how Parliament in Britain works, how it can be improved, and also how opening up some of the issues we’ve discussed here today can affect them over their lifetime. It’s important for people involved in Parliament to be put in front of students and people in College so there’s a direct interaction rather than just through outlets such as the media.” During the visit Lord Teverson took a tour of the Energy Centre and met with a number of staff and students from South Devon College.

The visit was arranged through the Lord Speaker’s “Peers in Schools” programme, which has been running across the UK since 2007 and has so far involved around 75,000 young people.  This continuing outreach programme sends members of the House of Lords into schools/academies and colleges across the country to give talks in support of the citizenship curriculum.