Sunday Times 2
Preserving a heritage while tuned into current trends
Having arrived just two days before the annual prizegiving of the Trinity College London, Sarah Kemp has had little time to travel and see Sri Lanka before she heads back to the UK. The endless travelling and meetings are nothing new to the Chief Executive of Trinity College London here on a first visit to Sri Lanka, but she greets everything and everyone with a warm smile. Having taken office in 2011 Sarah has brought to the heritage of Trinity College a fresh different approach to conducting examinations with a host of new and exciting examinations which have garnered the enthusiasm and interest of candidates from over 60 countries.
Sarah Kemp. Pic by Susantha Liyanawatte
The reason for her novel way of thinking probably lies in her multi-faceted resume. Hailing from a musical family Sarah and her brother Dr. John Bentley, also an academic consultant to Trinity grew up influenced by the arts from a very young age. Having studied modern history while at university, her work took her overseas to Italy. With a strong background in finance, strategy and accounting, she had commercial stints at Unilever and GlaxoSmithKline before her musical roots found herself working for music publishers Boosey and Hawkes plc. which gave her the chance to work with classical music and the works of composers such as Rachmainov, Britten and Copeland.
Her interest in the arts didn’t stop at music. Having worked at Getty Images and National Geographic, Sarah gained a wide knowledge of photography and documentary and film, before her next career move; as the Director of Finance and Business Affairs of the Royal Opera House.
“It starts with music, then a commercial break with Unilever and GlaxoSmithKline Inc. I then got to know the business of music and then through Getty and National Geographic got to know another form of intellectual property about image and photography, and then back to music,” she summarizes. It’s the rounded knowledge she has that has contributed immensely to her work at Trinity.
Describing her job as being a ‘change agent’, preserving the long history and heritage of Trinity is high on her list while making it as relevant as possible. “I feel that we have been too European in our focus,” she explains, choosing to zero in on Asia, having done a lot of work in India and South East Asia. “I want to bring out the very best in exams with local empowerment,” she says.
“Before I joined Trinity, most of the key decisions were made in the UK,” she says -local administrators will obviously have a better understanding of their candidates and their markets,” he points out.
Throughout her time at Trinity, a problem which she feels is universal is spoken English. “This is where Trinity comes into its own because we don’t just deal with the theory part of it but also communication and the practical part of it.” Trinity caters to the student in everyone; children and adults. Sarah herself admits to being surprised by the number of adults interested in doing speech, drama and communication exams, as the typical candidates she expected from around school years. “There are a growing number of people who do exams with the start of their careers. It’s where confidence building comes in,” she says, observing that a lot of people would do their drama qualifications to help them in their workplace.
Elaborating on the arts programmes back home in England,’DaDa’; a qualification introduced by Trinity on dance and drama is by far one of the most popular. Government funded, it supports students who want to pursue a career in the performing arts. While it is precarious in its own right because of changes in the government, support for ‘DaDa’ comes in the form of high profile actors and theatre personalities who constantly lobby for the qualification.
For drama, 2014 is a big year in England as it marks the 450th death anniversary of William Shakespeare. Trinity’s close relationship with Shakespearean theatre extends from its close ties with the Globe theatre to the Shakespeare syllabus offered to drama students. The Trinity playwriting competition is yet another recent addition to their repertoire of qualifications and competitions, with a few novel reasons for doing so. “One, that there is not enough material that young people would find interesting to perform,” Sarah explains, another being the medium for which budding playwrights can gain some experience. The winning plays are even published and even staged in London.
The response has been astounding with applicants from 50 countries. “Rock and Pop exams is our newest baby,” she laughs, a curious and obvious contrast to the classical music exams offered in the past. “We wanted to make exams accessible to everyone.” Rock and pop offers candidates a familiar footing when they first start out. “We wanted to be as embracive as possible.” Having received a lot of positive feedback Sarah finds that many candidates start off doing rock and pop exams and develop a liking for classical music thereafter.
Trinity’s focus isn’t restricted to students alone. For Sarah, giving teachers the support they need is equally important. “We find that teachers are actually an unsupported lot.” Another of Sarah’s area of interests are in teacher training, especially in Asia where English is not the primary language. “Confidence is a big issue for teachers. They are actually better than they think they are but they are uncertain when it comes to the communication part of it.” The problem is not in Sri Lanka alone, but in many countries. It is why Trinity has exams that specifically aim at teachers to need to teach in English.
Looking at the impact Trinity exams have had on Sri Lanka and around, Sachin Das, regional coordinator for Trinity South Asia, also invited for the prize giving feels that there is a shift happening in the field of education. “We are a society that has been career orientated but now, we want to make it more communication orientated.”