Performing arts students at West Nottinghamshire College have been getting into character to help a public body manage a mock emergency scenario, while growing their work placement time and experience.

The Coal Authority’s headquarters, situated in Mansfield’s Berry Hill, provides engineering solutions to help the long-term mining legacy in the UK. Its team of experts offer a range of services to help customers better understand mining risks.

One of its many services includes short and long-term management of mine water and geotechnical and environmental issues.

As part of the on-going development of its call centre staff, head of resilience Jim Repp wanted to organise a realistic emergency scenario, designed to put their communications and problem-solving skills to the test.

That’s when Jim reached out to performance students at nearby West Nottinghamshire College to act as members of the public telephoning the call centre with an array of queries, concerns and complaints about a fictitious scenario involving mine water flooding affecting residential properties.

Using a list of provided situations, students got into character in the Create classrooms at the Derby Road campus and contacted the Coal Authority’s call centre. Students acted as worried elderly individuals through to irate and demanding callers during this period of corporate role play.

The college’s programme area leader for performing arts, Simon Watt, said: “This group of students performed incredibly well, using their vocal techniques, improvisation and characterisation. The way they put across the problems to the authority’s call centre was not only believable but delivered with excellence and differentiation for a multitude of scenarios and personas.

“Jasmine Fraser’s depiction of Ada, a very anxious elderly lady whose cat Tiddles was notionally missing in the scenario, was well played and truly professional.

“Working on corporate role play scripts has really stretched their skills and is not only a valuable addition to their professional CVs but has also helped to boost their work placement activities that are a key aspect of vocational study programmes.”

Mr Repp said: “All the students performed very well on the day, enabling us to add an element of realism to our exercise that we couldn’t have achieved without them.

“This allowed us to test our resilience capabilities within a controlled environment, benefiting both the Coal Authority and the local students. We look forward to working with them again in the new academic year.”