Official opening of the new £7 million animal study centre at Dudley College.

Official opening of the new £7 million animal study centre at Dudley College. BBC Springwatch presenter Megan McCubbin did the honours.

Transcript

00:00We're here with Megan McCubbin, TV presenter, zoologist, conservationist, published author

00:08with a new book out. Good morning, how are you doing?

00:11I'm great, thank you. Yeah, privileged to be here for this really exciting occasion.

00:15Yeah, at the opening of a new facility at Dudley College for Animal Education and Welfare.

00:22You've had a chance to look around, we've took some pictures. What do you think of the

00:26facility?

00:28It's really exciting to see areas where the next generation of young conservationists,

00:32animal enthusiasts, people who are going to really use their voice to change the world

00:36are going to come to grow and learn. They can get hands-on experience with the animals

00:40that live here, learn how to take care of them, and then, you know, when they're ready

00:44go out into the wider world and be bold and be brave in using their voice to stand up

00:48for all the animals they've come to care and love whilst kind of learning here.

00:53Yeah, you've done a Q&A, question and answer, with some of the potential students, parents,

00:58etc. And you talked a lot about young people pathways into animal care, animal welfare.

01:05I guess this facility is a good one for the catchment area of Dudley College.

01:11Yeah, absolutely. You know, all local people of college age can come and have a look round

01:15and understand more about what might draw them in to learning about the different curriculums

01:19here. And there are so many different options and I think that's the exciting thing. It's

01:22a really interesting and exciting time to be a young person, sometimes a bit of a scary

01:26time to be a young person because there are a lot of options. But when you come to places

01:29like this and you see the opportunities that you can have, it's really exciting and it's

01:34a brilliant time to be getting into nature and wildlife because the conversation is continually

01:40evolving and young people are having more of a voice now than they ever have done, as

01:44they should do. Young people are so knowledgeable and it's their future that they're fighting

01:47for. So it's really exciting to see all the opportunities that are available to them here

01:52and the skill sets that they can build upon. And you're busy as ever with the television.

01:56You said in there that you're filming a new series for Christmas. Tell us a quick plug

02:01for that. Yeah, sure. So we're about to film the next series of Animal Park, which is hosted

02:07at Longleat Safari Park. And yeah, it's going to be the Christmas series, so it will be

02:12all Christmas-fied. The animals will be getting lots of presents and there'll be baubles and

02:18all the usual Christmas stuff going on, I'm sure. But it's really great. It's a great

02:22programme that I love to get involved with because, again, it's about educating people

02:26about these animals, which we're so lucky to be able to spend time with. And these animals

02:31do live in captivity, so the more people we can engage and educate about them and their

02:35wild counterparts, the better. And for me, Animal Park is the best way of doing that.

02:39Great to see you this morning and thanks for talking to us. No worries. Thanks for having me.