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InTuition Issue 24 | Summer 2016
The journal for professional teachers and trainers in the further education and training sector
An apprentice in the limelight Sherice Pitter and mentor Becky Martin at The Lyric Me&My Tutor p15 Welcoming your feedback on this edition – see page 3
Have your say in shaping the future of Functional Skills News p4
Hear from members and supporters on the impact of SET’s first year Feature p12
Andrew Morris on spreading a learning culture in FE and Skills Research p18
The ‘Icedip’ approach to developing creativity in your students Geoff Petty p30
Looking to brush up on your teaching or research? We’ve got you covered… Reflective Teaching in further, Adult and Vocational Education
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Teaching and Learning on foundation Degrees
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Welcome An exciting and rewarding first year
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Contents
Welcome to your latest issue of InTuition. I am very proud that this edition marks the first anniversary of the Society for Education and Training (SET). When the Education and Training Foundation launched SET last May, we knew that there was an appetite among FE teachers, trainers, managers and leaders for a professional body to promote the professionalism and status of those working in our sector, and provide resources and support to help you improve your practice and aid your professional development. We have been delighted, however, with the level of demand for SET’s services and the associated growth in membership, which rose by almost 50 per cent to more than 14,000 people by the end of our first year. To mark our anniversary, on pages 12 to 14 of this issue, we look back at our first year and feature some of the great feedback we have had from members and supporters. It has been vital, since the beginning, that SET listens to what you, as practitioners, actually want from your professional body – so it is fantastic to receive this strong endorsement of our progress so far. Involving our members in our management and governance structures are at the heart of everything we do and, on page 6, Ken Merry, who chairs the SET Management Board, writes about his personal commitment to SET. In another exciting development, our practitioner advisory group (PAG), which comprises members from different parts of the FE and skills sector, met in May to discuss various strategic plans for SET – including those to develop and improve InTuition. We will be relaunching the magazine from December with a fresh, new design and with member-focused content that is more informative, useful and more interesting than ever. A consultation survey on InTuition will be sent to members soon, with regional focus groups taking place during the summer. It has been an exciting, rewarding first year for SET, and we look forward to your continued support during the year ahead. • I hope you enjoy this issue of InTuition and, if you haven’t done so already, make sure you don’t miss out on future issues, by reactivating your membership for 2016-17 today.
Tim Weiss Director of the Society for Education and Training
News 4 ELATT wins FE Provider of the Year accolade; Member consultation on Functional Skills; Coates Review News 6 Ear to the Ground Policy watch News in brief Opinion 8 Beth Bickerstaffe David Walrond People 10 Music tutor Andy Edwards UnionLearn director Liz Rees Feature 12 A year of success for the Society for Education and Training Practitioners 15 Me and my tutor: Sherice Pitter Research 16 Angela Sanders Andrew Morris Dr Lynne Rogers Research digest 20 The University of Huddersfield InPractice 22 The BBC Academy’s work with FE on careers in broadcasting InSight 24 Entrepreneurship is a skill that can be taught, says Tony Talbot Leading learning 26 Corrina Hembury on how to create more enthused leaders Resources 29 Maths courses boost teachers’ confidence Geoff Petty 30 How to use ‘Icedip’ to boost creativity in your students
InTuition contacts EDITORIAL membership.communications@ etfoundation.co.uk The Society for Education and Training, 157-197 Buckingham Palace Road, London SW1W 9SP. Editor: Alan Thomson alan@createpublishing.uk.com
Cover image: Peter Searle
PUBLISHING InTuition is produced and published on behalf of The Society for Education and Training by Create Publishing Ltd, Anerley Business Centre, Anerley Road, London SE20 8BD Advertising: Alan Thomson 020 8676 5608 Printed by: PCP Ltd, Telford
CORPORATE The Society for Education and Training is the membership service of The Education and Training Foundation. The Foundation is a registered charity (charity number 1153859) and a company limited by guarantee (company number 08540597). www.et-foundation.co.uk
Books 32 Teaching in Post-14 Education & Training; Educational Research: Taking the Plunge
SUBSCRIPTIONS InTuition is sent to all members of The Society for Education and Training and is available on subscription to non-members. For non-member subscriptions enquiries, or to purchase single copies telephone 0844 815 3202 or email membership.communications@ etfoundation.co.uk. Annual subscription rate for four issues: £50 (UK); £60 (rest of the world).
Forum 34 Pedagogue My Story Strictly Online
The views expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of the Education and Training Foundation, the Society for Education and Training or members of the editorial board.
Noticeboard 35 A round-up of the professional development events coming up in June, July and August
InTuition Issue 24 | Summer 2016 3
News
News ELATT wins ‘FE Provider of the Year’ accolade By Alan Thomson If further education and training excels in giving second chances to those who feel let down by the schools system, then ELATT Connected Learning (main picture) provides still more opportunities for those who struggle in mainstream FE. ELATT, based in east London, became the first independent provider to be named as FE Provider of the Year in the recent TES FE Awards, a category sponsored by the Education and Training Foundation. ELATT also won the award for employer engagement. Anthony Harmer, ELATT’s chief executive, said the charity specialises in delivering IT courses, English, maths, and ESOL to the long-term unemployed and groups such as asylum seekers. A number also have special educational needs and disabilities. “For some, larger providers can be intimidating. We are a small organisation and offer a manageable learning environment and a lot of
personalised support from our staff,” he said. “Many students have a high level of needs and we need good continuing professional development for our staff. We try to fit it around staff and most of it is ungraded because we focus on development rather than scoring.” Anthony, a former college ESOL teacher, believes that ELATT’s personalised approach to learners and staff might be applied to larger learning organisations with the appropriate support from leadership. “We have a lot of non-accredited courses and so we try to measure things like the improvement in students’ confidence and positivity, and their ability to build relationships, by using surveys and interviews,” he said. Another category sponsored by ETF was for ‘Best Teaching and Learning Initiative’, which was won by Forth Valley College, based in central Scotland, for its creative teaching initiative (pictured, bottom left).
TES
An independent provider has topped the TES FE Awards for the first time, winning the category sponsored by the Education and Training Foundation
Principal Dr Ken Thomson explained how teaching staff were given ‘permission’ to think beyond the standard 40 hours of modular delivery – an approach that has seen creative, crossdepartmental learning flourish. “Our make-up students helped our timber technology students do presentations on the importance of health and safety in the workplace – some of the effects were straight out of
Make sure you continue to receive InTuition: re-activate your membership today
InTuition is one of the exclusive member benefits of the Society for Education and Training. It comes free as part of your membership subscription. • InTuition magazine is published four times a year – with new content coming in September and a new-look InTuition launching in December 2016. • Look out for special editions of InTuition, including our dedicated Research supplement. • You’ll also receive InTuition extra, our monthly members’ e-newsletter. To continue receiving InTuition, as well as a range of other exclusive member benefits, call 0800 093 9111 to re-activate your membership today. 4 Issue 23 | Summer 2016 InTuition
The Walking Dead!” he said. “We even had sports science students working with construction on warm-up exercises for builders to help cut down on injuries at work.” The college, which won the Beacon Award for Innovation in Further Education in 2014, felt sufficiently confident in the robustness of its internal and external quality and assessment processes and metrics to able to give staff the freedom to experiment in their teaching. “The senior management accepted the risks and that allowed us to go to staff and say let’s do something different, something creative,” he said. “In another example, our computer science students went for a weather balloon altitude record that included
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Your feedback on Functional Skills By Ed Melia Teachers, trainers, leaders and managers from across the country are being invited to share their opinions in a survey on the future of Functional Skills. The survey, which is part of the Functional Skills Reform Programme, funded by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) and led by the Education and Training Foundation, is open to all those working in further education and skills. This includes those working in adult and community learning; further education; offender learning; independent and private training and learning; work-based and union learning. The survey is seeking opinions on the following issues:
•T he role of digital skills and technology; •T he structure and size of qualifications; •D istinction between levels; •M otivation for learners; and •C ontinuing professional development. Sue Southwood, programme manager at the Foundation, said: “Functional Skills have already made a significant difference to many people – helping them to get on in learning, work and life. “Your feedback in this survey will help us ensure these qualifications are fit for purpose across the wide variety of settings in which they are taught. “We want to support innovative and dynamic forms of delivery, leading to better outcomes for learners by giving
them the skills and confidence to thrive in learning, in work and in life. This survey will provide crucial information for us to devise a continuing professional development programme to support teachers and trainers and we urge you to take some time to complete it.” Ed Melia is a communications specialist working with the Education and Training Foundation on the Functional Skills Reform Programme. The survey, co-ordinated by Pye Tait Consulting, is open until 5pm on Friday 24 June 2016. For further information and to complete the survey please visit http://goo.gl/p9lGXD
Coates Review: ‘bold’ suggestions them designing an on-board computer and filming the ascent by drone,” he said. “Many providers turn out computer science students with good HNDs, but how many have been involved in a project to break a world altitude record?” Judith Doyle, principal of Gateshead College (pictured above with comedian Shappi Khorsandi), won the FE Leader of the Year category, sponsored by ETF. Paul McTernan, the complex needs course manager at Barnet and Southgate College, was awarded Teacher of the Year. For a full list of winners visit the TES FE Awards site at http://goo.gl/OfIdNB
By Staff Reporters Improved professional development support for teachers and trainers working in offender learning is among a series of recommendations in the Coates Review of prison education. Dame Sally Coates’ review, Unlocking Potential, calls for appropriate professional development to support teachers, instructors, peer mentors, prison officers, senior leaders and governors in the delivery of high quality education. The review also recommends the recruitment of more, highquality teachers as well as a graduate teacher recruitment scheme. It says every prisoner should have a personal learning plan; that prison governors should have more control over education provision and funding;
that a core set of education performance measures should be used by all prisons; and that Ofsted should use the same inspection criteria that they use when inspecting adult learning. Rod Clark, chief executive of the Prisoners’ Education Trust, said: “Some recommendations may appear bold, but with the cost of re-offending at £13 billion a year, the real financial and social risk is failing to help prisoners rehabilitate through learning while in custody.” Olivia Dorricott, the Education and Training Foundation’s director for leadership, was a member of the Coates review. She said: “We look forward to building on the work the ETF already does so that more professionals are supported and effective practice shared.” The Foundation is currently
training or otherwise engaged with teachers and trainers in 91 per cent of prisons. ETF published two reports to coincide with the Coates review. One is a rapid review of key international evidence about prison education and the other covers the latest data on the offender learning workforce. See page 16 for a summary of ETF’s rapid review of evidence. Workforce data http://goo.gl/Qryp7G ETF guide to prison education http://goo.gl/zoxsXt A range of information and support for offender learning practitioners is available through ETF at http://goo.gl/qTR6Ud Coates review: https://goo.gl/ACsR4M
InTuition Issue 23 | Summer 2016 5
Views & News
Views Ear to the ground Ken Merry A membership body you can’t afford to miss out on… When the Society for Education and Training (SET) was launched in May 2015, we established a clear and transparent governance structure. It was designed to involve members at every level and to incorporate your views and feedback on an ongoing basis in how your membership body is managed and run. This structure has several levels: •P ractitioner Advisory Group (PAG). This is made up of 35 SET members who have volunteered to be part of a forum that meets three times a year to feed back on what they and their colleagues want to see in SET and the future development of QTLS. The group has met three times since September 2015 and continues to provide
invaluable, constructive feedback to SET staff and management. • SET Management Board (SMB). This includes four SET members drawn from the PAG, alongside two senior staff from the Education and Training Foundation (ETF) and two trustees from the ETF’s Board of Directors, one of whom is chair. I was appointed chair at the start of 2016, in time for our first board meeting in February. The board reviews, plans and decides on SET’s future strategic direction, its policies and processes. •T he decisions of the PAG and SMB are reported into the ETF’s Board of Directors, which has financial and strategic responsibility for all of the ETF’s programmes and initiatives. The ETF Board is absolutely focused on the recommendations it receives from the PAG and SMB, as we all recognise and know that the future success of SET relies on providing the
membership service that practitioners want and need. I was delighted to be invited to chair the SMB as I strongly believe this is a transparent structure and process: open to allowing members to decide the direction of travel of SET and to build a professional body that has real, tangible value to our members in supporting the development of their practice. I want us to collectively create a membership body that people see as being key to their continuing professional development, where engagement with members is at the heart of all the activities we oversee, becoming something that members cannot afford to miss out on. I look forward to working with SET members to develop this vision and achieve this ambition. Ken Merry is head of business enterprise at the RNN Group
Policy watch Shane Chowen Is the sector about to get the recognition it deserves? At first glance, you might think that The Queen’s speech at this year’s state opening of parliament had all but ignored further education and training. There was a passing mention of apprenticeships, despite the introduction of the apprenticeship levy in just 10 months; silence on Area Reviews, despite being a major challenge for FE staff across the land; and little on devolution. But I would argue that this was a significant Queen’s speech for FE and skills. The Review of Education in Prisons, led by Dame Sally Coates (see pages 5 and 16 in this issue), was published on the same day as the Queen’s parliamentary address. The thrust of the review was that prison education has a much bigger role to play in offender rehabilitation and crime reduction which, presumably, is what we want from our prisons. For a long time, prison education has been provided by a small number of large FE colleges and private providers but this looks set to change dramatically. For example, there will be six trial ‘reform prisons’ where the governors will be handed the power to procure provision 6 Issue 24 | Summer 2016 InTuition
themselves rather than through the current Offenders’ Learning and Skills Service (OLASS) system. Expect a greater emphasis on the opportunities for ex-offenders outside of prisons, such as traineeships, and, hopefully, more and better support for practitioners working in prison education. The speech also emphasised the need to improve ‘life chances’ for the most disadvantaged in society and it looks like
this will be a priority area for government. Of course, it remains to be seen what impact, if any, the EU referendum on 23 June will have. That aside, if ‘improving life chances for the most disadvantaged’ doesn’t neatly sum up what we do in FE, then I don’t know what does. In the short term, some of our most vulnerable learners, those who are in or are leaving local authority care, will get better help when making decisions about learning and work opportunities. There will be a new strategy to tackle poverty and new indicators to measure life chances. This ought to shine a spotlight on the work of FE providers and how the sector helps people with learning difficulties and/ or disabilities, people who are unemployed or on low incomes, and people without basic skills. Getting beyond measures like success rates and qualifications is long overdue. Now could be the time the sector starts to get the recognition for the impact that teaching and learning has on people’s lives. Shane Chowen is head of policy and public affairs at the Learning and Work Institute
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News in brief
EuroSkills team The UK has announced the team of students and apprentices that will compete at EuroSkills 2016. The competition, to be held in Gothenburg, Sweden, from 1-3 December, will involve young people from more than 30 European countries competing in more than 35 different skill areas. The members of Team UK were selected after excelling in the national finals of the WorldSkills UK Competitions held at the end of last year. EuroSkills team members will compete for a place in the team that will represent the UK at the WorldSkills competition in Abu Dhabi from 14-19 October, 2017. For details of the EuroSkills team members visit http://goo. gl/cWYpXH CPD ‘dashboard’ for SET A new professional development dashboard, offering a range of support to help practitioners manage their continuing professional development (CPD), is available from the Society for Education and Training. The aim is to help SET members engage with professional development in an active way, by promoting on-going development, with an emphasis on professional discussions with peers. The four-stage process includes self-assessment, planning, recording your CPD and reflection. The new SET self-assessment
tool helps members assess their practice against the professional standards while the recording tool allows members to log CPD activity. Simply use your membership details to log into the SET website and you will be taken straight to your personal dashboard. Login into SET at https://goo.gl/Fqulsc Area Review summit A summit conference on the ongoing Area Review process in further education will be held at the Festival of Skills in July. The event, to be held on the first day of the festival which runs from 7-9 July, will feature a range of speakers including skills minister Nick Boles, FE Commissioner Sir David Collins and Bobbie McClelland, who is deputy director in the Reforming FE Provision Unit at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS). The festival, held at Capel Manor College’s Enfield campus, is supported by the Education and Training Foundation and FE Week. For details visit http://goo.gl/h8dbgw Future Apprenticeships A new Future Apprenticeships portal is up and running as the ‘go-to place’ to support the professional development of managers, teachers, trainers and leaders making the transition from apprenticeship frameworks to the new standards. The portal provides access to a wide range of useful resources including guidance
documents prepared by groups of providers to help practitioners plan for delivery of the new apprenticeship standards. A new provider toolkit builds on the work with hundreds of practitioners who have so far engaged with the Future Apprenticeships programme. It shares transition models and effective practice from providers who are leading the way in using the new standards. As a practical resource, it highlights actions that leaders, managers and practitioners will need to consider, and equips them with tools to starting putting these actions into practice. Both the portal and the toolkit were developed as part of the Future Apprenticeships programme commissioned by the Education and Training Foundation and run by the Association of Employment and Learning Providers and its partners. Access the portal at http:// goo.gl/GFcCM9 HE white paper A major shake-up of higher education could open the way for more further education providers to gain foundation degree awarding powers. The white paper, Success as a Knowledge Economy: Teaching Excellence, Social Mobility and Student Choice, will make it simpler for FE providers delivering significant amounts of higher education to obtain foundation or taught degree awarding powers on a threeyear probationary basis. Five colleges currently have foundation degree awarding powers: Grimsby Institute; Hull College Group; New College Durham, Newcastle College and Warwickshire College. Other applications are in the pipeline. The white paper, published in May, also calls for improvement in the quality of teaching across higher education and
a new Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) will show students where the best teaching is offered. A TEF trial year is planned for 2017/18. A new Office for Students (OfS) will combine the regulatory roles of the Higher Education and Funding Council for England (HEFCE) and Office for Fair Access (OFFA). The OfS will work closely with the new Institute for Apprenticeships and other bodies to ensure a joined up approach on quality across academic and technical education. Read the paper at https://goo.gl/G3EEk4 World Youth Skills Day Education and training providers, teachers and trainers are being urged to support and celebrate World Youth Skills Day (WYSD) on 15 July. WYSD is now officially recognised by the United Nations, and WorldSkills will join the organisations of the United Nations and other international and regional bodies, to raise awareness of the importance of skills in combating unemployment and achieving better socioeconomic conditions for young people. To celebrate World Youth Skills Day, UNESCO is organising an international forum related to technical and vocational education and training in Bonn, Germany. The forum will discuss policy solutions to foster youth employment and entrepreneurship, support the transition to green economies and promote equity and gender equality. If you are hosting an event, campaign, or have any questions, please contact Shawna Bourke, Marketing and Communications Manager at shawna.bourke@ worldskills.org. For more information visit https://goo.gl/scv60O
InTuition Issue 24 | Summer 2016 7
Views
iStock
Opinion
Area Reviews lack employees’ voice Is the ongoing Area Review process just a costcutting exercise? UNISON’s Beth Bickerstaffe urges the government to listen to FE staff In towns and cities across the UK, thousands of hardworking, skilled college staff play a key role in supporting learners on their educational journeys. Many of these staff have years of experience and understand what it takes to provide the best possible support for students in colleges. Take Jim. He has worked in his college in Yorkshire for more than 30 years as a caretaker. He has seen students come and go, listened to their stories and knows how important it is to them to gain those skills. Then there’s Susan, she’s been a teacher, SEN worker and now works in IT and understands the different roles needed to make a college work effectively. Carl has years of experience as an engineer and shares that hands-on experience with students as a demonstrator/assessor. All of these experienced and diverse players in the day-to-day operation of colleges are being sidelined in the biggest 8 Issue 24 | Summer 2016 InTuition
changes to the sector in 20 years. The government is driving through radical Area Reviews of post-16 education provision, but without listening to the very people who know what works and what doesn’t, and who understand the communities that these institutions serve, because they live there too. Listening to staff and engaging them in the process of change would help to ensure that the review is not just the cost-cutting exercise many fear it is. By listening to this army of experienced stakeholders, the government could draw on their knowledge and come out of the process with improvements to the service for learners, to the benefit of the local communities and economies. At the moment, staff are only being informed of a limited number of the discussions on the future of colleges being held by the decision makers. In some areas, staff unions are being invited to
fewer Area Review meetings than were originally planned. The employer’s organisation, the Association of Colleges, has produced guidance for its members which acknowledges that giving low priority to the impact of the changes on staff can be a barrier to successful mergers and reorganisations in the private sector. However, there is a reluctance on the part of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) and the Department for Education (DfE) to facilitate an enhanced role for staff and their unions in this process. It is important that the experience of staff is valued and allowed to shape the future of post-16 provision. Those working in colleges are dedicated to giving students the very best chance in life and they want to ensure that colleges remain rooted in local communities and accessible to everyone. They have scores of ideas for improvement and better outreach to ensure that people at every stage of life get the support they deserve to transform their life chances and that of their families. Beth Bickerstaffe is national officer for education and children’s services at UNISON The Education and Training Foundation is producing an effective practice guide for staff communication to inform and support the Area Review process. The guide will be ready in July and an update will be provided through InTuition extra.
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Our commitment to the cause Truro and Penwith College is the first college to receive a grade-one Ofsted judgement in all categories under the common inspection framework. Principal David Walrond says teaching is at the heart of the college’s success However simplistic or obvious it sounds, any college’s success depends on the quality of teaching, learning and assessment. Truro and Penwith College invests as much resource as possible in each of these. A good college is a successful business. It has to be – to be credible with the many businesses it works with and, in the words of our recent Ofsted report, to “maintain the strong financial position that ensures the curriculum is sustained and developed”. However, a college is not like other businesses since its core work is education and skills. It has to get these right first to be credible with anyone, particularly learners. In describing some of what we do here, it’s on the understanding that we are always ‘still working on it’. Part of our culture is a cheerful scepticism about one-size-fits-all solutions in education. We haven’t ‘cracked it’. We are not trying to put anything in bottles or sell it on. Everyone here is engaged in how, and how well, learners are taught and supported, including senior management. Nobody has a job divorced from operational matters, or any doubts about who we all work for – the learner. How well learners achieve and how well they are then empowered to shape their own futures (and, of course, our collective
socio-economic futures) depends on what actually happens in workshops, classrooms, studios, salons, training kitchens and laboratories. Thus, the clear focus of the head of faculty or department role is on the actual experience of the student in those learning environments. Student support is vital too, but what learners are being supported towards is greater empowerment and enhanced life chances through achievement. Our Ofsted report praised ‘a strong mix of nurture and challenge’. We free managers from as many administrative and financial demands as possible, so that they can focus on students. For example, the programme team leaders’ role involves a 50 per cent teaching commitment. Their insight and credibility (and they have both in abundance) come from daily engagement with learners, and by fully sharing the challenges of the teachers in their teams. A very small central quality team supports teaching: quality is everyone’s business, not a separate department. The team intervenes supportively when necessary. Everyone ‘gets’ the performance data – in both senses of that word, receiving and understanding. It’s not ‘the college’s data’ – it’s theirs. Regular formative assessment of
learning is effectively formative assessment of how well teaching is going. Waiting on summative assessments of either teaching or learning (usually an annual cycle) is ‘too much, too late’. Various performance indicators help us analyse college and student performance (which are, of course, the same thing) – learner voice, lesson observations, learner outcomes. The last is the most important. If teaching looks OK and learners do not seem unduly unhappy, but achievement is indifferent, then we are failing. Badly. Success rates are an important measure, but the more important indicator they must always be linked to, is progress or value added. The college embeds a shared understanding of value added and progress into all aspects of its work – with learners, staff, parents, carers and employers. Our designations of Teaching School and Maths Hub arose from a commitment here to evidence-based, data-led practice. On-going staff development has this too, together with an acceptance that things keep changing. Perhaps the following extract from our Teaching and Learning Handbook for staff captures an essential part of the ethos and practice here: “We have a commitment to continuous improvement because we work in a context of continuous change. Learners, both as individuals and whole cohorts, change. The nature of the employment and of the further programmes of study for which we prepare our learners for are constantly evolving. The curriculum and methods of assessment change. The technology at our disposal as teachers develops rapidly and dramatically. “It follows therefore that how we teach, how we ensure learning, and how we assess it, are all things we need to review and refresh with a determination to make them as effective and relevant as possible. As a college we promote lifelong learning; as teachers we clearly have to be committed to it ourselves.” David Walrond is principal of Truro and Penwith College
InTuition Issue 24 | Summer 2016 9
People
Drumming up support for ILPs “It was a bit like being on a bad holiday,” Andy Edwards says of his days touring the world in a band led by rock star Robert Plant. “Unpack, do the gig, pack, travel, unpack, do the gig, pack. You spend a lot of time at airports and in meetings with accountants.” It’s not really what one expects to hear from a drummer who played more than 100 gigs, in the late 1990s and early noughties, with former Led Zeppelin frontman Plant in his band Priory of Brion. “Don’t get me wrong, it was a massive privilege,” Andy explains. “Robert is a legend. He is incredibly passionate about music and being in that creative environment was exciting.” It’s that passion for creativity that Andy brings with him to Kidderminster College where he is course leader in music. “The music industry is going through enormous change, largely due to technology. It’s impossible to predict the future so we have to teach creativity so that our students are malleable,” he says. But isn’t attempting to teach creativity like trying to bottle success – is it possible?
Unions step up training support Trade unions deliver education and training opportunities to more than 200,000 employees a year. InTuition asks UnionLearn’s director Liz Rees about her plans 10 Issue 24 | Summer 2016 InTuition
“Creativity essentially means thriving off problems,” Andy says. “Once you realise this is the process, you can teach people how to be creative with finding facts, challenging ideas and in changing what humans think is good or bad about the world. “That human negotiation is changing all the time, and training people to have a sensitivity to that is an important part in developing creativity.” So, how well do creative processes map to the qualification criteria to be met, the boxes that must be ticked, not to mention the Ofsted inspectors who must be assured? “It’s true that creative sessions can be quite chaotic and don’t fit easily into course criteria,” Andy says. “However, it is crucial in aesthetic-based subjects that the course criteria are quantifiable and verifiable.” In balancing the seemingly incongruous worlds of measurement and creativity, Andy’s department has turned to online, individual learning plans (ILPs). Andy’s work in this area earned him an award from the college last year for the most effective use of technology to support learning. “We’ve trained almost 600,000 union members over the past 12 years, including more than 30,000 union learning reps (ULRs),” says Liz Rees, who became director of UnionLearn at the end of last year, following the retirement of Tom Wilson. “We have 250 TUC tutors in further education colleges and training providers and some of our provider partnerships go back decades. That’s an amazing success story.” Added to which is UnionLearn’s role in promoting literacy and numeracy, something recognised by the House of Commons’ Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) select committee in its fifth report on Adult Literacy and Numeracy in 2014. The report called on the government to reverse its decision to cut £2.5m from the Union Learning Fund (ULF) noting that: “UnionLearn is a cost-effective way of reaching large numbers of learners with the most acute English and maths needs.” “People can go to extreme lengths to hide their problems and it is often the union
Chris Walkden
Music course leader Andy Edwards, who once toured with singer Robert Plant, has now won an award for his individual learning plans. Alan Thomson reports
“Students can upload anything: an essay, a blog, a live performance. I can see that when I log in,” Andy explains. “I can decide when a particular unit is passed. All the necessary skills are assessed, the boxes ticked and everything can be presented for external verification. “All of this creates more time in class for the creative stuff. If you’re not careful, education can squeeze out creativity.”
learning reps they turn to for help,” says Liz. “Employers are keen to do the right thing and union reps can negotiate support around maths and English in the workplace.” In addition to the budget cut imposed by BIS, financial pressures faced by employers mean that union members find it harder to secure paid time off for learning. This is set
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Andy Edwards: Q&A How did you get into teaching? The door was opened for me, literally, by Kidderminster lecturer Kevyn Gammond, who played with Robert Plant in Band of Joy, when he showed me into a classroom and said ‘go talk to the students’. Twenty minutes later he came back and I was chatting away. He said: ‘Do you want a job?’ I said: ‘Fair enough.’ Would you go back to full-time gigging? No. I had Mark DeCloedt, the drummer from EMF, in the college a while ago to give a talk to the students. Mark said: ‘Is this what you do: work with young musicians in these amazing facilities?’ And I said: ‘Yeah, incredible isn’t it?’ Which of your desert island discs would you save from the waves? Bitches Brew by Miles Davis. Favourite drummer Tony Williams. Where can people find out more? http://drummerandyedwards.blogspot.co.uk
The online ILPs also allow for greater depth of feedback on the quality of students’ work, rather than just an assessment of whether they are meeting course criteria. “In the past, I’d write feedback on essays and assessments and students would never read it,” Andy says. “Now, when I log into a student’s ILP I can see what they’ve done, or haven’t done, then work through any issues. “If all you do is measure and monitor
Liz Rees: profile Education BA in Old English. First job Union official with the National Graphical Association. Teaching experience Taught at the former TUC National Training College at Crouch End, London. Personal ambition To walk the 500 miles of the Camino de Santiago. against a general decline in the volume of workplace training and, many argue, the UK economy’s relatively low productivity rates. UnionLearn is responding with a Massive Open Online Course (Mooc) offer for union members, specifically for those training to be union learning reps and other officials. The Mooc offer will be piloted this autumn with the full programme available from mid-2017. Awarding body NOCN will validate and certificate qualifications gained. UnionLearn’s other major growth area
students then you become an assessor. Providing feedback and making space for creativity is a vital part of being a teacher.” Like most vocational teachers, Andy is still closely involved in his industry. He gigs – mainly jazz and prog rock – and delivers drumming masterclasses. Andy believes FE’s vocational teaching environment creates the perfect setting for passing on his knowledge and skills. is in the delivery of apprenticeships. Liz is supportive of the government’s plans to expand apprenticeships, funded, in part, by a training levy on large employers – something trade unions have long campaigned for. Like many others, Liz has concerns about the logistics of delivering three million apprenticeship starts by 2020 and the potential impact that expansion may have on the quality of training. “It is a long time since this country punched its weight on apprenticeships. But there is a renewed ambition around them and I want UnionLearn to contribute to that,” she says. “UnionLearn is being approached for advice and support which we are happy to give. We are well-placed to ensure the quality of the apprenticeship offer.” Liz is less enamoured with current FE funding levels for training, in particular the sums available for adult education. She highlights Professor Alison Wolf’s 2015 warning that FE is heading for a precipice. “I think what’s happened to the lifelong
“A department needs all sorts of teachers. To believe that every teacher is going to have all the skills necessary is not realistic,” he says. “This is the argument for the technical college model, where people with a wide range of knowledge and skills ensure that students are taught all the necessary skills.” • See also, teaching creativity, page 30. Alan Thomson is editor of InTuition
learning and adult education agenda, as set out in The Learning Age green paper in 1998, is a tragedy,” Liz says. “Our young people have worse skill levels than their parents and grandparents.” However, Liz is determined that, under her watch, UnionLearn will play a major role in supporting workplace education and training for all.
References • BIS Committee, fifth report (2014). Adult Literacy and Numeracy http://goo.gl/UU6YcX • Union Learning Fund prospectus 2016-17 https://goo.gl/Kxwc0J • DfEE (1998). The Learning Age http://goo.gl/JN6uCG • UK Commission for Employment and Skills (2016). Employer Skills Survey 2015 https://goo.gl/rPpIkC • Alison Wolf, King’s College London (2015). Heading for the Precipice https://goo.gl/3DgU4Q
InTuition Issue 24 | Summer 2016 11
Feature
Many happy returns for the Society It has been my privilege, as a journalist, to have reported on the further education sector for more than 25 years, the past four as editor of InTuition. From the incorporation of colleges in 1992-93, through the franchising scandals of the 1990s, different funding bodies and models, ill-fated individual learning accounts, the demise of education maintenance allowances and, of course, the perennial squeeze on funding – the history of further education is nothing if not colourful, and more changeable than the British weather. Yet what impresses me most is the ability of FE, in the face of constant challenge, to keep doing what it does, day in day out: providing education, training and, above all, opportunities for millions of people, from all walks of life but, especially, to those for whom opportunity was previously in short supply. Having met many FE leaders, managers, teachers, trainers, lecturers, assessors and students over the years, I know that the sector’s great resilience and its supreme adaptability is due largely to the professionalism, dedication and sheer humanity of the people who work in it.
Providing opportunity
I studied at Stevenson College, now Edinburgh College, to take more qualifications after I, shall we say, ‘outgrew’ my old comprehensive. Stevenson was a revelation. Tutors spoke to me as an adult, inspired me to learn, got me through my exams and made the seemingly impossible, possible. I went to university and returned to FE after graduating to do my National Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ) pre-entry course at Darlington 12 Issue 24 | Summer 2016 InTuition
College under the wonderful Jon Smith. As members of the Society for Education and Training, you create opportunity for your students and apprentices every day. I edited InTuition under the former Institute for Learning and I witnessed IfL’s closure first-hand, amid fears that a deregulated FE sector, in which teachers and trainers are not required to hold a professional teaching qualification, would set professionalism in the sector back by a number of years.
Reclaiming professionalism
Yet, in little over a year, professionalism in FE is resurgent. Membership of SET, a voluntary and independent professional services body, has almost doubled in its first year. I would argue that this is not in spite of deregulation in FE, but because of it. Free from statutory obligation, you – as FE teachers, trainers, lecturers, tutors, assessors, managers and leaders – are steadily reclaiming ownership of your professional practice. Journalists are accused of preferring the bad news to good news. Between us, this is occasionally true; but not in this case. Your success as professional educators is SET’s success. Your success is the success of the FE sector and, ultimately, that of the people you teach. FE was part of my success, such that it is. To mark SET’s first anniversary we have collected a range of comments, many from members, which we hope will chime with some of your own experiences and which you will enjoy reading. Happy birthday! Alan Thomson is editor of InTuition
Members at a SET CPD event
In little over a year, professionalism in further education is resurgent, thanks in no small part to the Society for Education and Training. InTuition editor Alan Thomson has witnessed this remarkable transformation first hand
Anette Hiley I completed my PGCE in 2010 and joined what was then the Institute for Learning. But then I had a serious health problem and was in recovery for nearly two years. I returned to teaching but was conscious that, after two years, my professional development had suffered and I needed to assess where I was. I looked into SET and saw there was lots of useful information, advice and guidance as well as subsidised training, which was useful to someone like me on sessional contracts. I then decided to do my QTLS and I’m so glad I did. It made me think about why I was teaching and how I could move forward professionally. QTLS made me look for development opportunities in a systematic way. I realised I hadn’t been challenging myself enough up to that point. QTLS really boosted my confidence after having had my career disrupted due to ill health. I had previously gone for jobs against candidates who had QTLS. Now I’m hoping to benefit from QTLS in my next career move. Anette Hiley is academic mentor to students with disabilities at Edge Hill University and a sessional Functional Skills English teacher at Bolton College
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The Society for Education and Training plays a vital role in supporting professionalism within further education so that students receive high quality teaching and training. I wish SET well as it continues its hard work to drive positive change within the FE sector. Nick Boles minister for skills.
Michelle Pointer
Gillian Mattocks
Shakira Martin
I became a member of the Institute for Learning and gained QTLS. I think if you want to get on in the sector then you should have a professional teaching award. I would look for QTLS in anyone I was employing. It’s all about professional standards and, as a teacher, you want to promote your own professionalism to your learners when they come in. I went to a SET event in Bristol on Functional Skills recently and there was a very good session on apprenticeship trailblazers and the speaker was very impressive. It’s not that often you come away from training events and think “that was totally worth the drive”. There were always phrases in FE like ‘action research’ that meant very little to me but thanks to SET they now mean a lot. SET has given me that ability to challenge myself and it has allowed me to change my practice. It is all about support for ongoing development. Having a professional body like SET is extremely important to the sector. I’m lucky in that my employer reimburses my membership fee. But even if they didn’t, I’d think SET worth paying for.
As I had just become responsible for teaching teachers in my job I went online for information and came across SET. It offered courses and information online and I joined straight away and quickly discovered that the webinars are brilliant. I love all SET’s online material and the fact that there are regular courses that I can book myself on to. It feels like I’m part of a strong professional network. I share a lot of what I’ve learned with colleagues in my work and am in touch with fellow members in the Greater Manchester area. I’ve just done my QTLS. Even though I had long done continuing professional development, it tended to be in management and coaching and, to be honest, I had got a bit stale in my teaching and learning strategies. QTLS forced me to find out where I was professionally and what I needed to work on. I think it’s very important that we have a professional body in FE and professional standards for teaching. If people got involved with professional standards and SET then they would come on as teachers.
Further education is a diverse sector that provides hope, opportunity and, crucially, the skills needed to allow students to progress into higher education, employment or to re-skill. Because of this, we in FE have a big responsibly to ensure that the work we do is delivered to a professional standard and that it delivers the quality of teaching and learning that our students expect and deserve. The Society for Education and Training offers an excellent range of tools to support the professional development of the teaching profession, including the opportunity to gain a recognised and transferable teaching award through QTLS. As an aspiring principal, I think it’s vital that we work to and within professional standards in order to enrich the practice of teachers and senior managers at an individual level and to help us improve as a sector overall. FE is often misunderstood, unrecognised, under-valued and it is always changing. As FE’s professional body, SET not only benefits its members but it raises the profile and the status of the whole of FE.
Michelle Pointer is a senior training consultant at Focus Training Group
Gillian Mattocks is an organisational quality development manager at Proco Training, Wigan
Shakira Martin is vice-president (further education) of the National Union of Students and is a member of the board of the Education and Training Foundation.
InTuition Issue 24 | Summer 2016 13
Members at a SET CPD event
Feature
Opeoluwa Alli
Ed Sallis
Tim Weiss
I was a teacher in Nigeria where I also did my first degree in applied chemistry. I did my second degree, in accounting and finance, at Manchester Metropolitan University. I decided to teach in the UK because one of my lecturers at Manchester Met thought I would make a good teacher. I did a Certificate in Education from University of Chester and finished in 2015 and I became a member of SET in January 2016. I have since applied to do my QTLS. SET is helping me in my development and my confidence as a teacher. I would love SET to run even more programmes.
For me, the essence of professionalism in our sector is high quality teaching skills that facilitate student learning. What SET has done well in its first year is to keep a clear focus on the things that matter to practitioners as they seek to improve their practice. This is not an easy task as there so many issues facing the sector that it is easy to become distracted, and this is particularly true of principals and their senior teams, and often this melee of concerns pervades a college and teachers can take their eye off the ball as a result. What a really good professional organisation does is to keep learning and teaching at the centre of the debate and SET is beginning to do this. SET is helping teachers do their job better, which after all is its raison d’etre. It is championing teachers, providing them with ideas, resources, CPD and importantly networks. It is upholding the values enshrined in excellent teaching and is ensuring that hard working staff don’t feel alone. My hope for the future is that SET, supported by ETF, continues to plough this particular furrow.
I am very proud of the progress SET has made in its first year. When we launched our new professional body in May 2015, we were excited to be able to start delivering our strategy for a new membership organisation, with the benefits and improvements that members told us they wanted to see during our consultation phase. We were hoping that SET would strike a chord with the further education and skills sector and would make a positive start in growing our membership base. But I am thrilled that we have exceeded our first year ambitions and had reached 14,000 members by the end of the membership year in March 2016. We have had many highlights along the way. • Setting up our new Practitioner Advisory Group and Management Board, and meeting with these colleagues several times since September, with the constructive, ambitious and exciting discussions about potential future directions for SET and QTLS. • Running our first 10 dedicated SET continuing professional development events across the country, and seeing the audience and participation for our monthly webinars steadily grow in size. • Awarding QTLS professional formation status to nearly 2,000 practitioners. • Redesigning and improving many core parts of membership – from the SET website, to our membership enquiries line, to the coming changes this year to InTuition. • Hearing inspiring feedback from members on the difference membership makes – which is why we are here in the first place.
Opeoluwa Alli is a maths teacher at Bolton College
Ken Merry Speaking as a manager in further eduction, SET has delivered many benefits in its first year. There’s a great network of support through SET events and activities. This has helped me to realise that the challenges I and other managers face aren’t necessarily unique and ours alone. There are opportunities to collectively overcome issues like ungraded observations, Area Reviews and the challenges in delivering English and mathematics. These are very helpful as we can borrow what’s working elsewhere, rather than trying to reinvent the wheel every time. My main hope for SET in the coming year is that it will help develop more members so that they can play an active role in determining the Society’s future direction of travel and development. Ken Merry chairs the SET Management Board and is head of business enterprise at RNN Group
14 Issue 24 | Summer 2016 InTuition
Ed Sallis has been a Fellow of SET, and IfL before it, since 2003. He chaired the Education and Training Foundation review ‘Making maths and English work for all’. Ed is a former principal, a consultant on improving the delivery of maths and English, and a Visiting Professor at Plymouth University.
Tim Weiss is director of the Society for Education and Training
Practitioners
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Me&my
Peter Searle
tutor
Creative and Cultural Skills named Sherice Pitter (pictured right) as Apprentice of the Year in March. Here, Sherice and her line manager and mentor Becky Martin discuss their working relationship at the Lyric Theatre in London Sherice Pitter, development officer: It felt amazing to be recognised for my achievements by Creative and Cultural Skills. But the real reward for me was knowing that apprenticeships were being celebrated and that there is now recognition for all the apprentices who work hard and contribute to organisations. I heard about the apprenticeship from the Lyric’s youth worker. I had participated in projects at the theatre that had affected my life positively, which made me determined to succeed. When I started my apprenticeship at the Lyric I wasn’t very confident. But Becky trusted me and gave me responsibility. That trust motivated me to work hard and, over time, I started to believe that I would succeed within the arts. Having a strong working relationship with Becky allowed me to be ambitious. That’s because I knew the support was there. All my achievements as an apprentice came because of the support and trust I received from Becky. Apprenticeships are an important route into the creative and cultural sector. Mine has allowed me to really explore theatre and learn about all the jobs available. I believe that apprenticeships are just as valuable as going to university as everyone learns in different ways. Apprenticeships give young people options. Theatre is such an exciting place and working in the arts has allowed me to find my passion. I think about my longer-term career but my plans often change thanks to all the doors my apprenticeship has opened for me.
Becky Martin, producer: I don’t know if there is a magic formula as every manager and apprentice relationship is so different. But, for me and Sherice, constant communication, and taking the time at the beginning to establish our trust for each other, really helped. Sherice and I knew where we stood with each other, which made difficult conversations and constructive criticism both ways much easier. Having regular check-ins and setting aside time for communication are important but I don’t want to be sitting next to my apprentice the whole time. All I can do is to provide a supportive space in which I encourage people to be brave and to recognise if they fail that we all learn from our mistakes. In terms of commitment, time-keeping and motivation, I don’t expect any less from Sherice than I’d expect from our executive director. The rest is up to her. A good apprentice is someone who is ready to take on everything and anything that is offered to them. I don’t think that apprentices need to start out with any skills or knowledge, just an absolute willingness to learn and to help out with things, which might not seem relevant but which make up part of the bigger picture. Apprenticeships are essential to the creative industries. Acting might be one of the hardest professions in the world to get into but it is not all you can do in theatre. It’s important that we raise the profiles of other roles available in theatre, and the Lyric and other London theatres are taking big steps forward in this regard. www.ccskills.org.uk
PRACTITIONER FORUMS Don’t forget, you can join hundreds of fellow Society for Education and Training members who have already registered on our forums to participate in discussions about SET, further education and Qualified Teacher Learning and Skills (QTLS) status. If you are interested in QTLS and want to find out more, you can chat with our QTLS team and other members to find out if it is right for you. Members already undertaking QTLS can
share their thoughts and ask our QTLS team any questions about the process. Recent posts have discussed the forthcoming changes to the workbooks and questions around how to get started with QTLS. If you are already registered, log in at http://setforum.etfoundation.co.uk or register today at https://goo.gl/bx52Ha and start engaging with our national FE community.
InTuition Issue 24 | Summer 2016 15
Research
Reducing reoffending – can we assess the contribution of prison education? By Angela Sanders
What can we learn from other countries about prison education and its role in reducing reoffending – is Norway’s road map the solution we’ve been looking for? As part of the Education and Training Foundation’s support for the Coates review into prison education, Angela Sanders was commissioned to conduct a rapid review of what we can learn from other countries about reducing reoffending through prison education. The review sought to identify where, outside England and Wales, we can draw on learning about how offender education can successfully contribute to reducing reoffending and to generate ideas for future research. Can prison education successfully contribute to reducing reoffending? That’s what the research asked through an initial exploration of a selection of countries: Australia, Canada, Denmark, Netherlands, Norway, Northern Ireland, Scotland and the United States. The research provides evidence of how offender education can successfully contribute to reducing reoffending and demonstrates how it can contribute to a reduction in reoffending rates. The Foundation’s remit includes a specific responsibility for supporting the offender learning workforce, which it delivers in partnership with the National Offender Management Service (NOMS), Department for Business, Innovation & Skills (BIS) and other stakeholder organisations. The Foundation is supporting the Coates review of prison education in England and Wales (Ministry of Justice, 2015), which was commissioned by Michael Gove, secretary of state for justice, and chaired by Dame Sally Coates, director of academies south for United Learning. The review was published in May (see page 5).
A ‘rapid review’ approach was taken and involved a review of relevant literature, contact with the national administration of statistics in the identified countries and interviews with a range of stakeholders associated with prison education in order to find out more about what works well in prison education. The advantage of this approach is that it enables a synthesis of knowledge within a short time-scale. The disadvantage is that there are some shortcuts taken from a systematic review and, by its nature, it does not look at all aspects of prison education. To counteract this, the following findings have been rigorously and critically appraised through independent peer-review and the inquiry concludes with questions for further attention and investigation. Education can reduce reoffending There is clear evidence that prison education is an important component in reducing recidivism. It is further reduced by post-release support and systems of aftercare for former prisoners to gain employment or continue their education. The literature reviews consistently report that prison education is one of the most important and constructive re-entry services. Effective practice is exemplified in countries where a co-ordinated approach with post-release support delivers results. Improvements in attitudes or behaviour which lead to offending and greater acceptance of responsibility in managing their own behaviour are also factors associated with reduced reoffending. Prison educators consider this an important element of education and vocational training programmes, believing that increased cognitive skills have an impact on behaviour.
The aim of the research, which took place between October and December 2015, was to undertake an initial short desk-based project to identify locations outside England No agreed definition of recidivism and Wales that merited further investigation. Looking at recidivism rates in a small sample of other countries reveals that 16 Issue 24 | Summer 2016 InTuition
comparing international recidivism rates is problematic. There are no agreed international recidivism measures. One very basic problem is that not all countries collect and analyse such data on a regular basis. There is no common standard of how recidivism is measured: for example, varied periods of time are used to produce data. Learning internationally through dialogue While there may not be any agreed international recidivism measures, this should not be a barrier to engaging in conversation with other countries about what they know about the effectiveness of prison education to reduce reoffending. As this review demonstrates, there are clear, evidence-based, prison education strategies that are having an impact on reoffending rates. Perhaps the most striking is in Norway, with a parliamentary ‘white paper’ setting out a new road map for education and training in the correctional services, and a research and development programme to inform policy and practice, and to help prioritise resourcing for prisoner education and training, (Langelid, Mäki, Raundrup & Svensson, 2009; Ministry of Education and Research, 2005). Retribution, rehabilitation, resocialisation: the role of education in the prison system There are different approaches to sentencing and incarceration used in the countries studied. While acknowledging the role of cultural, social and economic factors, there are lessons to be learned. Countries adopting a system of rehabilitation and re-socialisation with the ‘right to education’ in prison, have the lowest incarceration rates and lower recidivism rates. The system of retribution is connected with the belief that incapacitation and heavy
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punitive sanctions could protect public safety. This system pays no regard to socioeconomic or cultural conditions that may have led to crime, while the rising number of people in prison demonstrates that incarceration alone does not reduce crime. The impact of this can be seen in the United States, with the highest incarceration rate in the world at 716 per 100,000 residents (Walmsley, 2013). US recidivism rates have also remained high at between 43 per cent and 68 per cent (Durose, Cooper, & Snyder, 2014). By contrast, a system of rehabilitation and re-socialisation places less emphasis on incarceration and, where imprisonment is used, it is for a shorter time. Sanctions such as fines, probation and community service are used as alternatives, particularly for non-violent crimes. When people are incarcerated, the conditions and practices are intended to resemble life in the community under a guiding principle of ‘normalisation’. This is the system adopted in the Netherlands, Germany and Scandinavian countries. The impact of this can be seen in the lowest incarceration rates and lower recidivism rates – for example, Denmark’s prison population rate is 61 per 100,000 residents and the current recidivism rate is 30.5 per cent (Statistics Denmark, 2015). Prison education can save money Examination of cost-benefit analysis demonstrates that investing in prison education saves money by reducing the number of offenders who return to prison. Research in the United States, undertaken by the RAND Corporation (Davis, Bozick, Steele, Saunders, & Miles, 2013), estimated that for every dollar invested in correctional education programmes, four to five dollars are saved on three-year re-incarceration costs.
Invest in further research Investment in further research is urgently needed. This brief investigation has not even begun to explore other aspects of prison education such as funding, racial disparities, employer engagement and the use of technology, and highlights many areas that require further investigation.
References
• Davis, L.M., Bozick, R., Steele, J.L., Saunders, J., & Miles, J.N.V. (2013). Evaluating the effectiveness of correctional education: A meta-analysis of programs that provide education to incarcerated adults. • Durose, M.R., Cooper, A.D., & Snyder, H.N. (2014). Recidivism Of Prisoners Released In 30 States In 2005: Patterns From 2005 To draw together the findings of the To 2010. research, and to support further development, • Langelid, T., Mäki, M., Raundrup, K., & a number of questions for further attention Svensson, S. (Eds.). (2009). Nordic Prison and investigation are presented in the final Education A Lifelong Learning Perspective. report and include the following: Denmark: Nordic Council of Ministers. • Ministry of Education and Research. 1. The studies support the premise that (2005). Short Version of Report no. 27 to education is an important element in the Storting (2004–2005) Education and reducing recidivism. Do we know Training in the Correctional Services enough about which education ‘Another Spring’. programmes are effective? Is it • Ministry of Justice. (2015). Review of Prison cognitive skills development, vocational Education Terms of Reference. Retrieved education, or both? Does it need to be from https://www.gov.uk/government/ directly related to employment? publications/review-of-prison-educationterms-of-reference. 2. If the results of the studies suggest • Statistics Denmark. (2015). Recidivism. a need for access to post-release Retrieved from: http://www.dst. education and job training for offenders dk/en/Statistik/dokumentation/ to sustain the success of prison documentationofstatistics/recidivism# education, does the UK system • Walmsley, R. (2013). World prison population support this need? list (10th edition) Retrieved from UK: http:// www.prisonstudies.org/sites/default/files/ 3. The studies suggest that post-release resources/downloads/wppl_10.pdf employment is a significant factor in reducing recidivism. Is the time spent in prison sufficiently supporting the prisoner to obtain employment after release? 4. Norway reported on a new road map for education and training in the correctional services and identified three strategic interventions: communication; research and evaluation; and experiment and development. What can the UK learn from this strategic approach?
Angela Sanders is a research consultant: angela@angelasanders.co.uk InTuition Issue 24 | Summer 2016 17
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Spreading a culture of research enhances our professionalism By Andrew Morris A workshop held by the Learning and Skills Research Network’s planning group heard that professional development activities enthuse colleagues and improve teaching practice “It’s infectious, colleagues get enthused by it; it’s changing the way we do professional development activities,” said Stephanie Taylor from HMP Dovegate, contributing to the latest workshop of the Learning and Skills Research Network (LSRN). Stephanie was referring to the effect of her evidence-inspired approach to developing teaching practices across her offender learning organisation. Equally compelling was a maths initiative at Coleg Meiron-Dwyfor, described by Graham Hall. By researching what the maths demands were in each vocational area, the college team was able to develop specific teaching strategies and resources to help motivate learners. This included geometry for bricklayers to build a serpent-shaped wall, arithmetic for care students to calculate nutrition indices and statistics for the Welsh department to measure bilingualism. From these examples and many others, practical ideas about spreading research awareness emerged from the LSRN workshop: collaborate with colleagues, create a local network, develop a research area on your intranet and produce a local journal. Successful projects often convince others by demonstrating how research investment pays dividends in terms of student success as well as teacher satisfaction. Networking opportunities now extend well beyond an individual’s own organisation, as a project on care-leavers and disabled learners illustrated when its findings were spread via a city network to social work teams. Regional and national networks such as TELL (Teacher Education in Lifelong Learning) and LSRN itself, help bring people together. The key message from the workshop was that a distinctive culture seems to be emerging for research and scholarship in the FE sector. The norms and processes 18 Issue 24 | Summer 2016 InTuition
associated with academic research in the university sector need not just be appropriated. John Lea, leader of the Association of Colleges Scholarship Project, which is funded by the Higher Education Funding Council for England, proposed a multidimensional model of scholarship that emphasises teaching and learning, knowledge exchange and putting together curricula, in addition to the more traditional discovery aspect of research. In developing a distinctive model, a key challenge is to engineer a peer review process for all the forms of scholarship, not just the ‘discovery’ one. The theme was picked up by Geoff Stanton who asked: “who are the peers for peer review?” and suggested that users of research should be involved, as well as producers. Geoff also pointed to the need for research to tackle the sheer variety of vocational pedagogies, when so much academic research is based on the more homogeneous school curricula and pedagogies. As he put it: “Hairdressers don’t do trial-and-error learning.” A key feature of the “FE way” for research is to start with a problem that really needs investigating. It sounds obvious but it is quite different to starting research based on the personal interests of the researcher or prevailing fashions in government policy or research funding. Paul Wakeling, principal of Havering Sixth Form College, described how the science department in his college transformed itself by starting a research project with the fundamental question: “What does it mean to be a scientist”. This explored what kind of pedagogy suits a subject based on curiosity and experimentation. Starting with actual problem should be a no-brainer for the FE sector. After all, it has flourished thanks to its unrivalled record in
development work which can act as the starting point for research as well as practical action – ‘D&R’ in place of the more familiar R&D. Increasing interest in the role of evidence in informing practice is coinciding with the trend towards professionalism as the core of teacher identity. This raises interesting challenges for practitioner research. The Association of Teachers and Lecturers’ Norman Crowther asked whether practitioners really need to depend on the backing of senior managers before engaging in research, or should their sense of agency as a professional within a community of practice drive them? imilarly, John Lea asked whether it is S external or self-imposed blocks that hold back some higher education teachers in FE colleges from engaging in scholarly activity. The message from the workshop is clear: not only is research engagement spreading in the sector, but a distinctive approach, embracing collaborative development and knowledge exchange as well as discovery, is beginning to emerge. A welcome sign of growing professionalism.
Andrew Morris is an independent research consultant and a member of the Learning and Skills Research Network planning group. The article is based on a workshop held at the end of 2015. ajmorris@blueyonder.co.uk Access the LSRN website at http://goo.gl/Lj1l0o TELL website http://goo.gl/TG9qfP AoC Scholarship Project https://goo.gl/G8UqIo
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Re-engaging learners in further education and training By Dr Lynne Rogers Research suggests there are four factors within FE that contribute to fostering re-engagement among learners: ethos, positive relationships, opportunities for success and pedagogy In England it is not unusual for learners in further education to have a chequered past in terms of their formal education and, for some young people, FE is seen as their last chance before they drop out of education and training completely (Ofsted 2014). Those working in FE and training therefore play a pivotal role in re-engaging learners so that they are able to gain qualifications and improve their economic prospects. This is not without challenge. A higher proportion of students at FE colleges are from a disadvantaged background than those in sixth-form colleges and many have had poor experiences of education in schools. Yet there are many instances where FE succeeds with young people disengaged from education. Recent research (Rogers 2015), picks out four factors within the FE sector that have contributed to fostering re-engagement among learners. 1. Ethos Young people who have disengaged from education benefit from the different environment that colleges offer when compared with schools. They appreciate the more relaxed and adult atmosphere and the more informal approach of staff, where lecturers are called by their first names in contrast to the formality of most school settings.
students who can act as role models has been seen to be beneficial. This might be through peer mentoring schemes, engagement in extracurricular activities such as sports, art and music.
work, where young people are involved in the decision-making about learning activities and the construction of their learning, and where approaches to learning are applied or hands-on.
Evidence suggests it is important that teachers and trainers take time to get to know their students. This includes their backgrounds, interests, emotional strengths and academic levels.
Group work enables young people to learn from each other, to exchange ideas and, in turn, this fosters self-regulatory strategies and achievement.
Where students work in an environment that is characterised by high expectations, readiness to invest effort and good teacher-student relationships, they tend to achieve more highly. 3. Opportunities for success Too often, young people who are disengaged from education have had few opportunities for success in their education to date. Some may never have received a formal qualification. While acknowledging the demands of external qualifications, finding opportunities for disengaged students to gain success in short-term activities and qualifications is essential in enabling them to develop their identity and confidence as a learner. Breaking tasks down into smaller components and identifying opportunities for praise is important here.
However, they often need time to adjust to the larger college environment, especially in relation to their increased independence in relation to study patterns, the wider campus and different rules and regulations.
4. Pedagogy Pedagogic practice needs to engage young people and must therefore be designed from an understanding of the requirements of disengaged learners.
2. Positive relationships Positive relationships with teachers, support staff and other peers make a difference to disengaged young people by helping them to feel valued, respected and safe.
Central to this is acknowledging the interests that young people have and building on their prior knowledge and skills (Davies et al, 2011).
Identifying opportunities where disengaged students can mix with older, more mature
This means focusing on student-centred approaches to teaching and learning where increased use is made of collaborative
This article is based on Dr Rogers’ research, published in Disengagement from Education, which is available from Trentham, IoE Press. SET members can claim an exclusive 20 per cent discount on the RRP for this title and other IOE titles. Use code InTuition20 at checkout. To order visit https://goo.gl/qZsbQ8
References • Davies, M., Lamb, S., and Doecke, E. (2011) Strategic Review of Effective Re-Engagement Models for Disengaged Learners. Australia: Victorian Department of Education and Early Child Development. Online. www.education.vic.gov.au/ Documents/about/research/revreengage. pdf (accessed 2 September 2015) • Ofsted (2014) Teaching, learning and assessment in further education and skills – what works and why. London: Ofsted. • Lynne Rogers (2015) Disengagement from Education. London: Trentham, IOE Press.
Dr Lynne Rogers is reader in education at the UCL Institute of Education.
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ResearchDigest Improving subjectspecialist pedagogy The University of Huddersfield is leading a three-year project to enhance subject-specific pedagogy in initial teacher education (ITE) programmes for teachers of vocational science, engineering and technology in further education colleges. The project seeks to better understand what good teaching on vocational SET courses looks like before implementing an intervention during ITE that is designed to improve teachers’ pedagogical decisions. In its influential report in 2013, The Commission on Adult Vocational Teaching and Learning (CAVTL) stated “the importance of codifying, recognising and valuing the
sophisticated practice of vocational pedagogy”, while also recognising that even using the term pedagogy in this context had proved controversial. Our project, ITE-VocSET, is currently in phase one which involves research to inform the design of the ITE intervention. This will comprise both online and face-to-face resources and sessions. Phase two, from September 2016, will see the intervention’s implementation involving 60 to 80 trainees around the country. Phase three, from September 2017, will involve evaluation of impact and dissemination of findings as well as any resources we produce.
ITE-VocSET is funded by the Gatsby Charitable Foundation, which has previously commissioned a report on ITE in the FE sector as well as the pilot for the current project. That pilot was based on continuing professional development (CPD) for teachers of STEM subjects and, above all, it demonstrated that college teachers have difficulty finding time for CPD, which led the new project to focus on ITE. While holding a teaching qualification is no longer a statutory requirement, most colleges require their teaching staff to attend an ITE course. That requirement provides an
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The University of Huddersfield is spearheading a project to improve pedagogic decisions in ITE for teachers of vocational science, engineering and technology (SET), says Professor Kevin Orr
opportunity to engage trainee teachers in our research. The University of Huddersfield is a major provider of ITE for FE and, to find more participants, we are collaborating with colleagues in three other English universities with significant college-based ITE. As noted by CAVTL, the term pedagogy is controversial for some, but we see
Cab journey delivers blueprint for FE conference By Suzanne Savage The idea for a national conference on the further education landscape came from a taxi ride shared by Matt O’Leary, reader in education at Birmingham City University, and Norman Crowther, national officer for FE at the Association of Teachers and Lecturers. They discussed the challenges and pressures facing FE and skills including budget cuts, structural change through the Area Reviews and the drive for more apprenticeships. Matt and Norman resolved to create a forum where FE leaders and practitioners could take a
hard look at these challenges and advocate positive ways forward. The result was the Reimagining Further Education conference, scheduled for 29 June 2016. The event aims to put the’ “confer” back into conference. Discussion groups will be held on six key themes. These are: apprenticeships and workbased learning; intelligent accountability and governance; sustainable models of teacher learning; leadership in FE; professionalism in FE; higher education in FE. Delegates will be asked to sign up for one strand to follow throughout the day.
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The keynote speakers are: • David Russell, chief executive of the Education and Training Foundation • Sir Frank McLoughlin CBE, principal of City and Islington College • Professor Paul Hager, University of Technology Sydney While the morning will be devoted to framing the current position and challenges that FE is facing, the afternoon will seek to develop innovative and creative initiatives that enhance effectiveness, workforce development and the professional ethos of all FE practitioners.
To make the conference accessible, we have kept the fee at £50, including lunch and conference materials. The conference is sponsored by The Education and Training Foundation, The University and College Union (UCU), and the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL). Please join us on 29 June, 2016 at Birmingham City University’s Central Campus and contribute to the important work of Reimagining Further Education. For more information please visit http://goo.gl/jQ5s1D or email suzanne.savage@bcu.ac.uk
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In-service training for EMI teachers By Ben Beaumont
pedagogical decisions as those that teachers make in specific relation to curricula or bodies of knowledge and in relation to particular groups of students. Our project aims to improve those decisions by focusing on teachers’ subject specialist knowledge, especially in connection to the effective sequencing of teaching, expectations of students’ understanding at appropriate thresholds and effective assessment. Teachers’ own experience and level of knowledge, as well as the context in which they work, affect pedagogical decisions and none of those influences is determined by our project. We will report on all the influences we can identify. Perhaps the trickiest part of our project is judging if the ITE intervention has had
any impact at all. We aim to make judgements on impact by gathering data from project participants and other trainees. We will also analyse the language that participants use to explain their decisions in the classroom or workshop to look for echoes from the intervention. By the end of phase three we will have produced an intervention including a set of resources along with a rationale for their development, an evaluation of the intervention’s effectiveness, and also a means that others might use to evaluate other such pedagogical innovations. Watch this space. For more details, see: http://goo.gl/ZpCWR5 Kevin Orr is professor of work and learning at the University of Huddersfield
To read the Gatsby report, Initial Teacher Education for the Education and Training Sector in England: development and change in generic and subject-specialist provision, visit http://goo.gl/CSwwEQ To read the Education and Training Foundation’s report on initial teacher education in FE and skills, visit http://goo.gl/qXjNNi
There is a well-documented growth of students in the UK whose first language is not English but who are taught in English, as well as a growing number of teachers who teach in English but who have a different first language. English Medium Instruction (EMI) courses are not just a feature of UK education but are used in overseas education and training systems, which adopt English as a lingua franca, and also by UK further and higher education providers promoting courses in English as a way of increasing their international enrolments. In the UK, despite the prevalence of English entry tests such as the International English Language Test System (IELTS) and Integrated Skills in English (ISE), many institutions enrol learners whose English is below that necessary for successful course completion. This may be because of a lack of understanding about what these exams test and how they prepare learners for learning. So, in addition to the subject syllabus, many teachers have to embed additional English into the course content to support learner achievement. But is this any different from what ‘good teaching’ is anyway? A number of studies suggest that many of the effective strategies that teachers use to support non-native English speaking learners are also highly effective for native speakers of English as well. If we think about how we use word lists and language in context to help teach subject-
specific jargon or use diagrams and pictures to help illustrate abstract concepts, we can start to better understand what’s required to support learners from a variety of different backgrounds, not just for those whom English is a second (or third) language. For many teachers, these techniques are part of their everyday practice. However, there is far more we can do, and this is where training to support learners comes in. In-service training to support teachers in EMI contexts is still not common but there are many strands of teacher education programmes that include such support. My early research in this area identifies explicit language support needs and also the need for teachers to structure their presentations more clearly, with common signposting language and also with phonological paragraphs. The importance of training in such areas is all the more important when one considers the potential cross-over into Functional Skills support. This is sure to be something we’ll be seeing more of in the future. Ben Beaumont is researching the in-service EMI support needs of lecturers as part of his doctoral studies and is also teacher education qualifications manager at Trinity College London. He spoke at the Teacher Education in Lifelong Learning (TELL) Conference in London on 10 May. For information on TELL visit: www.itslife.org.uk
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InPractice
BBC training puts young talent centre stage The BBC Academy works in partnership with further education colleges to give young people the chance to pursue a career in broadcasting. Alan Thomson explores its different pathways, including apprenticeships and traineeships
Reflect the audience
Claire Paul, the BBC’s Head of New Talent, explains: “The BBC has always trained. It is part of what we do. The issue is that we have been very focused on graduate entry. We get thousands of graduate applicants and so, in many ways, we are spoiled for choice. “But, increasingly, the challenge is how we make sure that the workforce we have represents the audiences we serve. “If the cutting edge of the organisation 22 Issue 24 | Summer 2016 InTuition
is creativity then the broader our workforce, the greater the pool of creative talent we have to draw from. We can’t afford to miss out on talent because we are not looking in the right places.”
Progression pathways
Like many other employers, the BBC is supporting the expansion of apprenticeships. “The aspiration is to strongly support the government’s apprenticeship agenda. We’re looking at the apprenticeship levy and we’re also looking at higher-level apprenticeships to provide progression pathways,” says Claire. Many non-graduate apprentices and trainees employed by the BBC lack formal qualifications, but are hired because they show potential and a strong desire to learn. “Young people develop in different ways and at different speeds,” says Claire. “Apprentices may not be as advanced as graduate entrants at the beginning but, after we work with them, they compete head on for jobs with graduate entrants.” The BBC is also careful to provide support for their trainees, especially apprentices. Claire says: “Each training scheme has a manager and a coordinator and, of course, line managers who work closely with apprentices. We put in a lot of support, particularly at the pastoral level.” Training partners too are supported by the BBC, not just in terms of funding courses, but in the input the BBC has into course design and delivery. “We work with partners to build in the BBC expertise,” Claire says. “Of course, we’re not maths or English teachers but we have ready access to any number of excellent broadcast engineers, technicians, journalists and so forth. “Assessment will be led by the training provider but we put a lot of support into that process too.” For FE providers, such as Westminster Kingsway College (see right), this close
BBC
While some object to paying the BBC licence fee – claiming they never use its services – it is worth noting that the money we pay to the corporation also supports a huge education and training operation. The BBC not only offers professional development to thousands of its own staff every year, it also supports training for the wider broadcast and media industry: funding training for apprentices, graduate trainees and even freelancers in the industry. Indeed, the BBC has a responsibility under its charter agreement to provide training for the industry. The BBC Academy leads on both internally and externally delivered education and training. But much of it is delivered in partnership with universities, further education colleges and independent training providers. The corporation offers apprenticeships and traineeships in a range of areas, including production, broadcast operations, journalism, business management and law. Some are aimed at school leavers, some at graduates. For example, the BBC runs a two-year Local Digital Journalism Apprenticeship aimed at people who may lack academic qualifications and for whom a career in journalism would be all but closed, if not for the opportunity offered by the apprenticeship.
partnership involves tailoring provision to meet the corporation’s specific needs, often adjusting course content from year to year. “Effectively, when I walk into an area in which we are training I want to see that my staff and the provider’s staff are working as one team,” Claire says. Unsurprisingly for a business that runs one of the most popular websites on the planet, the BBC is looking to deliver more of its education, training and professional development online. “Learning is so radically different now from what it was 10 or even five years ago,” Claire says. “The vast majority of learning and
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CASE STUDY
Westminster Kingsway College Tucked away, in a back street in the heart of London’s Soho, sits Westminster Kingsway College’s TV studio and production centre. Housed within the college’s Soho Centre, Zero One offers a fully-equipped TV studio, industry-standard editing equipment and workshop space. The college also rents out these facilities to production companies. It is where the young people on the BBC’s Level 3 Creative Media Apprenticeship learn the skills, techniques and theory behind TV and film production. “We have been working with the BBC since 2010 and have worked with more than 100 apprentices over that time,” says Raj Kakaiya, the college’s vice-principal. “It’s a standard framework but the precise requirements vary from year to year. So, each cohort of 15 to 20 apprentices will have a tailored approach. “This may be due to some new equipment that the BBC is using or new sites. The essential driver in employer-led delivery is the employer voice. “It is not enough for us to say ‘yes, we can provide the training.’ We must keep asking: Does it meet the needs of employers? And, increasingly, employers are asking us for specific things.” The apprentices divide their time between the Soho Centre and various BBC sites, such as Manchester, Elstree and White City. They are recruited through the BBC’s talent pools but the college delivers teaching, learning and assessment to meet BBC and industry requirements. All apprentices are guaranteed a job upon completion of the programme. “For some reason, EastEnders seems to be a popular destination for our apprentices. But all will begin their career progression somewhere within the BBC, which is what it is all about,” says Raj. training we used to do was in the workplace. But more is now done online and more learning is now informal. We are looking at how people learn and how we can build an online learning presence. “I think a lot of the learning we’re involved with at the BBC will still be delivered face-to-face but an increasing amount will be delivered virtually.” Alan Thomson is editor of InTuition BBC careers information: http://goo.gl/djrX3x Westminster Kingsway College http://goo.gl/Xzhomw
BBC ensures a broader base for broadcasting Both the BBC and the Westminster Kingsway College (WKC) have excellent records of attracting apprentices from black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds and from families with limited or no experience of further and higher level education. In 2015-16, 45 per cent of the BBC’s intake of TV production apprentices were from BAME backgrounds and 64 per cent were from families where neither parent went to university. Half of the digital journalism apprentices recruited in 2015-16 were from BAME backgrounds and 60 per cent had non-graduate parents. WKC also runs the Stephen Lawrence BBC Training Programme in partnership with the BBC, the Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust, Job Centre Plus and the Department for Business Innovation and Skills. This aims to train young BAME non-graduates so they are able to compete for entry level jobs in the BBC and the media industry. The programme culminates in a BTEC Level 2 Certificate in Creative Media Production. Those who successfully complete the programme get an automatic fast track to the final interview stage of a BBC apprenticeship.
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InSight
Entrepreneurship challenges It’s said that you can teach skills relating to enterprise, but entrepreneurship is the result of nature rather than nurture, but Tony Talbot argues we can tap into these instinctive talents This origin of this article was in the breakout session ‘The Entrepreneurship Challenge’, at the Creative and Cultural Skills National Conference earlier this year. As a panel member, my presentation was essentially that we are an entrepreneurial species by nature, with the history of human expansion since the Stone Age being characterised by trade. All schools and colleges need to do, therefore, is provide a framework in which students can practise these instinctive skills and express their entrepreneurial spirit. It should be natural. So why is it so challenging? Some hurdles to entrepreneurship were raised (risk-aversion, welfare dependency, early role models) but an intriguing question emerged: can it actually be taught? If we consider enterprise as the mindset to be proactive, creative and problem-solving, then entrepreneurship might be described as using that mindset to bring new products or services to market. So, we can be enterprising while not being entrepreneurial. Ruth Lowbridge MBE (a panel member who has enjoyed 25 years of success in business) argued that entrepreneurs are ‘born’, or at least formed through their earliest influences. 24 Issue 24 | Summer 2016 InTuition
Theoretically, further and higher education students can learn enterprise but not to be entrepreneurs. Another view, however, is that if we receive knowledge, skills and experience at any age, they will become part of our future, bearing in mind that the younger we start, the better. These are key considerations at North West Regional College, with industry-led, project-based learning emerging in all areas. An example is our collaboration with the Knowmads Business School in Amsterdam. Knowmads offers non-formal business programmes, with students creating their own projects and education in a team setting. The focus is very much on the development of the personal and professional skills required to be a successful entrepreneur. The two-week programme includes a two-day project management game and workshops such as ‘The Power to Flower’, ‘Brainstorming and Project Mapping’ and ‘How to Get Stuff Done’. It is worth noting that the positives identified by participants were as much the transferable personal skills gained as the specific business skills. As a further example, our students
run two record labels, developing their own audio/visual products guided by successful media and marketing companies from the UK. Their work, however, highlights a difficulty. Many of the 2014/15 students arrived with prior experience in marketfocused assignments, grabbing the project by the lapels from the off and delivering high-quality work with minimal external intervention. This year’s group, however, seems to have had little prior experience in this area, with the project suffering accordingly. The success, or not, of our efforts to encourage enterprise and entrepreneurship will only become clear over time, but a colleague, Caroline McKeever, travelled to Finland last year to look at how these could be better embedded into the curriculum and recognised this central consideration. “It was clear to see how the Finnish people were able to take positive risks with their young people – an investment worth getting into and, from what we could see, it was paying off,” she reported. Tony Talbot is a lecturer in music and performing arts at North West Regional College in Northern Ireland
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E-guide to work experience highlights valuable resources By Michael Harwood
CASE STUDIES
Cormac O’Kane I intend to start my own accounting firm and I also have an interest in app development – I’m a co–founder of AgendUs, which is a Young Enterprise start-up company. Knowmads taught me to be creative and not be afraid to get things wrong. I think entrepreneurship can be taught. All it takes is for the person in question to be dedicated and have their heart set on being an entrepreneur.
Kyle Hamilton I’m interested in various industries such as hospitality (particularly a chain of coffee shops) and fashion, as well as the creation of mobile applications, which is what I am currently involved in through AgendUs. One of the main points I took from Knowmads was their attitude towards ideas – it taught me that no idea is ever wrong. My personal belief is that entrepreneurs are born with certain qualities but they do require intense learning experiences to become a fully-fledged entrepreneur. Kowmads Alternative Business School www.knowmads.nl Young Enterprise www.young-enterprise.org.uk Cormac and Kyle are both on NWRC’s Level 3 Extended Diploma in Business.
We have given so much energy – and rightly so – to the mammoth task of organising, timetabling and embedding maths and English that the other components of 16-19 study programmes sometimes receive less attention. Study programmes tailored to the individual aspirations of learners should include meaningful work experience and with this in mind, a new e-guide on work experience has been produced by the Education and Training Foundation (ETF). Full-time study programmes should be designed as progression routes into work. Successful work experience supports the learning process by developing learners’ capacity for teamwork, communication, problem solving and self-management as well as increasing their awareness of the commercial world. If we get work experience right, it will support and motivate learners by helping them to see their end goal. It will show them practical examples of why maths and English are important, help them recognise the relevance of the theory and practical learning and inform their progression choices. Some occupational areas and providers have forged excellent links with employers who welcome work experience students. There is much we can learn from them if we are planning work experience for the first time or if we find the process challenging. You might be surprised at how positive employers are about offering work experience. But they do need clarity as to what is expected of them because they want to make the experience as positive as they can for the learner. Employers will have their policies and procedures but, for example, will the learner need a different induction to the standard employee induction? What level of supervision is required? How will work experience benefit an employer’s business? What kind of experience is needed for the learner? These are just some of the questions that we should be prepared to answer when making that initial contact with an employer. And it does not stop there. How do we prepare learners for successful work experience? We want them to have a safe and valuable experience so some
thought must be given to their preparation. There are many questions to consider: What are their hopes and fears of attending a placement? What are their responsibilities? What are your responsibilities and the employer’s responsibilities? How will the learner get to the workplace? Can they get there on time? What are they expected to wear? By discussing these and opening the dialogue with learners, we are addressing the potential physical and psychological barriers that, after all your hard work setting up a placement, could result in the work experience being a failure. But take heart because, while your mind will be full of questions, the answers are out there. There is a lot of very effective practice that can be shared between colleagues in your institution or among providers in the area. Colleagues who have experience of work placements will know the procedures to follow, the potential pitfalls and what makes for the best experience for learners. To capture and share this experience and good practice, the ETF commissioned the Adult Learning Improvement Network to produce a helpful e-guide containing resources for learners, teachers and managers seeking to arrange work experience as part of study programmes. This free guide contains a range of activities that can be used with learners and others to provoke discussion. • All 16-19 year olds in full-time education and training whose programme (vocational or academic) is in receipt of government funding must follow a study programme. These programmes require learners to take English, mathematics and a period of work experience in addition to the main qualification to support learners to progress from education to sustainable employment. Michael Harwood is programme manager for leadership and governance for the Education and Training Foundation The e-guide can be accessed at: http://www.excellencegateway.org. uk/content/etf2305. For more information on 16-19 study programmes visit: https://goo.gl/alxBBI
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Leading Learning
A new generation of leaders It’s certainly possible to create a team of more engaged, more enthused leaders, says Corrina Hembury, but it means looking at recruitment in a new way and investing in bespoke training that involves coaching, workshops and action learning For training providers, both independent providers and colleges, the question of how to spot future leaders, and give them the opportunity to develop their skills, is a critical one. We are in a time of unprecedented change in further education, so ensuring providers are in the best position to ride the crest of these changes, rather than be dragged along in the wash behind them, is vital. The first thing we need to do is consider our recruitment practices. The Peter Principle suggests that we promote individuals based on their current performance, not necessarily their suitability for the job they’re applying for, and “people stop being promoted once they no longer perform effectively”. To ensure competent leadership, we may as well select candidates at random than use the same old recruitment techniques. It is therefore important to evaluate a person’s abilities relevant to the intended role, rather than their performance in their current role. A scan of current vacancies for senior leaders in FE reveals the majority list being a qualified teacher as an essential requirement. Other than a certain understanding of 26 Issue 24 | Summer 2016 InTuition
the jobs that some of the staff they will be leading involve, what is being a teacher really bringing to the table when the role being recruited for is assistant principal or director? Is being a practitioner really going to mean they are a better leader? That’s not to say that practitioners can’t make great leaders, more that their leadership qualities should be the deciding factor. Once we’ve opened our mind to consider different types of candidates for leadership
roles, we need to address the second issue of how to develop our leaders. I am a strong believer in leadership training and do not hold with the view that leaders are born. They can, and should, be made. That means investing in people by giving them the opportunity to work with others, learn new techniques, understand different theories and approaches and, most of all, put these into practice. In my organisation we have just
Leadership resources Leadership Design: A guide to leadership development in the education and training sector http://goo.gl/nQcw7h ‘An investigation into the role an value of creative and entrepreneurial leadership in times of reduced public expenditure.’ See more at: http://goo.gl/rVGXQ4 and also http://goo.gl/Ucbsf0 Gateway College – restructuring senior management to bring about change http://goo.gl/EpB969 Emerging models of delivery across the FE and skills sector http://goo.gl/ylHTVm Talent management framework http://goo.gl/1s09Qw Self study unit for leaders and managers: Marketing. See more at: http://goo.gl/xkWN2Z How to achieve a grade-one capacity to improve http://goo.gl/3cDX1o
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Closing date approaches for AoC’s Beacon Awards There is still time to enter the Association of Colleges Beacon Awards 2016-17. Thirteen awards have been confirmed across three categories: awards for teaching and learning, curriculum design and development; awards for leadership and quality improvement; and awards for responsiveness, partnership and impact. The Education and Training Foundation is sponsoring the Award for Leadership and Governance. This award is open to all further education, sixth-form and tertiary colleges in the UK and aims to recognise the role of leaders, including
governors, and managers in improving the quality of provision for learners and building capacity for sustained improvement. Applications must provide evidence that leadership has been visionary and ambitious for the college and demonstrate a focus on improving teaching and learning that is relentless and uncompromising. The closing date for submissions is 6 July. Colleges may make only one submission for an award and may not make the same submission for more than one award. For full details on all award criteria visit the AoC’s Beacon Awards site at https://goo.gl/mylRe8
Transformational leadership that meets providers’ needs exactly group of organisations. Participants will work in groups of between 15 and 20 colleagues and partners to address a significant leadership challenge. Two expert facilitators are provided per group, one from the education and training sector and one from outside. An early adopter’s programme is available. To find out more about the Transformational Leadership offer and secure your place as an early adopter, contact Kathryn James, in the ETF’s management and governance team kathryn.james@etfoundation.co.uk or 0753 548 2217 ETF Leadership Summit 2016
concluded the Access 2 Ambitious Leadership programme, which saw the management team undertake a bespoke programme, including one-to-one coaching, group workshops and action learning. This helped them to better develop their understanding of themselves, their colleagues, the business and how to get the best from their teams. The impact of this programme has been huge. We now have a management team that has collectively developed an ambitious approach to ensuring our business continues to grow and thrive in these difficult times. The level of creativity has increased dramatically, new projects and ways of working are commonplace. The buzz surrounding, not just those who took part in the programme, but the rest of the staff who have benefited by having more engaged and enthused leaders who are sharing their new-found experiences, is fantastic and proves to me the value of investing in leadership development. By thinking carefully about the leaders we want in our organisations, the skills and qualities we need them to possess and, most of all, the values we want them to embody and inspire in others, we can broaden our search for new talent. By using training to develop and upskill people we can encourage a new generation of leaders with the ability to scan the horizon, inspire their teams and plot the right course for the good ship ‘Provider’.
The challenges of leading further education and training in a time of change and uncertainty are being addressed in a new programme launched by the Education and Training Foundation. The Transformational Leadership programme starts with the impact that participants want to achieve. The programme is then co-created and co-designed to ensure that it meets providers’ needs exactly. The programme is designed to avoid isolated leadership training by taking a project-based approach to developing individuals and organisations as a whole. The programme is open to groups of leaders from a single organisation or from a
Corrina Hembury is managing director of Access Training (East Midlands)
InTuition Issue 24 | Summer 2016 27
Headline Sponsor
Second Tier Sponsor
Monday 27 & Tuesday 28 June 2016 Novotel London West, Hammersmith
The Annual Conference for the Skills and Employment sector The employment and skills sector has never faced so much change. Change has brought opportunities as well as challenges but the scale of it is unprecedented. The AELP National Conference 2016 will be the premier event this year for examining the impact that the reforms are likely to make. It will have its usual array of top speakers including ministers and it will of course be the first national conference with our new chief executive, Mark Dawe. The plenary sessions and debates will be backed by an excellent selection of workshops, always designed to help providers grow their businesses and share best practice. And then there are the entertaining gala dinner and the great networking opportunities throughout the two days. AELP members have a strong reputation for quality, net responsiveness and flexibility. In attending #AELP2016, they should gain fresh insights to be able to build on that reputation. Conference Chair: Janet Murray, Journalist and Editor Speakers and Panel include Martin Dunford OBE, Skills Training UK & AELP Mark Dawe, Association of Employment and Learning Providers Nick Boles MP, Minister of State for Skills and Equalities Bo Rt Hon Priti Patel MP, Minister of State for Employment Lesley Davies OBE, Pearson UK Nichola Hay, Outsource Training and Development Charlotte Bosworth, OCR Dr Ann Limb CBE DL, SEMLEP Shakira Martin, National Union of Students Keith Smith, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills Day One Themes
Bob Harrison, Toshiba Paul Joyce HMI, Ofsted Martin Doel CBE, Association of Colleges Dr Susan Pember OBE, Holex Dr Neil Bentley, WorldSkills UK Claudia Harris, The Careers & Enterprise Company Caroline Murphy, DH Associates Peter Lauener, EFA and the SFA Rhiannon Wilson, Youth Employment UK Ashley McCaul, Skills for Growth
Day Two Themes
■ English devolution: opportunities & challenges ■ Apprenticeship reforms ■ A sustainable future for the sector
■ Employment and Skills for Improved Productivity ■ Opportunities for young people ■ The Quality agenda
Various Sponsorship and Exhibitor Opportunities are also available AELP
@AELPUK #aelp2016
www.aelpnationalconference.org.uk
Media Sponsor
Resources
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FEATURED RESOURCES
Learning tech support Support is available on the use of digital technologies in teaching and learning through the Education and Training Foundation. The Learning Futures staff support programme includes resources from 17 provider-led projects. For information visit http://goo.gl/JgTuvV
Future Apprenticeships Support and professional development resources for teachers and managers involved in apprenticeship delivery and traineeships are available on the Future Apprenticeships website. For information, visit http://goo.gl/8o3EN6
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Excellence Gateway
Positive feedback for ETF’s Core Maths Teachers participating in a maths training course run by the Education and Training Foundation saw their levels of confidence in delivering the subject soar, according to feedback. ETF’s intensive three-day Training Programme for Core Maths was most effective in helping participants develop their learners’ knowledge beyond GCSE, with feedback figures showing a 26 per cent rise in teachers’ average level of confidence. In total, 128 GCSE maths teachers participated in the programme and, while just 48 per cent of teachers felt very or quite confident in developing learners’ subject knowledge beyond GCSE before the course, this leapt to 81 per cent on completion. The number of participants who described themselves as very confident in bringing learners with mixed grades up to speed with higher level GCSE maths, rose from 13 per cent before the programme to 40 per cent after attending the courses held in March. Feedback shows that the proportion of
those describing themselves as not very or not at all confident in bringing learners up to speed with higher level GCSE maths, dropped from 39 per cent before the programme to 12 per cent after the course. In terms of participants’ confidence in being able to build learners’ mathematical thinking, reasoning and communication, the feedback reveals that the proportion describing themselves as very or quite confident increased from 69 per cent before the programme to 88 per cent afterwards. And, while 74 per cent said they were very or quite confident in enabling learners to apply their GCSE content through real life examples before the course, this rose to 90 per cent after. Qualitative feedback shows that many participants were going to increase problem solving elements in their lessons and incorporate more active learning techniques. ETF is now looking at the feasibility of further training to support core maths.
For information on core maths training, visit http://goo.gl/FXrF2v To view a short video on maths and English support for teachers visit http://goo.gl/pLf4Y7
A huge range of free resources are available on the new-look Excellence Gateway portal. The site has been streamlined and simplified allowing users to search, browse or discover resources which are free to all. Explore the Excellence Gateway at http://goo.gl/B4DJ6Z
Maths and English resources Support for teachers of maths and English is available through the Education and Training Foundation’s Maths and English Pipeline. To help you plan your professional development, self-evaluation tools for maths and English are available, which will enable you to reflect on your current skills, knowledge and teaching approaches. The following CPD courses for maths and English teachers are available to book: • CPD modules (Level 5) for teachers of maths GCSE resits • CPD modules (Level 5) for teachers of English GCSE resits • Improving formative assessment in maths • Improving formative assessment in English • Maths vocational revitalisers • English vocational revitalisers • Motivating and engaging maths learners • Motivating and engaging English learners • Introduction to mathematical resilience. SET members are eligible for a discount. For details and booking visit http://goo.gl/e3Ixoi For additional maths, English and other resources visit the Foundation Online Learning site http://goo.gl/0HpGRn
InTuition Issue 24 | Summer 2016 29
Geoff Petty
Teaching your students to be creative Creativity can be taught and the ‘icedip’ process is the key to success, says Geoff Petty. Geoff is the author of Teaching Today and Evidence Based Teaching and has trained staff in more than 300 colleges and schools.
Further reading
This article is from Geoff Petty’s 1996 book, How to be Better at Creativity, published by Kogan Page. Currently out of print, it is available in digital format. Moseley, D. et al’s Frameworks for Thinking, Cambridge: CUP (2005), is a review of research, which covers the icedip model. 30 Issue 24 | Summer 2016 InTuition
How can we teach students to be more creative? I use the term in the widest possible sense here. The creative process is not well understood and consists of six working phases, inspiration, clarification, distillation, perspiration, evaluation and incubation. During a particular piece of creative work each phase should be experienced many times, in no set order, sometimes for a very short time.
The ‘Icedip’ phases
Inspiration - in which you generate a large number of ideas. This includes research. The process is uninhibited and characterised by spontaneity, experimentation, intuition and risk-taking. Creative people find their good ideas among a huge pile of bad ones. Creativity is like mining for diamonds, most of what you dig is thrown away, but that doesn’t make the digging a waste of time. If you ‘can’t think of anything’ you are having difficulty with this phase, perhaps because you are too self-critical or impatient. Let yourself off the leash. And if most of your ideas are workable, you didn’t take enough risks. Clarification - in which you focus on your goals. The key questions are: • what am I trying to achieve or say here? • what is the problem I am trying to solve? • what would I like the finished work to be like? And in more open-ended work: • how could I exploit the ideas I have had; where could they take me? The aim is to clarify the purpose or objective of the work, often over time. It is easy to lose your sense of direction while dealing with detailed difficulties in creative work. So you need to disengage from these obstacles occasionally and ask:
“what exactly am I trying to do here?” If you get stuck in the middle of a project, then clarification can help much more than dreaming up new ideas for example. It keeps you strategic and logical with your eye on the ball. Distillation - in which you look through the ideas you have generated and try to determine which ones to work on. Here, ideas from the inspiration phase are sifted through and evaluated, usually in the light of a clarification phase. The best ideas are chosen for further development or are combined into even better ideas. It is where the ideas can take you that counts, not how well worked they are. Perspiration - in which you work with great determination on your best ideas. This is where you sweat over the creation of drafts. You are involved in determined and persistent effort towards your goal. This will usually involve further ‘inspiration’ ‘distillation’ and ‘clarification’ phases. Evaluation - is a review phase in which you look back over your work in progress. Here, you examine your work for strengths and weaknesses. Then you need to consider how the work could be improved, by removing weaknesses and also by capitalising on its strengths. Then there will probably need to be another perspiration phase to respond positively to the suggestions for improvement – another draft. Perspiration and evaluation phases often alternate to form a cycle. Hardly anyone gets things right first time. Creative people adapt to improve. Even Shakespeare and Picasso found they had to revise their efforts. Incubation - in which you leave the work alone, though you still ponder about
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but positive about your vision of how the work could be, and your ability to do this. You must see weaknesses as opportunities to improve and to learn. Instead, creative people often see criticism as a threat. Distillation: To choose your best ideas from the inspiration phase you need to be positive, strategic and intrepid. Judgemental, but optimistic about where each idea might take you and daring enough to take on original ideas. Common mistakes are to choose ideas that are familiar and well worked out instead of those that will best achieve your intentions. Incubation: To leave time for your sub-conscious to work, you need to be unhurried, trusting and forgetful. You must expect difficulties, trust yourself to find a way round them and not be panicked into adopting a weak solution. Perspiration: To bring your ideas to fruition you need to be uncritical, enthusiastic and responsive. You need to be positive and persistent, deeply committed and engaged, and ready to respond positively to any shortcomings. it occasionally, leaving it ‘on the surface of your mind’. Many brilliant ideas have occurred in the bath or in traffic jams. If you are able to stop work on a project for a few days, perhaps to work on other things, this will give your subconscious time to work on any problems encountered and to generate new ideas. It will also distance you somewhat from your ideas so that you are better able to evaluate them. The first letters of these six phases can be rearranged to spell ‘Icedip’ which may help you to remember them. Remember though, that each of these Icedip phases should be encountered many times, sometimes for very short periods, and not necessarily in any particular sequence.
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When your students are lacking in creativity
‘Uncreative’ people don’t use this multiphased process. Instead, they latch on to the first idea that comes to them, complete a draft quickly and uncritically, without revision, or clarification of what they are trying to achieve. Then they wonder why the work is poor and can feel that they are ‘uncreative’. But the
problem is the process they use. Also, you need to adopt the right phase at the right time. For example, no amount of distillation can help if you need clarification. Many creative blocks are due to the determined use of an inappropriate phase. If stuck, switch phases.
Get into the right mindset
One of the main difficulties for students is that the different phases require radically different, even opposite ‘mindsets’, each of which is difficult to sustain without deliberate effort. These are outlined below. Inspiration: To generate a large number of different ideas you need to be deeply engrossed, fearless and free: spontaneous, risk-taking, joyful, intuitive and improvisational. Clarification: To clarify what you are trying to achieve you need to be strategic, unhurried and impertinent: analytic, logical, and clear minded, and not afraid to ask difficult questions. Many people fail to clarify and they fail to achieve their goals because they don’t know what they are. Evaluation: To improve earlier work you need to be critical, positive and willing to learn. Self-critical (sometimes ruthlessly so),
Switch phases and mindsets appropriately
Students need to switch continually between these radically different phases and mindsets. This requires enormous flexibility as some mindsets are almost the exact opposite of each other. And you must use the right mindset: you will not get many original ideas if you are critical, careful and strategic. Nor will you clarify your purpose effectively if you are slaphappy and uncritical. A given piece of creative work involves a long chain of the ‘Icedip’ phases, each phase being revisited many times. But a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. You need to know your weakest phases, and the techniques and mindsets which will help you make them stronger. There are some simple strategies that can hugely improve your performance, even in your strongest phases. Though these will take practice if you want to make the best of them. A better understanding of each phase along with its tools and mindset will help avoid those blocks and frustrations which prevent you performing to the best of your ability. InTuition Issue 24 | Summer 2016 31
Books
Editor’s pick
It's time to reclaim your professional indentity Excerpt: Teaching in Post-14 Education and Training Same course, same learning experience? (page 207) (a) When you were at school, did all the teachers of the same subject, say maths, teach in the same way? Explain your answer. (b) In your own area of teaching/training, does every lecturer/teacher/trainer work in an identical way? Explain your answer. (c) Do you think the following groups of learners have identical learning experiences? Explain your answers. • All the first-year economics degree students in a university. • All NVQ Level 3 beauty-therapy trainees in college or a workplace. • All police probationary constables in a training centre.
Teaching in Post-14 Education & Training (fifth edition)
By Andy Armitage et al Open University Press: paperback 978-0-3352-6184-0 The recent changes to the compulsory age of education, funding cuts, area reviews and an inspection culture (and that’s just for starters) make post-14 education a difficult place for many teachers. The latest edition of this popular book helps educators to reclaim their professional identity through stretching and thought-
Other New Publications The Best Vocational Trainer’s Guide By Hilary Read with Ann Gravells. Read On Publications: paperback 978-1-8726-7829-0 This book stands out from the crowd. It is aimed squarely at workplace trainers, mentors, supervisors, assessors, those delivering apprenticeships and those responsible for developing
provoking commentary and critical questioning. It makes important links to the Education and Training Foundation’s Professional Standards and provides a supportive resource for students studying post-compulsory teaching qualifications. It is good to see an emphasis on non-college teaching running throughout the book; community educators, driving instructors and industry trainers, among others, are all included through examples and case studies. Chapters cover themes such as classroom management, assessment and course design. A useful introduction to educational philosophy helps teachers consider their own values base and a whistle-stop vocational teaching staff. The A4 format also allows for a particularly detailed and clear layout of many highly practical tables, plans, programmes, schemes of work, activities, reflective logs and diagrams that pack its pages. A nice bonus is that most chapters end with a section mapping the book’s contents to teaching qualifications.
MEMBER OFFER Read On Publications is offering a discount on three
32 Issue 24 | Summer 2016 InTuition
tour of Socrates, Rousseau and Dewey sets the context. A little more diversity here (and throughout the book) in terms of theorists would add balance to a picture that is largely dominated by white male thinkers. Challenging readers to examine their own subject histories for diversity (or lack of) too, would be a useful prompt for critical thinking and positive action. The chapter on curriculum is a particularly useful exploration of a complex and often misunderstood topic. It begins with useful questions to prompt thinking, moving into a series of definitions that can be applied to different teaching contexts. The repeated format of task
boxes with practical activities gives readers a chance for pause and reflection. These could be used in-class with Cert Ed/PGCE students or equally as prompts for individual reflective work. This is a valuable resource for students and teachers alike. It provides a useful framework for assignment and classroom work, balancing theory and practical teaching strategies.
assorted guidebooks. For details visit Read On Publications http://goo.gl/Gdd71R Hilary Read would like to hear from practitioners with their thoughts on her guides readondev@btinternet.com
Plevin’s behaviour strategies are rooted in his own experiences – not all of them positive – as a school teacher and behaviour management trainer. His book is clearly aimed at school teachers but there is plenty of material that those teaching teenagers in further education and skills settings will find useful. The book is helped by Plevin’s conversational tone.
Take Control of the Noisy Class By Rob Plevin Crown House Publishing Limited: paperback 978-1-7858-3008-2
Kay Sidebottom is a teacher educator at Northern College and Barnsley College
MEMBER OFFER There is 20 per cent off the RRP of this book. To order visit http://goo.gl/hJn1qe
MEMBER OFFER See Educational Research: taking the plunge offer above.
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Editor’s pick
Small-scale educational research for practitioners Excerpt: Educational research: taking the plunge (page 55) Some useful starting points for phrasing such [research] questions might be: To what extent…? What factors…? How…? Who…? What… Here are some examples: To what extent is student disengagement from school a function of a narrowly examinationorientated focus in teaching and learning? What factors affect students’ motivation to learn mathematics? How can schools better support disadvantaged young people? Who are the key adults influencing young people’s perceptions and aspirations? What are the reasons for student’s non-attendance at X Secondary School?
Educational research: taking the plunge By Phil Wood and Joan Smith Independent Thinking Press: hardback 978-1-7813-5240-3
This book has been designed for people who are thinking about carrying out a smallscale educational research project, perhaps for the first time, as the title suggests. Any trepidation that one may feel about this enterprise is countered by the clear, engaging and encouraging tone of the writing. The research
The Inspirational Teacher (second edition) Edited by Chris Brown IOE Press: paperback 978-1-7827-7111-1 Put to one side any issues you may have with motivational/ self-improvement books and you’ll probably gain something valuable from this lively work. In the unlikely event it gives you nothing, it’s under 100 pages long so you will have barely wasted an evening.
process is well-explained and a wide range of concepts are explored in a coherent fashion. The book is logically organised and each chapter deals with a different stage in the research journey. It starts with a chapter that explores what research can be and ends with how small-scale research can be developed. The authors argue that not only researchers need to be research-literate. Those who read and use other people’s research also should be able to make informed judgements about its validity and quality. The central role of ethics within educational research is a feature of the book: consent, honesty and care are noted as being the basic principles of Don’t expect chapter and verse on pedagogic theory and teaching practice. Do expect a pyramidal formula for building high-trust learning relationships.
MEMBER OFFER Members are eligible for a 20 per cent discount on this title when ordered direct from Routledge https:// goo.gl/ZgMiWW Use code INT16. Offer is valid until 31 December 2016. Offer cannot be used in conjunction with any other offer or discount.
ethical practice. Suggestions are offered on how to manage researcher bias throughout the stages of research design, data-collection, analysing data and reporting findings. There is very useful chapter about critical reading and writing (pp.33-48) that delivers practical advice on how to approach writing as a shared process between critical friends who can give and receive feedback on a script. The next chapter, which addresses research questions, is also very good. The authors are open about their aim to write about small-scale research projects and it is understandable that they don’t tackle in-depth longitudinal studies or those
Reading Reconsidered. A Practical Guide to Rigorous Literacy Instruction
based on narrative inquiry. Many of their examples refer to schools, but there is a lot to be gleaned from this book and applied in further education and non-formal education settings. Sam Broadhead is head of research at Leeds College of Art
MEMBER OFFER SET members are entitled to a 20 per cent discount on the RRP of this book and Take Control of a Noisy Class (see below). To order, visit Crown House Publishing http://goo.gl/VaYwo7 and use code InTuition20 when prompted. Offer valid until 31 July 2016.
By Doug Lemov, Colleen Driggs and Erica Woolway Jossey-Bass: paperback 978-1-1191-0424-7
schools, contains a wealth of information and practical advice – most of it distilled from experienced practitioners – that will be of benefit to anyone teaching reading and literacy. It comes with a DVD of instructional video clips.
Doug Lemov is best known for his 2010 book, Teach Like a Champion: 49 Techniques That Put Students on the Path to College and this book, while aimed at those teaching children in American
To claim a 20 per cent discount on the RRP, order from http://eu.wiley.com before 31 August 2016, using promo code REA20 when prompted.
MEMBER OFFER
InTuition Issue 24 | Summer 2016 33
Forum
A space for practitioners to air their views. They do not necessarily reflect the views of the Society for Education and Training
PEDAGOGUE Apprenticeships must do more than add to our paperwork This week I have signed up to a fan club, that of Carolyn Fairbairn, the director general of the Confederation of British Industry. In a recent speech revealing business leaders’ concerns about the apprenticeship levy, she commented that the government has the opportunity to create a once-ina-generation revolution” in skills, but it is currently only likely to deliver another shakeup. That is the most accurate summation of what we have had to deal with from successive governments for decades.
My story
In principle, the CBI is fairly supportive of the levy. It’s just as well, really, otherwise it would be consigned to the same dustbin as the old training boards before it had raised a penny. In calling for a radical rethink, Carolyn outlines many concerns among those who struggle to see how the existing proposals will tackle our national skills shortage. This includes the role of the newly formed Institute of Apprenticeships. We don’t know a lot about the institute yet, except that the former director general of skills, deregulation and local growth at the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills, Rachel Sandby-Thomas is planning
to step down from her role as shadow chief executive – just a few months after her appointment. As I sit here completing a mountain of regulatory paperwork, nearly high enough to have its own Ordnance Survey trig point on top, I can’t say that I’m particularly brimming with confidence about the future of apprenticeships at the moment: levies, trailblazers, tech bacs are an administrative nightmare. But, I suspect that, as usual, it will be the skills of our teachers in negotiating this minefield that will keep the wheels of industry turning.
Friendship with her old tutor opened the door to what would become an award-wining career for Lewisham and Southwark College trainer and assessor Nicole Alison.
Like many vocational teachers and assessors, Nicole Alison’s interest in education and training grew out of her experience in industry. Having trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in technical theatre and stage management, Nicole worked as a stage and production manager, including time as production manager for Lewisham Youth Theatre. “It was there that I realised I had a knack for and an interest in developing young minds within the industry,” Nicole says. And, while her time at the youth theatre expanded Nicole’s horizons to include teaching, it was her old tutor who helped turn her inspiration into opportunity. “I came to work at Lewisham and Southwark College in 2012, initially as a stand in for Sue Baynton, the productions arts tutor at the time, who needed cover for a few days,” Nicole says. “Sue had been my tutor at Lewisham College and has effectively been my mentor since 2008. Sue asked me if I’d like to get involved in working on the Creative Apprenticeships course that she had developed at the college… and the rest was history.” Central to Nicole’s approach as an assessor and trainer is that one size of training can never fit all. It’s an approach has helped Nicole and her fellow creative apprenticeships team members to win the 2016 Creative
34 Issue 24 | Summer 2016 InTuition
and Cultural Skills Training Provider of the Year Award for Lewisham and Southwark College. “We were thrilled to win the Award. It recognises the hard work of a small team – proving that dedicated people can make a difference,” Nicole says. “It is crucial to our approach that learners are individuals and not numbers. “I like to think that we’ve been very good at finding the right approach for each person and still making it work..” As an assessor and trainer Nicole must manage her time carefully but, equally important to her, is ensuring that her approach is joined-up and that her students receive rounded support. “I see my learners weekly as a group and then individually once a month and I spend as much time discussing career paths, lifestyle and giving advice as I do carrying out assessments and delivering training,” she says. “It’s all part of the job role to ensure my learners develop mentally and emotionally as well as intellectually and practically.” Nicole looks after up to 35 learners and works across a range of qualifications: Technical Theatre, Costume and Wardrobe, Live Events and Promotions, Community Arts and Cultural heritage, and Venue Operations. Keeping up to date with the latest developments in teaching and in theatre
production and staging are part and parcel of Nicole’s approach to her role. “The college delivers a really good and informative programme of in-house training for staff on many different areas within teaching and assessment,” Nicole says. “I also still work in industry in stage management whenever I can to keep up my practical knowledge and skills. I also like to network and so attend as many industry events as possible. “And, of course, I love theatre and see shows on average once a month.”
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NoticeBoard CALENDAR
JUNE
27-28
AELP National Conference (see below)
7-9
Festival of Skills (see below)
14
14
16
28
28
29
SET continuing professional development event, Leeds (see below)
AoC College HE Research and Scholarship Conference (see below)
8
Association of Teachers and Lecturers annual conference
Summer CPD events
There are still places available on the Society for Education and Training’s summer CPD series, titled: SEND Code of Practice: where are we now and where do we go from here? All events run from midday to 4pm and will be led by John Brown, a SEND consultant and teacher. The next event will be held at the University of Leeds on 14 June, followed by Birmingham Metropolitan College on 16 June and Plymouth College of Art on 21 June. To book, visit https://goo.gl/6KjUaH
Festival of Skills
The Festival of Skills is the event of the summer for all further education and training staff and for young people wishing to find out more about the opportunities FE has to offer. Spread over three days from 7-9 July at Capel Manor College’s stunning 34-acre Enfield campus, the festival boasts scores of events and workshops, including many run by SET. The event is CPD certified. For details, visit http://goo.gl/iBt8b6
AoC Apprenticeships SET continuing Conference (see below) professional development event, Birmingham (see below)
AoC College Sport Conference
8-10
The Education and Training Foundation’s 2014 Professional Standards expect teachers and trainers to “build positive and collaborative relationships” with their learners and “manage and promote positive learner behaviour”. This conference, held at the University of Huddersfield on 1 July, will explore behaviour management by bringing together experts, researchers, teacher educators and teachers to consider this important topic from a number of perspectives. For details visit http://goo.gl/NAIjY6
AELP National Conference
The unprecedented levels of change across employment and skills will be examined at the annual conference of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers. The conference, held at the Novotel London West on 27 and 28 June, will examine the likely impact of reforms to apprenticeship and traineeships, Area Reviews
SET continuing professional development event, Plymouth (see below)
11
24
The Education and Training Consortium annual conference #hudtec16
1
Reimagining Further Education Conference (see page 20)
Association for Capita Apprenticeships Research in Postand Traineeships Compulsory Education conference (ARPCE) 2nd international research conference
Behaviour management conference
21
National Conference on Behaviour Management (see below)
JULY
21-22
Edge Foundation and Education and Employers Taskforce research conference
and English devolution as well as considering Ofsted’s common inspection framework and the new Work and Health Programme. For details, visit http://goo.gl/YPj0Q9
HE Research and Scholarship Conference
The Association of College’s College HE Research and Scholarship conference is designed to support collegebased teachers and managers involved in the delivery of higher education programmes. Held in Birmingham on 28 June, the conference will examine the importance of supporting and developing staff to undertake research and scholarship by looking at existing good practice and emerging models. It will showcase research and scholarship by practitioners and their students. For details, visit https://goo.gl/8rLqCm
London conference on mployer engagement
What difference does it make when employers work with education and training providers? How can employer
engagement best be delivered? The London Conference on Employer Engagement in Education and Training will explore these questions, presenting new research on employer engagement in education and training and the implications for policy and practice. The conference, on 21 and 22 July, is hosted by the Education and Employers Charity and the Edge Foundation. For details, visit http://goo.gl/M4Y0i8
AoC Apprenticeships Conference
The growth of apprenticeships is the government’s flagship skills policy and this conference, in London on 14 June, will examine how colleges can rise to the challenge and share existing good practice. Speakers will examine the workings of the proposed apprenticeship levy, the Institute of Apprenticeships, employer engagement strategies and the Digital Apprenticeship Service, For details, visit https://goo.gl/v0acQY
InTuition Issue 24 | Summer 2016 35
IN PARTNERSHIP WITH
EXCLUSIVE 25% DISCOUNT FOR SET MEMBERS. VISIT FESTIVALOFSKILLS.CO.UK FOR MORE INFORMATION
JULY 7-8, 2016 VITAL CPD FOR PROFESSIONALS WORKING IN THE FURTHER EDUCATION AND SKILLS SECTOR THE FE WEEK FESTIVAL OF SKILLS AT CAPEL MANOR COLLEGE IS AN INSPIRING CPD EXTRAVAGANZA FOR PROFESSIONALS WORKING WITHIN THE FURTHER EDUCATION AND SKILLS SECTOR. THE FESTIVAL OF SKILLS WILL BRING TOGETHER THE BEST OF THE SECTOR’S MOST FORWARD THINKING ADVOCATES, PRACTITIONERS OF CHANGE, POLICY MAKERS AND EDUCATORS, AT WHAT IS SET TO BECOME THE LEADING FORUM FOR THOUGHT LEADERSHIP, CPD AND DEBATE IN THE FE AND SKILLS SECTOR. BOOK YOUR TICKETS TODAY TO THE INSPIRING FE WEEK FESTIVAL OF SKILLS.
AN INSPIRING CPD FESTIVAL FOR STAFF IN THE FE AND SKILLS SECTOR
Featuring two unmissable summits: Area review summit Thursday 7 July
APPRENTICESHIP FUNDING AND REFORM SUMMIT Friday 8 July
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