Intuition - spring 2016

InTuition https://set.et-foundation.co.uk

Issue 23 | Spring 2016

The journal for professional teachers and trainers in the further education and training sector

Where industry meets education

Inside Middlesbrough College’s new £20m STEM Centre InPractice p22 Welcoming your feedback on this edition – see page 3

SET seeks members’ ideas on professional development

Michael Kagwa has dedicated his career to teaching refugees

Shape the future of Functional Skills maths and English

The smart way to use learning technologies

News p4

People p10

Feature p12

Geoff Petty p30

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Only £19.99 excluding VAT

Online safeguarding and duty of care training for SET members SET has teamed up with award-winning learning provider EduCare, to offer an online training package of CPD and Duty of Care programmes at a special discounted price for SET members.

The package comprises a range of online learning programmes on essential duty of care topics including: • Safeguarding vulnerable young people and adults • the SEND code of practice • Equality and Diversity • Health and Safety and more….

Every programme has its own downloadable personalised certificate and they are all written or endorsed by subject experts including Family Lives, Bullying UK, UK Youth and YMCA training.

This package is offered to members at a vastly reduced cost of only £19.99 excluding VAT. Whether as an introduction, or a refresher, these programmes are a useful and convenient way to contribute to your CPD. Visit the CPD Resources section of the SET website to find out more and take up this offer - https://set.et-foundation.co.uk

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Welcome A year of opportunity for SET members

Give us your feedback on our latest issue For more information, visit set.et-foundation.co.uk Or follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter

Contents

This year is already shaping up to be a year of opportunity for members of the Society for Education and Training (SET).

The Education and Training Foundation’s consultation on the reform of Functional Skills maths and English presents members with a golden opportunity to shape the future of teaching and assessment in these areas (see feature, page 12). I urge SET members to take part in our exclusive consultation event in Manchester on 2 March.

We are also seeking SET members’ case studies on how the Professional Standards 2014 have helped your teaching (see news, page 4), so these can contribute to a published collection of effective practice, with highlights in InTuition.

We have also launched an online survey of InTuition itself, so we can find out more detail of what you like and how you would like us to develop the journal in future (see more information, page 7).

We already know that you value our support to members in engaging with research and evidence-based practice, so we have now produced our first dedicated InTuition: Research supplement.

It is packed with information and articles that we hope you will find interesting and useful. All content from the supplement is also available in the members’ section of the SET website.

We are approaching the start of our annual renewals period for SET membership (from early March), and the research supplement is part of a growing range of resources and support offered by SET in response to member feedback. We look forward to welcoming you back for another year of membership during which the profile of SET – and its range of benefits for members – will continue to grow.

We have a busy spring ahead. Look out for our regional professional development events on embedding maths and English in the new apprenticeships (see news, page 7). There are new webinars that will be broadcast in March and April on apprenticeships and the Qualified Teacher Learning and Skills (QTLS) recognition route (see page 35).

We are developing further improvements to the SET website including our personalised dashboard, a self-assessment tool and a mentoring e-learning course, and will be piloting a member network in the spring and early summer. There is much more in the pipeline too, and we welcome your continued support throughout the year.

Tim Weiss Director of strategy, quality and research

InTuition contacts EDITORIAL member.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 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 Printed by: PCP Ltd, Telford Advertising: Alan Thomson 020 8676 5608

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 member.communications@ etfoundation.co.uk. Annual subscription rate for four issues: £50 (UK); £60 (rest of the world).

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 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.

News 4 20 Standards, 100 Ideas Apprenticeship Awards WorldSkills UK 2016 News 6 Ear to the Ground Policy watch News in brief Opinion 8 Bill Lucas Claire Boliver People 10 Michael Kagwa, a teacher from Kenya’s refugee camps Feature 12 Peter Rook reports on the future of Functional Skills Practitioners 15 Me and my tutor: Reece Taylor Research 16 Roberta Hall and Melanie Lanser; Alison Longdon, Tom Monaghan and Lou Mycroft; Tami McCrone; Catherine Cox Research digest 20 City of Glasgow College InPractice 22 Middlesbrough’s STEM Centre Lifelong learning in Oldham InSight 24 The long arm of police training Online learning in Nottingham Leading learning 26 FE teacher-training research Specialist colleges defy the label Resources 29 Prevent duty awareness training available online Geoff Petty 30 Get students thinking with technology, not just clicking Books 32 Digital Literacy Skills for FE Teachers Becoming an Outstanding Personal Tutor Forum 34 Pedagogue My Story Strictly Online Noticeboard 35 A round-up of the professional development events coming up in March, April and May

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News

News Share your bright ideas around the Professional Standards

“20 Standards 100 Ideas” Closing date for submissions is the end of March 2016

The Education and Training Foundation is looking for 100 ideas from SET practitioners on how the Professional Standards are helping your practice By staff reporters You told us that one of your priority areas for continuing professional development is finding ways to successfully embed the Professional Standards in your practice.

The Education and Training Foundation (ETF) is launching a project called ‘20 Standards, 100 Ideas’. The project is seeking SET practitioners, individually or in groups, who would like to send in examples of how they use the Professional Standards.

What we need are short case studies that show how you are working with one or a small number of the professional standards, and how this is helping your practice. If you are

applying for Qualified Teacher Learning and Skills (QTLS) or have done so recently, there is likely to be the beginnings of an idea in your portfolio.

Those that are chosen will become part of the ‘100 Ideas’ and will be posted on the SET and ETF websites, along with wider guidance for practitioners about the standards. Highlights will also be published in InTuition. We are putting together a panel of SET Fellows who will review your ideas and help us to choose the winning entries.

You can submit as many ideas as you like; we want to ensure that all aspects of the standards and your professionalism are represented when we publish the ideas. SET members value being part of a professional community, and we would like our community to showcase its excellence to the wider sector.

If you believe you have an idea that is making a difference to your work, why not share it, so that other teaching staff have the chance to grow and develop their practice too?

For more information, and to download the Ideas submission form, please visit https://goo.gl/ LZM9uu. Send your completed forms to membership@ etfoundation.co.uk with the subject line “20 Standards 100 Ideas”.

The closing date for the receipt of submissions is the end of March 2016.

Jade, who is employed by MBDA UK Ltd, Wigan, studied with Alliance Learning.

The City & Guilds Award for Apprenticeship Champion of the Year went to Neil Cain, operations director at John O’Connor Grounds Maintenance.

Neil, who completed his own City & Guilds apprenticeship with Sunderland Parks Department more than 30 years ago, has been instrumental in developing John O’Conner’s award-winning

apprenticeship scheme.

The employer winners were: Adary Joiners, Oldham; Genix Healthcare Ltd, Leeds; Liebherr GB Ltd, Biggleswade; BAE Systems Plc, London; Buckinghamshire Care, High Wycombe; Be Wiser Insurance, Andover.

To download the template and the lists visit https://goo.gl/lZM9uu

2015’s National Apprenticeship Award winners Congratulations to the winners of the National Apprenticeship Awards, celebrating the successes of the country’s most exceptional apprentices, employers and training providers.

Four individual winners plus highly commended entrants were announced at the awards ceremony in January along with six employer winners.

Kathleen Sandford, of The Community Housing Group, Stourport-on-Severn,

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Worcestershire, won the McDonald’s Award for Intermediate Apprentice of the Year. Kathleen is a former student of Kidderminster College.

Joshua White, an IBM employee who studied at Highbury College, won the EAL Award for Advanced Apprentice of the Year.

Jade Aspinall won the Nuclear Decommissioning Site Licence Companies Award for Higher Apprentice of the Year.

For a full list of winners and those highly commended https://goo.gl/QkaUP4

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Does your apprentice or learner have what it takes?

Do any of your learners or apprentices have what it takes to enter the WorldSkills UK Competitions in 2016? If so, read on. Registrations for the WorldSkills UK Competitions 2016 are open from 1 March until 7 April.

Run in more than 60 skill areas, the competitions include a series of tests, designed by industry experts, which focus on the highest UK and international standards.

The skill areas include construction and infrastructure, hospitality and leisure, engineering and technology, IT and enterprise and media and creative The finals of the WorldSkills UK Competitions are held at The Skills Show, the UK’s largest skills and career event, which takes place at the NEC Birmingham from 17-19 November 2016.

Age and skill eligible competitors who excel in the finals of the WorldSkills UK competitions could be selected to compete for a place in Squad UK for WorldSkills Kazan 2019.

By embedding the WorldSkills UK competitions into the curriculum programmes, education and training providers can

The finals of WorldSkills UK are held at the Skills Show programme by enabling them to develop key character and employability skills.

“By using knowledge gained from competing nationally and internationally, we know we are working to benchmarks that will equip more young people with the skills to help UK businesses compete better globally.”

WorldSkills trainers required WorldSkills UK is looking to fill a number of expert roles for WorldSkills Abu Dhabi 2017. Experts take responsibility for training Squad and Team UK over an 18- month period, preparing competitors for the competition which takes place 14-19 October 2017. Application details and role specifications are listed at www.worldskillsuk.org raise standards in teaching, motivate learners and celebrate exceptional talent in their organisation.

Dr Neil Bentley, chief executive of Find A Future,

which runs the WorldSkills UK competitions and the Skills Show, said: “These competitions are proven to enhance a person’s apprenticeship or training

Register to enter the WorldSkills UK Competitions at www.worldskillsuk.org

SET for a bright future together The Society for Education and Training (SET) has been working hard to improve the professional support it offers. As SET approaches its first anniversary in May, it is worth reflecting on what has been achieved so far.

• 87 per cent of those asked in our Perceptions Survey rated SET as very good or good

• more than 90 per cent of webinar attendees rated them highly or very highly • more than 80,000 unique users have visited the relaunched SET website • our e-newsletter has an open rate twice the industry standard • 82 per cent of delegates at our face-to-face events rate these

highly or very highly • Qualified Teacher Learning and Skills (QTLS) saw 1,600 registrations in September/ October last year – the highest for over two years.

SET has also increased the number of free professional development events for members (see page 7) and there will be

more exciting benefits to share with you in the coming weeks.

Make sure you can continue to be able to access all that SET has to offer by renewing your membership from 7 March 2016. https://goo.gl/LJo34L

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Views & News

Views Ear to the ground Jackie Parry Trailblazer programme changes the employer relationship One of the key challenges for teachers, trainers and assessors involved in the move from delivering apprenticeship frameworks to implementing the new trailblazer standards will be to grasp the changing nature of the relationship with employers.

Employers will have greater control over the design of apprenticeships, but what does that mean for those involved in the delivery of apprenticeships? During the recent Future Apprenticeships employerengagement events, practitioners explored the opportunities and challenges through information-sharing: experiencing a taster of the types of skills needed for the future.

One of the key learning points was the importance of developing an early awareness of how the new relationships with employers will affect the role of the teacher, trainer or assessor and the outcomes for learners.

Many of those attending commented that one of the first actions they would implement would be to share the latest information with staff and employers, then

to involve employers in determining which new standards should and would form part of their delivery.

As Kathy Barnes from Achievement Training Ltd commented: “The greatest thing I have taken away from the event is to not wait for the ‘inevitable’ but to start speaking to employers and staff now and, where possible, commence delivery of the new standards as they become available.”

An essential feature of the new standards is that they will give practitioners a key role in helping to manage the employer relationship, the opportunity to promote training directly to employers, to influence, and to some extent negotiate on how the skills training should take place.

Richard Jenkins from Education Training and Skills said: “This has opened my eyes to the importance of relevant employerengagement messages that need to be communicated across my organisation and with the employers we seek to work with.”

There is a growing awareness among those participating in the Future

Apprenticeships events that teachers, trainers and assessors will need to be part of the dialogue, to establish early and effective communications with employers.

As a result, you may need to refine your questioning and listening and to develop your influencing and negotiation skills to determine the best training solution for both the employer and the apprentice.

Most importantly, the key message is do not wait – read the latest information, network with colleagues working in this area, consider the implications for you as you will need to work more directly with employers and look to influence which standards will form part of your delivery.

Information on the Future Apprenticeships programme, including access to webinars providing an overview of the trailblazer programme, together with details of courses currently available, can be found at: goo.gl/3VjKH1 Jackie Parry is a programme manager at the Education and Training Foundation

Policy watch Shane Chowen All change for adult education as the country heads to the polls More than 100 elections are taking place across the country and devolved administrations this May. The people of London, Liverpool, Bristol and Salford will be electing new mayors and residents in 90 English local authorities will elect their representatives.

There will be elections to the Welsh and Northern Ireland assemblies and the Scottish Parliament. We will also elect Police and Crime Commissioners in England and Wales.

I don’t know how many ballot papers all that represents, but what I do know is that a lot of the newly elected representatives in England will have more control and influence over adult learning and skills.

In my last column, I outlined how the main non-apprenticeship budgets that fund adult learning are combining to form the Adult Education Budget (AEB).

Following this change, the next step is for central government to gradually devolve control of the AEB in areas where there are agreed devolution deals. This will happen in three stages.

First, local areas will be working with

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providers in 2016/17 to develop outcome or delivery agreements so that provision matches local demand. This sounds straightforward but local areas will have to agree what they mean by demand – demand by whom and what will count as a successful outcome and what will not.

The second step is due in 2017/18 when local areas are supposed to be able to have more influence over the

AEB allocations that individual providers receive, albeit that funding responsibility remains with central government.

Local outcome and delivery agreements are therefore crucial. Where consensus emerges, influencing allocations shouldn’t be too difficult. However, it’s just as easy to imagine a scenario where providers and local decision makers disagree in key areas.

The final step, in 2018/19, is handing over full control of the AEB to areas with devolution agreements. By this time, colleges will be in the throes of implementing the recommendations of the Area Reviews of post-16 education and training which, in theory, means fewer, larger institutions.

It’s one thing to consider how the mechanics of devolving adult skills will work, but it’s another to consider the democratic implications for all of those new representatives elected in May. Shane Chowen is head of policy and public affairs at the Learning and Work Institute

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News in brief

National Apprenticeship Service

Employer skills Two-thirds of employers funded or arranged training or development for their staff in 2014-15, according to the

latest Employer Skills Survey by the UK Commission for Employment and Skills.

Of those, 49 per cent provided off-the-job training and 53 per cent arranged onthe-job training, according to the survey.

There was an increase in the volume of training rising to 118 million days in 2015, compared with 113 million in 2013 and 115m in 2011. This increase largely reflected increased levels of employment and increased recruitment activity.

Total employer expenditure on training increased by six per cent between 2013 and 2015, from £43.0bn to £45.4bn The number of positions left vacant in 2014-15 – because employers could not find people with the skills or knowledge to fill them – has risen by 130 per cent since 2011 (up from 91,000 to 209,000).

Skills lacking in the workplace included: time management and prioritising tasks; customer handling; and team working, as well as some specialist skills and the ability to solve complex problems.

For the full report visit: https://goo.gl/20SXjB InTuition survey We are running a short survey about InTuition magazine to gather your feedback and ideas.

Last year, based on the results of our consultation with you, we committed to ensuring that InTuition magazine provides access to high-quality academic content, contextualised for application to particular aspects of practice.

We promised that members would hear their views reflected when they contribute to articles and have a new forum for publishing original research. You may have noticed some changes as we have responded to the feedback.

We’d now like to check whether we are getting it right and what ideas you have for

Valley College. On 15 March there is a Strategic Partnerships workshop. Two modules on learning technology and governance will be run on 14 March and 9 May. For more information and to book visit www.elmag.org.uk

its future development.

Please complete our short survey by 1 March 2016 at https://goo.gl/mytCIh

NUS

Spring CPD series for SET A series of spring professional development workshops focusing on maths and English teaching in the context of the new apprenticeship standards are available exclusively to SET members.

The Spring CPD series is free to attend for members and aims to introduce participants to the impact of the apprenticeship reforms and their implications for the delivery of maths and English.

The workshops will help participants to identify the characteristics of effective workplace practice and they will offer support for follow-up professional development through the ETF’s Future Apprenticeships, as well as the Maths and English Pipeline.

The events are aimed at teachers, trainers, lecturers, tutors and assessors directly supporting apprentices.

Three dates remain: 1 March at The Skills Company, Manchester; 8 March at Sunderland College; 10 March at emfec, Nottingham. For details and booking visit: https://goo.gl/rcjqUZ These events are part of a broader offer available through Future Apprenticeships and compliment the Maths and English Pipeline. For further information visit http://goo.gl/rXyGrf

FEunplugged campaign The National Union of Students (NUS) has launched a campaign as part of its fight to protect the future of FE and training.

The campaign, #FEunplugged, has been launched in response to cuts including those to the adult skills budget, ESOL funding and the loss of education maintenance allowances (EMAs).

The union says that many FE institutions are in financial decline and that the government’s ongoing Area Reviews will result in mergers.

The NUS wants a strong student voice to be heard as part of the review process. For resources visit: https://goo.gl/z5Bfvd Leadership training A series of courses for leaders and governors has been announced by the Education and Training Foundation (ETF).

The events, all available through the Excellence in Leadership, Management and Governance (ELMAG) online portal, run in March and May. On 3 March there is a oneday course called Meeting the Challenge of Special Educational Needs. Also on 3 March is day one of a Business Acumen course with day two on 17 March, both at Dearne

Functional English A workshop, run by the Learning and Work Institute, will explore the particular benefits for teachers and trainers of using learning technology in teaching Functional English and GCSE English programmes.

The event, planned for 14 April, will examine some of the common topics and challenges that English teachers face in delivering both FE and GCSE programmes and suggests ways in which digital technology can be used to engage learners and improve the quality of teaching, learning and assessment both in the classroom and in the delivery of blended learning programmes.

Laptops will be provided for participants to use in pairs.

For details and to book, visit https://goo.gl/u75kD0 ETF’s Maths Pipeline Following the successful Maths Enhancement Programme, the Education and Training Foundation has developed the new Maths Pipeline which supports participants through a differentiated programme of workforce development, backed up and enhanced by the use of existing and new resources.

Working with the National Centre for Excellence in Teaching Mathematics, ETF has trained professional development leads across England.

Up to the summer of 2015, more than 3,000 practitioners had benefited from courses to support maths teaching and feedback has been overwhelmingly positive.

For more details, visit: https://goo.gl/dd2oi9

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Views

Rolls Royce

Opinion

Re-engineering apprenticeships We need to think about both pedagogy and ‘performance character’ if we want to create outstanding apprentices, argues Bill Lucas Everyone in England wants more apprenticeships at the moment. This is good news. But in the rush to the three million mark we will tarnish the brand unless we really focus on the art, science and craft of teaching and learning – pedagogy – and, at the same time, are more demanding about the goals of apprenticeship.

Neither ‘pedagogy’ nor ‘performance character’ are words that necessarily trip off the tongue of further education professionals. But I think they should do, especially bearing in mind Sir Michael Wilshaw’s ongoing criticism of quality in further education.

Let’s start with pedagogy. In City & Guilds’ report Remaking Apprenticeships, Ellen

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Spencer and I argued that to select the best kinds of teaching and learning it was necessary to be more aspirational about the outcomes we want. As well as developing workers who are reliably skilled, literate, numerate and work-ready, we also need to focus on cultivating resourcefulness, craftsmanship and a set of wider skills.

If we truly desire these things too, then our pedagogies will use the full range of methods – learning from experts, systematic practising, hands-on approaches, actionable feedback, coaching and mentoring, real-world problem solving, and activities that are time-bound.

Methods need, of course, to be matched to learners’ needs, contexts and assessment requirements, but the principle is clear.

Now for ‘performance character’. Schools have been talking about character for a while, with a growing interest from researchers, practitioners and politicians in concepts like ‘grit’ or ‘resilience’.

So, too, has the CBI. As John Cridland, the director general, put it: “Character attributes and behaviours are equally as important as qualifications. Most employers do not recruit on subject or qualification unless you need a particular scientist for a particular research job.”

But the FE sector in general, and apprenticeships in particular, have been slow to engage in this debate. Instead, the focus has been too much on structures, standards and funding models.

Performance character is sometimes unhelpfully called ‘soft skills’ or ‘noncognitive skills’. I don’t like either of these for their potentially negative implications.

Performance character is a more useful phrase, initially developed by educators in the USA and adopted here more recently to describe the capabilities most useful to young people in life and learning.

Capabilities include resilience, positive attitude, self-control, ‘grit’, growth mindset and craftsmanship. Valuable in their own rights, they also lead to better educational outcomes. Researchers who have shown

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such correlations include Ron Berger, Angela Duckworth, Carol Dweck, John Hattie, James Heckman, Tim Kautz and Martin Seligman.

Recently, we have moved beyond the language of skills to seek to describe a set of ‘habits of mind’ of the kind that both employers and educationalists can find common cause. We suggest the following.

• Self-belief: confidence in oneself and one’s capability.

• Self-control: the ability to forgo short-term impulses/diversions to prioritise higher goals.

• Perseverance: a set of attributes including effort, persistence, attention, grit and a commitment to long-term goals.

• Resilience: the ability to adapt to challenges, seek growth in them and bounce back.

• Curiosity: a strong desire to know and learn with an openness to new experiences.

• Empathy: being able to ‘walk in another’s shoes’, identifying with and understanding their feelings and views.

• Creativity: the production and development of new and useful ideas, often collaboratively.

• Craftsmanship: pride in a job well done, an ethic of excellence.

Can these be developed in apprentices?

Most certainly. How? By choosing the right blend of learning methods and creating the culture within which these are used and valued. This is described in more detail in Learning to be Employable (see below).

Does a focus on character distract from the important job of developing reliable expertise in an identified occupation?

On the contrary. The evidence suggests that apprentices will be both more work and life ready. Better able to progress, we hope, right up to the new degree level apprenticeships, such employees will be more confident citizens and much more effective learners.

Professor Bill Lucas is director of the Centre for Real-World Learning at the University of Winchester. His latest research, with Janet Hanson, Learning to Be Employable: practical lessons from research into developing character, is published by City & Guilds.

You can read Remaking Apprenticeships here: http://goo.gl/1DuHB4

A focus on careers, not just courses City of Wolverhampton College was awarded the AoC’s prestigious Leading Light award in February for its work with employers. Claire Boliver outlines the college’s employer engagement strategy The college’s mission is to ‘equip people with the skills to succeed and excel’. Priorities include developing outstanding performance in all areas and to grow provision in priority areas such as apprenticeships and employability programmes.

We judge our performance by measuring the levels of people going into employment, the numbers of employers coming to our organisation to employ our students and the high levels of employer and student satisfaction. Employer engagement is a critical aspect and we deliver a wide range of programmes, including apprenticeships, workplace learning, employability programmes for the unemployed and commercially-funded projects designed for employers.

Educational attainment within Wolverhampton is low and to support employers effectively we have to address skills shortages and give the unemployed and our students the right training so they have the best opportunities available and succeed in finding work.

The college uses up-to-date local market intelligence and consults widely with potential customers and stakeholders to deliver and promote employer/employmentfocused programmes that are tailored to their needs. We have also ensured we are proactive and have been instrumental in the development of new apprenticeship standards with employers.

Working with key partners within the city, we have developed a number of specific work-preparation programmes and delivered training to provide local people with the skills required by employers for specific vacancies.

This year, for example, we have worked with employers who have moved to the city, which has led to job opportunities. To meet their requirements we provided specific training to meet their skills needs and were delighted when the majority of the new staff recruited were from our programmes.

Our focus on ‘careers not just courses’ means that strong partnerships with

stakeholders and employers underpin our whole curriculum. Whether it is providing industry-standard training, adding additional training in manual dexterity skills and continuous improvement techniques to an engineering programme or offering specialist polymer training, our aim is to be responsive to local and regional need and to ensure students have the right skills to meet the demands of the job market.

Part of our strategy has involved a multi-agency approach to ensure that any programmes offered are tailored according to the labour market. This includes working with Job Centre Plus, the Local Enterprise Partnership, the city council and other local training consortia. We also have regular employer forums in key sectors in order to inform curriculum content and help us deliver exactly what is required.

One of the potential challenges when engaging with employers is the financial constraints they face and the cost of staff training. We therefore offer flexible solutions when assessing their needs.

In addition, there are occasions when students benefit from the use of the latest technology and equipment. To provide such opportunities, we work closely with employers who support us by donating equipment and materials that FE colleges quite often would not be able to provide.

The most effective way to engage with employers in local communities is to simply listen, be as flexible as possible, constantly seek to anticipate and address their needs and, ultimately, to provide an outstanding experience for both students and employers.

Claire Boliver is principal of City of Wolverhampton College City of Wolverhampton College www.wolvcoll.ac.uk AoC Leading Light https://goo.gl/77ZDgd

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People

‘I have been threatened many times. Life goes on’ One of the 50 finalists in the 2016 Global Teacher Prize, Michael Kagwa has spent almost 30 years teaching in refugee camps in Kenya. Alan Thomson hears his remarkable story Michael Kagwa’s life story and his dedication to the education of refugees in Kenya epitomises the professionalism, resilience and humanity found in all good teachers, even when they find themselves working in the most challenging of circumstances.

Many of Michael’s family are teachers and when Michael graduated with a fine arts degree in 1982 from Makerere University in Uganda’s capital city, Kampala, he made sure he also studied, in parallel, for a postgraduate diploma in education.

After a brief spell teaching in a girls’ school, Michael registered for a masters degree in fine arts at Makerere.

It was a turbulent time in Uganda with future president Yoweri Museveni fighting to topple the existing regimes. Civil war, often referred to as the Uganda Bush War, raged from 1981 to 1986, when Museveni finally gained power.

By the mid-1980s, Museveni’s National Resistance Army (NRA) had stepped up its harassment of those living in northern Uganda, including the Acholi people to whom Michael belongs.

Against this backdrop, Michael set up a small studio where he planned to exhibit his artwork for assessment by external examiners. Then, during an NRA raid, while Michael was fleeing the troops, he was shot.

“I ran for dear life but was shot through the right scapula and the bullet exited through my right arm-pit,” Michael says.

“They blew up my studio and all my work.

Then they arrested one of my sisters and took her for a wife. She has never been seen again. They left me for dead but I was treated in the bush by sympathisers.”

Michael sought help from Alice Auma ‘Lakwena’, a rebel leader and religious healer and, with her assistance, he and others crossed the border into Kenya where he was promptly imprisoned for trespassing.

Michael, a deeply religious man, also attributes his recovery after being shot to Mrs Lakwena’s healing abilities.

However, thanks to the intervention of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) Michael and many others were released and, in 1988, he

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officially became a refugee in Kenya.

“I started to teach, with a small group of Ugandan refugees, while in the Thika Reception Centre for Refugees, near Nairobi. It was basic communication skills, mathematics and science,” he says.

“It was then that I realised I was destined to be a teacher of refugees, rather than ordinary people.

“To begin with, we used the dining hall for classes but in 1994 Somali refugees started to arrive at Thika and the dining hall was needed to house vulnerable mothers, children and disabled people.”

Michael then moved to Ifo refugee camp, in Kenya’s Garissa County, near the border with Somalia. There are five UNHCR camps in the region providing refuge to more than 300,000 people – making it one the world’s largest refugee complexes.

When he arrived, Michael wasted no time in working with others to organise and staff a technical secondary school, an adult literacy centre and five primary schools.

“The subjects taught in camp included English, mathematics, science, domestic science, Islam and Christianity, plus Somali and Sudanese languages, physical education and, latterly, peace education,” Michael says.

The learners range in age from four to 27 years old. The technical secondary used to offer subjects such as carpentry and masonry, but this was closed down when the curriculum was changed to match the Kenyan curriculum in 1997.

Funding and resources for schools have been provided by a range of Kenyan and foreign aid charities and agencies, such as the UNHCR, and, over the years, this has allowed Michael to identify, recruit and train teachers to help with the work at Ifo 1 and 2 and neighbouring camps.

But money is tight and there is a lot that needs doing. Michael, 56, says he has never earned more than $100 a month in his teaching career, during which he has been head teacher of a primary school in Ifo 1 camp, principal of Ifo 1 secondary school and a quality assurance and standards officer for all the Ifo schools.

Michael currently teaches at Mwangaza Primary School at Ifo 2 Camp. Almost 3,000 children attend the school in classes that can number more than 100 pupils each.

“There are serious financial constraints.

Five Kenyan teachers, 18 school meals programme monitors and six assistant education officer posts have been lost along with a key resource teacher,” he says.

“The remainder of us work in managerial and teaching roles at Ifo 2 camp. I’m teaching two different standards of English and creative art.

“A classroom block in another primary school collapsed in January and the school has been given the option of sending the learners home or merging with Mwangaza.”

Life in the refugee camps is necessarily self-contained: while the Kenyan state has supported the camps over the years, refugees are not allowed outside the camps and cannot study in Kenyan schools.

In short, if it wasn’t for Michael and his fellow teachers, refugees would receive little or no education.

He stresses that education is important,

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Robert Ocan Leomoi

https://set.et-foundation.co.uk

not just because of the opportunities for employment and progression it offers – as it does around the world – but that education is vital to help refugees regain a degree of normalcy in an environment that can present the young, especially, with opportunities for lawless and destructive behaviour.

“Schools and education help curb banditry, drug abuse, rape, early marriage and burglary,” he says.

Teaching there is not without challenges.

Those who attend Koranic schools can, Michael says, have negative attitudes towards Christians. Caste structures can also create issues in terms of ‘high status’ pupils refusing to help out with school chores.

“In 2001, a pupil hit a teacher with a stone from behind because she was wearing a dress with a slit that exposed her knees.

“Teachers have been ambushed on the way home by parents who do not want their child punished. We report all such cases to the Kenyan police.

“I have been threatened many times, but I have lived in refugee camps for 30 years,

20 of which have been in this region of Kenya. Life goes on,” says Michael.

A system of school prefects is used to help keep order and school committee members are trained in how to spot potential issues before they develop into problems. In addition, guidance and counselling is offered to pupils and parents by teachers.

Training and professional updating can be challenging for camp teachers but Michael is adamant it is necessary.

“In 2008 I bargained for teachers’ training through the Italian non-governmental organisation, AVSI. And it liaised with Mount Kenya University and trained at least 300 refugee camp teachers,” he says.

“Before that I offered training to camp teachers. There are many training modules brought into camp by agencies and I share these with my teachers.”

For Michael, all the challenges of teaching in refugee camps are outweighed by the successes of his students, past and present.

“I have seen how learners change. Former pupils have gone on to university and have secured work as economists or engineers.

One is now working in the US diplomatic service in Nairobi,” he says.

“I have a calling to ensure I teach and train morally upright pupils, students and neighbours. I am a workaholic and wake up at 4am every day to plan my work. When I reach Mwangaza, there isn’t often the time to plan – only to implement!”

Over the years Michael has contemplated working in a mainstream Kenyan school and he considered becoming a teacher educator.

But, as a refugee, he has always been aware of an undercurrent of xenophobia.

“I think ‘better the devil you know’. When my learners in Mwangaza graduate with flying colours then I will retire happy. My mother retired after 38 years in teaching, so that is my yardstick!”

Always looking for the next project, Michael is planning to do an online masters course in refugee-related disciplines.

At the time I spoke with Michael, he was also one of 50 teachers from around the world selected as finalists in the Global Teacher Prize, run by the Varkey Foundation, the winner of which is due to be announced in Dubai in March. The award’s $1,000,000 first prize could change his personal life forever. But would it?

“I would buy a 38-seater minibus for the teachers of Ifo 2 to use for getting to and from school. Each teacher spends between 25 per cent and 50 per cent of their monthly pay, which is £45 to £55 depending on experience, on transport,” Michael says.

“Teachers also go without meals during the school day, which is typically 7.30am until 5pm. They receive only receive three kilos of assorted food per month. I will not turn a blind eye to that. I would also renovate all the classrooms in Ifo 2. Many are temporary structures and the one that collapsed recently narrowly missed children.

“Then, girls need school uniforms and also sanitary towels to allow them to stay in school when they are menstruating. I would also buy textbooks and games equipment.

“And I would recruit the camp staff that are being made redundant: a situation that is leaving families in a state of destitution.”

It is safe to assume, then, that the answer to the question is: ‘no, the prize money wouldn’t change Michael’.

But clearly, money like that could make a huge difference to the teachers, pupils and other inhabitants of Ifo 2 camp.

• The refugee camps in which Michael works feature in a new book, City of Thorns, which recently featured as Radio 4’s Book of the Week www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b070pbb0 www.globalteacherprize.org

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IStock Redrockschool

Functional Skills are the most popular qualifications after GCSEs. Now, teachers and practitioners have a once-in-a-generation chance to shape the future of these crucial qualifications. Peter Rook reports

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Five years on from the launch of Functional Skills (FS) qualifications, a major consultation is seeking the views of teachers, trainers, learners and employers on how to improve delivery and content for maths and English.

The review, undertaken by the Education and Training Foundation (ETF) on behalf of the government, will result in a revised set of National Adult Literacy and Numeracy Standards.

The ETF conducted an extensive review in 2014-15, chaired by Professor Ed Sallis, which resulted in the report Making Maths and English Work for All, published in March 2015. The Sallis report said that

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Have your say SET members consultation event announced for 2 March Based on detailed consultations and research in 2015 the Education and Training Foundation is embarking on a set of further consultations designed to achieve an updated set of Functional Skills standards and qualifications, recognised and valued by employers.

We have organised a dedicated event for SET members as part of the consultation. The event will take place on 2 March at Manchester College.

If you can’t make the event you can still get involved in the consultation. You can find full details on the consultation website: http://goo.gl/u7qpls

while FS maths and English qualifications were recognised and valued by many employers, improvements were required to meet employers’ demands for increased teaching of practical maths and English skills that employees might readily apply in the workplace.

Informed by the evidence in the report, skills minister Nick Boles asked the ETF to develop a programme of reform to update FS English and maths. The ongoing practitioner consultation is the latest phase in this process.

The ETF, working with Pye Tait consulting and the Learning and Work Institute (formerly NIACE), is determined that further

education practitioners have a major input into the wide-ranging consultation, alongside employers, learners and other stakeholders and representative bodies.

Sue Southwood, ETF lead on maths and English, says: “This is an opportunity for practitioners across FE to help shape maths and English teaching and assessment so it’s very important they get involved.”

The ETF’s expert advisory panel will play a major role in the proposed reforms. Its members will provide independent advice from different perspectives, bringing their varied expertise and knowledge to bear.

One panellist, Jill Stokoe, education policy advisor at the Association of Teachers and

Lecturers (ATL), urged members of the Society for Education and Training and the ATL to get involved in the consultation.

“The problem is one of credibility.

The government keeps calling FS a stepping stone. It gives the wrong impression and devalues it,” she says.

“Many industry practitioners say they are more valuable than GCSEs.” Among the biggest barriers to the improvement of FS teaching and learning is a shortage of trained and qualified teachers – particularly in maths.

Norma Honey, director of the National Centre for Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics (NCTEM) says: “The number of students requiring level 2 maths has gone up significantly.

“But colleges don’t have the capacity.

We have got to look at getting people into teaching as quickly as we can.

“When we are in a crisis, we need several routes open, and we are in a crisis.”

Honey has been working with the ETF on the Maths Enhancement Programme, which has supported more than 2,000 teachers to become competent and confident teachers of FS maths.

She also praises the Maths Teacher Recruitment Incentive programme, which has resulted in more than 250 teachers who would not otherwise have been in maths teaching. “These programmes are great but they are the initial stages of training and we must continue to provide in-house support and invest in additional continuing professional development,” she says.

The assessment process for FS numeracy is ripe for revision, Honey says.

“The contextualised, wordy questions bring issues with learners who may have a literacy issues. Can they interpret the questions and can they read them quickly enough? There is no silver-bullet answer, but it is something that needs looking at.”

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Honey also admits to a “personal bugbear” over the way the initial diagnostics are carried out.

She explains: “Currently, 16-year-olds have six weeks off over the summer. Then they come back into education and are pushed into a room with computers to do the test when they last did maths in June. Is that test reliable?

“Students, who may have a C at GCSE, are labelled ‘entry level’, which has a huge effect on their confidence. We should get them into groups for the first couple of weeks doing activities before carrying out the test.”

The challenges facing FS English learning and teaching are hardly any less challenging than those in maths, not least because technological developments are changing the way we communicate.

Bob Read, training and development adviser for the Association of Colleges in the Eastern Region (ACER) and a member of ETF’s expert panel, says: “The standards for English were developed in 2001 and need to be updated to reflect the more varied communication tasks and skills required in an increasingly digital workplace.

“Learners will engage more if English has relevant application to their courses.”

Read does not see the need for a major overhaul of FS English after Ofqual added what he called “a bit more rigour, realism and relevance” in 2015.

“There is now greater consistency in the English qualifications across different awarding bodies. It has been tightened up.

It is a case of ‘that’s a good thing and can we have more of it’.”

But Read says there is a still a tension between the functional elements taught in FS and GCSE English. While the GCSE has become more practical or contextualised, narrowing the gap, he believes there is a limit to how contextualised the teaching of English can be made.

He is a big advocate of embedding FS into curriculums but he adds: “Not everything can be embedded. We have to look at what vocational staff can embed.”

Read is also aware that some vocational staff are reluctant to deliver FS English and maths. He believes that, against a backdrop of austerity, some may view the embedding of FS across different vocational disciplines as teaching English and maths on the cheap.

“Only vocational staff know how to fill in a care plan or building plan. We don’t expect them to be an English expert,” he adds.

The Making Maths and English Work for All report concluded that FS were still seen as useful by a vast majority – 87 per cent – of employers who had experience of them.

However, many employers would like to see further improvements.

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About the consultation The consultation, running from January to July 2016, will use online surveys, in-depth interviews, webinars and workshops.

A report will be presented to government at the end of August, with reformed qualifications ready to teach

by September 2018.

The consultation is being carried out

by Pye Tait Consulting in partnership with the Learning and Work Institute with an independent evaluation by ICF Consulting Services.

Josie Guinness of Pye Tait says: “We want teachers and trainers to register their interest at this stage but there will be an opportunity to get stuck in and be involved in the process.”

Online surveys of employers, practitioners and other stakeholders will be supplemented by telephone interviews, workshops and webinars.

To take part in the consultation events you must first register your interest. You will then be contacted in due course.

To register your interest visit www.pyetait.com/fsreform-contact-us Martin Rose, director of maths and English for the British Armed Forces and one of the ETF’s panel of experts, says FS provision, contextualised for the Army, “makes the learning purposeful” and has had “a positive impact on the Army’s literacy and numeracy teaching and learning”.

He says: “It has gained support from tutors, commanders and learners. The shift in emphasis from simply learning how to do something to choosing and using skills to solve problems underpins the practical approach embodied in military training and complements the soldiers’ day-to-day work.

“Learners are less likely to respond enthusiastically to provision that they perceive is not directly relevant to their work and careers.

“Access to on-demand assessment with short registration and marking turnround times are especially attractive to the Army and far more suitable for the Army’s intensive training regimes.”

He adds: “Promoting the marketable status of these qualifications is now essential. For this reason, this review is most welcome.”

Lesley Roberts, national education manager at McDonalds and a fellow panel member, believes there is room for greater contextualisation.

“Our apprentices need contextualised English and maths skills training which will enable them to understand and use vocabulary used in the business,” she says.

“My main concern regarding FS currently is that it is generic and not contextualised to the learner’s working environment.

“This causes barriers for learners who do not have the necessary reasoning skills to take, for example, a generic calculation task and be able to understand how the skill that is involved can be applied in their job.

“This can lead to disengagement as the connection between the generic question and their role is difficult for them to apply.”

Toby Swift, a countryside lecturer at Abingdon and Witney College, has a wealth of experience dating back to Key Skills delivery and is just the type of teacher the review is looking for.

He believes that, if done properly, “FS is basically a sound curriculum and just needs some adjustment,” he says.

“The problem is that FS is only designated an hour a week. Given two onehour slots a week, like GCSE, it would have the same status,” says Swift.

The lecturer, who delivers FS maths and English from E1 to L2 at the college, says there should also be clearer delineation between entry level 1, 2 and 3.

“Let’s ensure the programme is valid and does something a degree more complex,” he says. “A lot of E1, E2 and E3 is very basic and with level 1 the complexity goes up a bit. It just needs a bit of tweaking.”

Swift also reiterates the point made by Norma Honey of NCTEM. “The literacy element in FS maths can be a barrier to some students. I know we have learning support assistants who are allowed to read and act as scribes but that puts a strain on college resources as some classes can have many students with literacy issues.”

He also believes there is scope for a level 3 FS maths. “Level 2 has elements of GCSE but is more life-based. We could take it to level 3 in areas like engineering.”

Peter Rook is a freelance journalist and journalism lecturer at University Centre Peterborough, part of Peterborough Regional College

Resources Making Maths and English Work for All: http://goo.gl/slaoMd Toby Swift’s personal story: http://goo.gl/AXRuCV Foundation Online Learning: http://goo.gl/Gzbzw2 Contact your regional specialist lead: http://goo.gl/ZPdmwy English pipeline resources: http://goo.gl/xOTFTW Maths pipeline resources: http://goo.gl/nieFDX Core maths training programme: http://goo.gl/yjE55Q

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Me&my

tutor Derwentside College apprentice Reece Taylor was named Student of the Year for 2015 by the Association of Colleges.

Here, Reece and his tutor Steve Chambers talk about what makes them tick

Reece Taylor: I left school with no qualifications but, from day one of entering the welding department at Derwentside College, I knew it was for me. The tutors offered great support and treated me like a grown up. I also found something I was passionate about and wanted to do well in.

Steve and another tutor, John Teasdale, saw my talent and really pushed me to succeed. Steve was willing to put in the extra time to support me and we have a real bond now. I was over the moon when I secured my apprenticeship at Dyer Engineering.

I think a great tutor can make all the difference in how well you do in your chosen career and Steve and John have been there for me all the way.

It was a huge honour to be selected to represent the UK at WorldSkills São Paulo 2015 and winning a Medallion of Excellence was fantastic. I didn’t think things could get any better, but then to be named as the AoC’s Student of The Year was unbelievable.

To top it all, when I got back from Brazil, I asked my girlfriend to marry me, so we are now planning a wedding and catching up on family time after all the pressure of WorldSkills.

I would like to return to Derwentside on a voluntary basis as a mentor to any student who shows a similar ability and ambition to enter training towards future WorldSkills events. And I would love to become a tutor in the future and give back some of the knowledge I’ve gained.

Steve Chambers: It was obvious from a very early stage that Reece had a natural flair for welding. Teaching such a student, who was always ahead of the programme, enabled me to challenge his ability even further and allowed him to show what he was really capable of achieving. The aim is always to stretch and challenge the student to achieve their very best.

I’m a time-served welder, formally coded to many standards in various processes and materials. I also have a lot of fabrication experience. Although I’ve been teaching for 17 years now, I still consider myself to be a welder first and foremost.

I’m a member of the Welding Institute and regularly attend meetings and conferences within the industry. I also have a caseload of apprentices who I visit in the workplace to carry out assessments and reviews. This also helps keep me in touch with local businesses and up to speed with the latest developments.

I thoroughly enjoy the hands-on workshops with my students, which allows them to bring the teaching theory from the classroom to life. I think my enthusiasm for this vocation is picked up by the students as we work together.

If a student knows that the lecturer is genuine and has real industry experience, they respect your judgement and want to listen to your advice and instruction. Fostering that mutual respect is an integral part of a lecturer’s role.

One or two students from the September intake are already showing real promise and, who knows, they might represent the UK at a future WorldSkills final!

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 Skill (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.

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Research

Derby College’s NQTs may hold the secret to outstanding teacher training

By Roberta Hall and Melanie Lanser Derby College’s 2014 cohort of newly qualified teachers were all judged as grade 2 or outstanding – so why not use them to inspire and develop the next generation of trainees?

Our newly qualified trainees of 2014 all finished our in-service Cert Ed/PGCE with a grade 2 or better and 30 per cent of them were graded as outstanding.

They were recognised as innovative, inspiring and seen as ‘risk takers’.

They were also eager to share their enthusiasm with their peers.

With this in mind we looked at how we could use our newly qualified teachers (NQTs) and their journey of innovation, confidence and their willingness to take risks and use this to inspire and develop a new generation of innovative and confident trainees.

The result was that we bid successfully for in-house scholarly research funding, which enabled our outstanding ‘Class of 2014’ to develop as a specific community of practice that was dedicated to inspiring current and future trainees.

We evaluated the new and creative teaching and learning methodologies by interviewing these NQTs and observing their professional practice. This enabled us to identify specific individuals who could form the community of practice to take the initiative forward.

Those identified were passionate in sharing and modelling good practice with current trainees. This resulted in a showcase event in March 2015 of outstanding teaching and learning strategies. This allowed the NQTs, their mentors and teachers to share and promote ideas and resources – including technology-enhanced learning – to improve teaching and learning.

A range of initiatives developed from this event, including: embedding QR codes and other technological applications in teaching and learning; silent debates (where learners express and contend ideas in writing at tables with no talking allowed); and innovative strategies to develop learning

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opportunities for maths and English in work-based learning.

Our trainee teachers were clearly inspired by the approach. In observations, we recognised a greater desire to try something new in their practice; in short, to take risks. There was evidence of a greater degree of critical engagement and an understanding that risk-taking is important for new teachers as they journey into their own professional careers.

The sharing of good practice is fundamental to supporting continuing professional development (CPD) for both newly-qualified teachers as well as more experienced practitioners.

And, by utilising our NQTs and involving them in a community that specifically looked to enhance pedagogic experience, we were able to encourage our trainees to realistically, confidently and critically review their own professional practice and continually develop it.

Our class of 2014 inspired our class of 2015 and it has now taken up the mantle of inspiring our class of 2016.

Seven of our 2015 NQTs are now working with our current trainees to support, inspire and promote innovation, following a successful bid to the Education and Training Foundation. All bring a specific expertise to the group. The project will lead to work-shadowing opportunities so that our trainees can extend their scope of professional practice.

The impact of the project on our 2015 NQTs has been very positive: 33 per cent of our 2015 trainees exited as outstanding and the rest as good. Many of them already enjoy enhanced teaching roles in the sector.

We have developed a model of selfsustaining communities of practice where,

by tapping into the outstanding practice, enthusiasm and innovative approaches of our NQTs, we can inspire and support each succeeding cohort of trainees to develop as outstanding teachers.

This approach helps foster a culture of risk-taking and CPD within the pedagogic experience and, above all, it builds confidence in our new teachers so that they, in turn, can go forward and inspire others.

A number of our trainees are undertaking Qualified Teacher Learning and Skills (QTLS) and QTLS is embedded in the programme as are the Professional Standards 2014.

References • Avis, J., Orr, K., and Tummons, J. (2010) Theorising the work-based learning of teachers cited in Avis, J., Fisher, R. and Thompson, R (eds) Teaching in Lifelong Learning. Maidenhead; Open University Press • Fuller, A., Hodkinson, H., Hodkinson, P. and Unwin, L. (2005) Learning as peripheral participation in communities of practice: a reassessment of key concepts in workplace learning. British Educational Research Journal, 31, 49-68 • Iredale, A., Orr, K., Bailey, W. and Wormald, J., (2013) Confidence, risk and the journey into praxis: work based-learning and teacher development, Journal of Education for Teaching 39:2, 197-208

Roberta Hall is a lecturer in teacher education at Derby College and

Melanie Lanser is team manager

at the Teacher Training Academy at Derby College. Derby College’s teacher training, delivered in partnership with the University of Derby, was rated outstanding by Ofsted in December 2015.

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Unfolding the arms – the FAB project

By Alison Longden, Tom Monaghan and Lou Mycroft Northern College’s roadmap for digital resilience was the result of practitioner-led research into the barriers faced by those tech-resistant educators known as ‘the folded-arms brigade’ Our experience as teacher educators at Northern College brought us into contact with teachers resistant to engaging with technology.

In this ‘FELTAG age’ (following the publication of the Further Education Learning Technology Action Group report of October 2013), we wanted to understand this resistance and so, last year, with the support of the Education and Training Foundation (ETF) and the East Midlands Centre for Excellence in Teacher Training (EMCETT), we undertook a smallscale practitioner-led research project.

Tech-resistant educators soon became known to us as the ‘folded-arms brigade’ because some (although by no means all) literally did fold their arms when anything digital was spoken about. The FAB Project, as it became known colloquially, aimed to work with a small number of the digitally resistant, to try to get to the bottom of what was holding them back.

Our aim was to understand the steps we can take to settle educators such as these into digital residency (and so unfold their arms).

We chose to carry out interviews in a ‘thinking environment’, based on the work of Nancy Kline (2009). Each participant was asked the question: ‘What are you assuming that is stopping you becoming more confident with using tech?’ And then we listened.

The notion of digital resilience, where learning to do one thing strengthens confidence (and neurological pathways) when it comes to learning the next thing, was the golden thread running throughout the research.

What we found were themes of self-limiting assumptions presenting as both resistance and barriers to the use of tech, the most powerful of which was ‘imposter syndrome’ (Brookfield, 1995). In addition, four themes emerged that gave us clues about how to achieve digital resilience: first principles, purpose, support and fluency.

Fluency, as defined by the respondents, is about having the chance to practise to a level of mastery which is enough to banish the ‘imposter’. It is also about having the autonomy to use technology when they judge it to be for the benefit of their students or themselves (i.e. purpose).

Pedagogy is paramount. Participants felt bewildered, patronised (and other negative emotions) by formal and informal support, giving no positive examples of ICT training.

The final theme – first principles – connects with support and fluency and simply refers to the fact that all but one of the respondents felt they were missing the basics (examples cited included hardware, storage and the language of technology).

They felt that until they gained a more fundamental understanding of what we called first principles, there was no way their digital resilience could develop.

At Northern College we are now implementing the model of digital resilience on our TeachNorthern Teacher Education programme, through the provision of digital-resilience training, with an acknowledgement that one size certainly does not fit all. And, thanks to the support of ETF and the University of Sunderland Centre for Excellence in Teacher Training (SUNCETT), we will be evaluating the impact of this intervention this year.

With more than 200 students on our values-led, social purpose education programme, digital nurses (tutors who provide bespoke online and/or face-to-face support in a manner that does not patronise) have been busy describing processes (first principles) and explaining why (purpose).

Support is ongoing, particularly via Yammer, which is the first process we encourage fluency in. In addition, planned and unplanned rhizomatic ‘tech’ sessions are taking place. We use the metaphor of the rhizome to represent the pop-up nature of

the session with content determined by what is needed by the individuals present.

But none of these will lead to digital resilience if we get the line between spoonfeeding and self-efficacy wrong.

Recent observations of passive language such as: “it won’t let me in,” and “the site’s not working” has led us, as digital nurses, to suggest reframing language to: “I can’t get in,” or “I can’t figure out how to get into the site.”

There’s something about this active phrasing that communicates to the brain that solving it is in our hands; encouraging us to plough on through – collectively supported – developing our digital resilience as we go.

The research project was supported by the Education and Training Foundation’s Research Development Fellowship practitioner research programme.

References • Brookfield, S.J. (1995) Becoming a Critically Reflective Teacher.

San Francisco. Jossey-Bass.

• Further Education Learning Technology Action Group (FELTAG) (2013) Paths forward to a digital future for Further Education and Skills.

• Kline, N. (2009) More Time to Think.

Burley-in-Wharfedale. Fisher King.

• For more about the Thinking Environment see the TeachNorthern blog: https://goo.gl/hz202N • Time to Think (the Thinking Environment network): www.timetothink.com • The Unfolding the Arms Project 2015: https://goo.gl/32DMcj

Alison Longden, Tom Monaghan and Lou Mycroft are teacher educators at Northern College Follow on Twitter: Alison – @ali_longden; Tom – @plookit; Lou – @TeachNorthern

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Context is key, says NFER’s review of technical education

By Tami McCrone A recent National Foundation for Educational Research report highlights what technical and vocational education should look like and how it can be understood and applied The importance of technical and vocational education has been the subject of much recent commentary.

Bodies such as the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the Association of Colleges (AoC) have long called for improvements in these important areas of education and training, citing fears that to neglect them would place Britain’s productivity and competitiveness at risk globally.

But what technical education should look like has been open to debate. To date, there has been little research on what form it should take and there has been a tendency to define it within the context of vocational learning, rather than as a distinct entity.

The National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) report A Review of Technical Education, published at the end of 2015, examines what makes good learning and teaching in this area, and highlights a number of key points.

Good vocational and technical education, the report said, shares key characteristics with other forms of quality teaching and learning. It needs to encompass, among other things, purposeful and stimulating learning; a culture of aspiration and achievement; an environment conducive to learning; appropriate learning support; and interactive approaches to teaching.

And, in addition to being open to innovative approaches, teachers also need strong subject knowledge and confidence in their ability to impart this to learners.

However, what was absolutely key was the importance of contextualising the learning and teaching in the selected area of work or occupation on which the course concentrates.

This means the course content and the teaching approaches need to support the recontextualisation of learning for the learner in their chosen field of work.

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The literature also suggested that vocational and technical learning requires sequencing of learning to enable learners to process information more easily.

Learners benefited most from being taught by people who combined professional with pedagogical expertise in an industrystandard setting.

With this in mind, the NFER has developed a model, presented in the form of a layered, or ‘onion’, diagram (see link to report below), to show how technical teaching and learning can be better understood and applied.

At the core of the layers is the learner as the primary recipient and beneficiary of teaching and learning. The next ring shows the characteristics and traits of good quality learning in general, which are acquired during students’ secondary education to ensure progression to more specialised technical or vocational learning later. This includes a personalised and flexible approach to study, using innovative approaches; establishing a good rapport between learner and teacher and a purposeful and stimulating environment.

The outer layer represents the characteristics of technical and vocational education specifically, and outlines aspects such as meeting the diverse needs of learners; access to industrystandard facilities and resources; contextualisation; sequencing of learning; communities of practice; and employer engagement. Learners should be able to see how their studies have an impact on the development of skills for the workplace and distinguish clear pathways towards higher-level learning.

The report concludes that further education colleges, as one of the main providers of technical education, are best-placed to take its development forward.

To achieve this, they say, the AoC could audit its members to find out how much

capacity and capability there is to deliver technical education at Levels 3, 4 and 5, and to undertake to share good practice in this area.

The organisation should also lead discussions on the continuous professional development of staff so they have up-to-date knowledge and skills in their specific areas.

The report says: “It is crucially important that teachers/trainers and/or institutions have time to build and maintain on-going relationships with employers and sector bodies. This enables teachers and trainers to be part of a community of practice where pedagogy fits with workplace practices.”

Furthermore, there is a need to develop a more detailed understanding of technical education teaching and learning to help the further education sector to “meet the growing technical education challenge”.

• The Association of Colleges commissioned the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) to undertake a rapid literature review in order to identify the key characteristics and essential elements of teaching and learning in technical and vocational education.

This small-scale review was carried out between July and September 2015.

Tami McCrone is a senior research manager at the National Foundation for Educational Research and one of the authors of the report The full report is available at www.nfer. ac.uk/publications/AOCT01/AOCT01_ home.cfm

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CableCom Training’s action research journey

By Catherine Cox As part of several action-research projects, CableCom, a small private training provider, used Smart Assessor to improve the functional skills of its apprentices with impressive results What progress has the learner made in Functional Skills and the BTEC qualification? What system can we use so learners and tutors can access teaching and learning resources remotely? And why can’t we recruit a maths tutor?

These were some of the questions that CableCom Training faced when working nationally with apprentices.

CableCom Training is a small private training provider based in Stockton-OnTees with training centres in Gateshead and Leeds. It delivers training in telecommunications, employability and Functional Skills to apprentices and unemployed adults in all three centres.

Two key staff members are involved in the delivery of the apprenticeship and they had encountered a number of obstacles when trying to deliver the framework to learners across a wide geographical base.

CableCom first became involved with the Education and Training Foundation (ETF) in 2014 when tutors undertook some peer-led action research to develop tutor assessment and feedback practice to learners.

As a result of this action research, our tutors developed different ways to test learners’ understanding of a topic or concept and created new resources such as a slide rule to teach the concept of very high- and very low-value numbers.

for units and give feedback on completed tasks. It also has a ‘Smart Room’ function.

The action research project for embedding maths took place in the Leeds training centre and a group of learners undertook a task called ‘Developing, planning and implementing a project’.

This task allowed learners to embed the full range of Functional Skills as they had to use IT, basic calculations and report writing skills to meet the unit task requirements.

Learners reported increased confidence in their writing and calculating skills.

The impact of using Smart Assessor threw up a range of considerations for us.

Learners reported some difficulties in using the site (some found the ordering of tasks for uploading work and signing it off confusing) and, as a result, staff are developing a step-by-step guide on how to upload evidence onto the system, access resources and sign off work.

Use of the system has also resulted in reduced face-to-face visits with apprentices as the Smart Room function was used to record evidence for the speaking and listening element for those learners who were unable to attend the Functional Skills block release week.

The system was able to track learners’ progress against each qualification and the overall apprenticeship and allow more effective monitoring of progress.

More recently, in 2015, CableCom took part in several ETF action research projects, including embedding maths, the impact of using an e-portfolio on monitoring apprentices’ progress and the use of technology in teaching maths and English for apprentices.

Our research on the use of technology in teaching maths and English looked at ways in which learners access online resources to complete their initial and diagnostic assessments as well as how they accessed interactive online resources in preparation for their Functional Skills exams.

The e-portfolio system used was Smart Assessor, which allows learners to upload evidence and tutors to upload resources

The most effective approach proved to be guiding learners through their assessments by giving them deadlines by which they had

to have completed the interactive resources and an exam date arranged to coincide with the completion of those resources. One learner in the case study who accessed the interactive resources scored full marks for his writing exam.

Functional Skills block release weeks still form an integral part of the delivery model for apprentices at CableCom Training, but podcasts have now been recorded for those learners who can’t always attend them. This allows learners access to all the resources and tasks they have to complete to meet the interpersonal and written communication unit requirements.

From modest beginnings of 10 telecommunication apprentices accessing the Smart Assessor system we now have 86 apprentices across a range of curriculum areas including business administration, providing security services, IT and rail infrastructure.

CableCom would like to further develop resources for learners to access a wider range of resources and assessment methods. Ultimately, the vision is to get all learners and tutors in CableCom using the Smart Assessor system and move to a paperless system.

• CableCom’s initial research was undertaken with the support of the Education and Training Foundation’s Research Development Fellowship practitioner research programme.

CableCom’s research poster: http://practitionerledactionresearch. com/technology

Catherine Cox is Functional Skills coordinator at CableCom Training www.smartassessor.co.uk

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ResearchDigest An ethos of high performance

The Skills Academy at City of Glasgow College was established in 2013 to equip students with the ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ skills they need to enter the world of work and engage with lifelong learning.

Our purpose is to provide sustained, high-level teaching strategies, including coaching and mentoring, to support the delivery and development of professional and technical skills, while inspiring and motivating our students.

We are committed to an ethos of high-performance – equipping our learners with the skills they need to get a job, keep a job and get a better job. Gaining a college qualification is seen as an essential by-product.

Working in close partnership with employers, experiential skills models are put in place at each stage of the learner journey, exposing the individual to excellence of practice and professional and technical skills.

Regular competitions and masterclasses are organised.

Pre-entry selection competitions take place to allow us to select ‘best-fit’ individuals for annual regional competitions.

Masterclasses are rolled out to all staff, showcasing the use of the latest teaching and learning resources, helping to share new techniques, methodologies and skills with

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all practitioners. Cross-college projects, involving projectbased learning across several skills areas, are also supported.

The academy builds on the college’s success in national and international WorldSkills competitions; enabling us to transfer our knowledge of teaching, coaching and preparation for competition to teachers and learners across the college.

At the UK Skills Show in November 2015, City of Glasgow College topped the WorldSkills UK national league table with a haul of nine medals, including five golds.

At international level, six of our students secured places in Squad UK for Abu Dhabi 2017.

In the three years since we became involved in WorldSkills, we have seen a 300 per cent improvement in the number of regional medals won. The number of skills areas in which we compete has quadrupled.

Inclusive skills competitions, involving students with learning disabilities and difficulties, are also integrated into our skills portfolio across the college and college students received two highly commended medals at the UK Skills Show 2015. We intend to increase the number and range of inclusive skills competitions.

Quantitative and qualitative

Find a Future

City of Glasgow College, arguably the most successful UK college in terms of WorldSkills competitions, has harnessed the knowledge this has brought to improve learning outcomes for all, says Margaret Darroch

feedback demonstrate that experiential skills models are powerful developmental tools that meet the requirements of Scotland’s Curriculum for Excellence by enhancing the performance of the individual, teacher and the wider learning community.

Take these two comments from students, for example: “An invaluable experience where I got the chance to work with a wide range of trainers to improve my skills and confidence with amazing support from the college.”

“WorldSkills has changed my life! It’s taught me to trust in my ability, take ownership and has helped me develop my confidence immensely.”

Furthermore, the accredited

continuing professional development programme supports career-long professional learning for teachers and trainers and facilitates the move from restricted to extended professional.

This is making a significant difference for our teachers who recognise benefits including enhanced skills, expertise and aspirations, which they bring back into all their classrooms.

Cross-fertilisation and sharing of good practice, curriculum alignment, peer review, increased motivation, a cohesive and re-energised team and development of collaborative practice within and outside the learning community are also encouraged.

Lecturers have made the

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following observations: “My teaching has become more practically focused. I now think more about the different personalities of my candidates in relation to my own, which in turn makes me think more about the way I teach.”

“Cross-faculty learning and engagement has been great, I look forward to more projectbased learning and teaching opportunities.”

Our employer partners too have recognised that our teaching and learning are more attuned to the needs of industry.

As Ross Sneddon, executive pastry chef at Rocco Forte, said: “What you are doing isn’t happening anywhere else. We are able to approach you for students who are work ready. They can deal with work pressures and take responsibility.”

For more details, see: http://goo.gl/ZpCWR5 Margaret Darroch is head of Skills Academy and development at City of Glasgow College Contact Margaret Darroch, for more information and access to resources margaret.darroch@cityof glasgowcollege.ac.uk

Post-16 education criticised by OECD

Research workshops online

Nine million working-age adults in England have low literacy or numeracy skills, or both. This is the finding of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) from the 2013 Survey of Adult Skills, writes Sandra McNally.

It is shocking. The nine million people (25 per cent of the working-age population) struggle with basic quantitative reasoning or have difficulty with simple written information. The problem is worse among young people (16-34 year olds), unlike the situation in most other countries.

The level of poor basic skills is at its worst for those with low levels of qualifications. However, even people with a university degree can have poor basic skills – about 7 per cent.

What can be done? The priority (according to the OECD) is to improve the standard of basic schooling in England. And, as usual, the post-16 system of education is commented upon for all the wrong reasons.

The OECD says that “if the English education system were to be designed from scratch on a blank sheet of paper, it would be unlikely to include an awkward programmatic and institutional break point at age 16…. in a context where the OECD norm

Videos of research material presented at the second Education and Training Foundation Research Conference are now available online and free to all further education practitioners.

Presentations from the conference, held in July 2015 at the Mary Ward Centre, London, showcase work undertaken by practitioners across FE and training as part of the Foundation’s practitioner research support programmes.

The presentations are sorted into broad categories including: technology; professional development; maths and ESOL; curriculum; professionalism and offender learning. There are a number of workshop video presentations in each category and most come with additional reports and resources.

The practitioner-led programmes started in 2009 and have supported around 400 practitioners and their research projects. Materials from past projects can be found at www. excellencegateway.org.uk using the practitioner research filter in the ‘Discover resources’ search box.

(embraced by England) is for initial education and training to continue until 18 at least.”

The report suggests either a radical solution – replacing GCSEs with an English Baccalaureate at age 18 – or continuity with GCSEs at age 16 but stronger options at age 18.

In either case, there needs to be strengthened expectations of what should be achieved at the end of the 16-19 phase of education. Perhaps most controversially, the report recommends that those with low basic skills should be “diverted” from university.

It says that “such alternatives need further development in England” and it recommends that resources should be diverted from university to the further education sector to support this.

My main take-away from the report is that better ladders are needed between the ages of 16 and 18 such that more people are equipped with the skills and credentials to make appropriate choices later on.

Sandra McNally is professor of economics at the University of Surrey and director of the Centre for Vocational Education Research (CVER) at the London School of Economics

To view presentations from the research conference visit http://goo.gl/kseU88

EXCELLENCE GATEWAY This month’s featured resources on the Excellence Gateway include: a strategic guide for the delivery of GCSE maths and English to the 16-19 cohort and videos on supporting maths post 16. They are a tiny fraction of the research and resources available through the gateway which allows you to browse by theme, subject, audience, sector, resource type and subject level. www.excellencegateway.org.uk

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InPractice

Jim Poyner

Some classrooms may be far removed from industry, but not at Middlesbrough College

Academic success stems from a refined atmosphere It’s not every college that has an oil refinery on site. But then Middlesbrough College’s STEM Centre is no ordinary teaching and learning environment, as Ian Hamilton reports If you want to see a vocational training facility that’s as far away from ‘chalk and talk’ as you can get, then you could do worse than visit Middlesbrough College’s STEM Training Centre.

The £20m centre for science, technology, engineering and mathematics opened in September 2015 with the aim of plugging Teesside industries’ skills gap and it is certainly true to its strapline: Training by Industry for Industry.

Some aspects of teaching and learning at the centre will be familiar to most teachers and trainers working in further education. Management sets the priorities and direction, monitors quality and appoints staff, while work-schemes and lesson plans are written or adapted, then delivered by trainers to meet the needs of their students.

Other aspects will be far less familiar.

The centre’s management team comprises an advisory board made up of more than 40 Tees Valley companies from the process, manufacturing and logistics sectors.

Furthermore, none of the centre’s teachers has an education background.

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Centre director, Ian Smith explains: “When we were looking for staff, we went out to industry and found people with industrial experience and trained them to be trainers and assessors.

“We took them through train-the-trainer and assessor courses, which gave them the basics. Then, depending on their trade, they either go down the academic teacher-training route and do a Certificate in Education or stick with train the trainer, depending on what’s appropriate.”

Training industry professionals to teach reflects the college’s and the centre’s commitment to being led, not just advised, by employers.

Then there is the learning experience the centre offers students. Entering the centre is like stepping onto an industrial site rather than walking through the doors of a college.

“The first thing students do is a site induction. We go through health and safety procedures with them just like an industrial site. After that, they get a pass and are allowed into the operational areas of the college,” Ian says.

After donning personal protective equipment, all students take a compulsory module in hand-skills, where they are taught how to use tools safely, measure accurately, read an engineering drawing and work within specified tolerances. Jobs are timed and students are continually encouraged to take ownership of their work.

Although all courses have some classroom-based theoretical element, trainers quickly move students onto the practical skills needed in industry. And, while theoretical elements are still tested by pen and paper exams, students must prove their practical competence to pass the course.

Chris Mussard, a technical trainer in industrial processes, says this approach is critical to students’ employability.

“When I was offshore with BP, there were people who, despite vast experience, were not deemed ‘competent’, because they didn’t have the right certificates,” he says.

“When I became an NVQ assessor, I got a buzz out of seeing people go from no knowledge to being fully trained and

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‘Learners part of decision-making’ Close collaboration between tutors and learners is key to the outstanding education delivered by Oldham Council’s Lifelong Learning Service, reports Sarah Simons

accredited – and they progressed more quickly as a result.”

Chris emphasises the working relationships he enjoys with his students – something that exists above and beyond the standard teacher-learner dynamic.

Students are treated like industry workers. They work shifts, clocking on at 8am or 2pm. Advanced students even work night shifts on realistic simulations.

This realism carries through to the industry-standard equipment used throughout the STEM Centre. And we are not just talking about spanners here.

Among the most startling pieces of equipment is a 20-feet long, three-phase separator used for dividing components from crude oil, and a distillation column similar to those found on chemical plants.

Students learn how to manage the operation of both using computers in an overlooking control room.

“We train them on simulators in class,” says Ian. “When they are ready, they operate the real separator or the column. Then we introduce problems and they have to put them right by instructing other students to adjust valves on the equipment.”

Some may question the quality of vocational education and training available in the UK, but Middlesbrough College’s STEM Centre proves that providers and employers are working together to deliver state-of-the-art training.

Ian Hamilton is a journalist and trained teacher based in the North East of England

Following an inspection in November 2015, Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council became the first local authority community learning and skills provider to be graded as Outstanding by Ofsted.

It is all the more impressive when one considers that Oldham’s unemployment rate is above the national average and the proportion of young people gaining A* to C at GCSE is below the UK average.

The Lancashire town’s Lifelong Learning Service has six main learning centres, as well as around 60 further settings in community venues, allowing it to help people often described as ‘hard to reach’.

The 2015 Ofsted report states: “Tutors’ outstanding promotion of collaboration, tolerance and mutual respect in the classroom creates an environment in which learners feel welcome, safe and valued.”

Caroline Ballard, senior manager at Oldham’s Lifelong Learning Service, says it is essential to encourage learners to feel they are investing in their own personal learning journey.

“There is reinforcement of how learning is going from the start. It’s to support learners in their lives, so they can see how it’s relevant to them,” she says.

As Ofsted notes: “The vast majority of learners studying Functional Skills pass at their first attempt.” So what are Oldham’s tutors doing differently? The emphasis is on personalisation of learning, which starts with a robust initial skills check where tutors learn about a student’s educational history and future ambitions.

Even in maths, students will undergo a written assessment as so much of the subject is pinned to reading and understanding, before any numeracy is involved.

At this point, tutors are in position to advise the student on an appropriate path for them, whether that’s working initially with ESOL or literacy specialists or moving straight on to a Functional Skills course.

When students join a class their tutor will conduct an in-depth diagnostic test of the student’s work. Then, the tutor and learner will decide together whether to work to a full Functional Skills qualification or if particular areas within the syllabus should be prioritised. Learners are very much a part of the decision making.

Lynda Fairhurst, head of service at Oldham Council’s Lifelong Learning, also credits tutors’ passion and commitment.

“Tutors genuinely care about the learners. They are highly qualified and highly skilled and they know how to bring out the best,” she says.

Teams, including management, aim to get to know all learners, not just the people they teach. This creates a level of familiarity and an accessible support network for learners.

The welcoming approach even extends to exams. The process is kept as informal as regulations allow and, where possible, learners sit their exam where they learn, as going to a familiar building removes a dimension of exam-related stress.

Lynda says: “Learner feedback tells us that whether it’s moving into a job, becoming more effective parents or engaging in their local community, their experience with us has transformed their lives.”

Sarah Simons is a teacher and writer. Sarah runs UKFEchat, an online FE discussion forum. The UKFEchat community meets on Twitter each Thursday at 9pm #ukfechat

Supportive communication improves attendance Retention is an issue across most post-16 learning environments and Oldham Lifelong Learning Service emphasises the importance of attendance, punctuality and keeping in contact with tutors right from induction.

For the first absence the tutor calls the learner straight after class. If the tutor can’t make contact, the business support team will try again. If there is still no response a follow up letter is sent that day, saying: “We missed you at class, let us know you’re okay.”

Supportive communication, rather than a telling off, usually generates a phone call from the student explaining their absence. Most return for the next session.

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InSight

The long arm of police training Flexibility and context are the drivers when it comes to delivering police training and the College of Policing opts for a suite of standards, rather than a one-size-fits-all approach Policing is not getting any easier. Police officers are – variously – social workers, diplomats, community liaison staff, teachers, intelligence gatherers, cybersleuths, criminologists, psychologists, forensic scientists, surveillance professionals, anti-terrorism experts, crowd control specialists, seasoned report writers, and legal eagles. All this in addition to what might be considered as the core policing duty of collaring villains.

And, in response to the growing complexity of policing, police training is becoming more sophisticated and more professional.

The College of Policing was established with government funding in 2012 to set and oversee the standards in practice, training and professional development for police in England and Wales. It also promotes and disseminates information, good practice and research designed to help police officers, and the people who train them, improve their professional practice and develop their careers.

Like the Society for Education and Training – which includes police trainers among its members – the College of Policing is a membership body. It works closely with the 43 police forces in England and Wales, each of which is responsible for training its own recruits. It also works with partners in further and higher education to deliver some aspects of policing-related training.

The college sets standards for training through its Authorised Professional Practice (APP), which covers the standards expected in every area of policing from policing elections to covert operations. Police forces adopt and adapt APP standards as required to meet local policing requirements.

The National Policing Curriculum sets the learning standards for policing roles at all ranks and grades. These standards help to ensure that officers, regardless of where they complete their training, achieve comparable degrees of competence.

This is no easy task, however, given that individual forces have the flexibility to contextualise the standards to suit the specific requirements of policing in their areas and to select appropriate

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methodologies to meet the standards within the resources available.

The college does assess some standards nationally and forces do engage in national quality approval processes, albeit based on self-assessment.

Dawn Adams, training manager in behavioural skills at the College of Policing, explains: “The College provides national policing curricula and learning programme materials and individual police forces pick these up and deliver them at local level, sometimes collaboratively in conjunction with other forces.

“It might be described as patchwork but I don’t see that as a negative term.

It is delivering what is required in a way that suits individual forces. The onus is on individual police forces to ensure their people are competent.”

The training delivered by police forces may vary in relation to certain areas of law, so that forces retain the flexibility to deliver in a way that suits themselves and the local context.

Cathryn O’Donovan, accreditation manager at the college, cites the Dangerous Dogs Act as an example: “Many of the dangerous dog incidents in a force like Greater Manchester Police relate to animals used as personal protection or, perhaps, related to people dealing drugs.

“But, in rural North Yorkshire, more dangerous dog investigations and prosecutions that the police may have to deal with might arise in relation to incidents such as the worrying of livestock.

“The law is the same for both forces but the training required in relation to it may be different. Police training is often highly contextualised,” says Cathryn.

Key to ensuring high-quality training for officers are, of course, the men and women delivering the training. Each police service has a dedicated training team that delivers a range of training courses. However, this is the tip of an iceberg since training will also be provided by experienced officers and specialists either on-site, in training colleges, or on-the-job.

“High quality trainers are the cornerstone

istock John Gomez

By Alan Thomson

of effective learning,” says Dawn.

“The approach we have adopted for the trainers is to have a suite of standards rather than a one-size-fits-all approach. So, in conjunction with the police forces, the College of Policing identified some distinct police training roles and we devised standards for them based on role requirements.”

The Standards for Police Training cover trainers, instructors, tutors, presenters, assessors and internal verifiers. The college also offers a police training-roles learning and development programme, which police forces can be approved to deliver locally for people who want to become trainers or to improve their skills as trainers.

As in further education, police trainers are not required to hold teaching qualifications but they are expected to demonstrate and maintain the levels of competence set out in the standards for police training roles. It is up to individual police forces to monitor trainer competence through assessment.

For forces that deliver the police training-roles learning and development programme locally, there is an opportunity to access the college’s approved centre often a further or higher education provider – and gain teacher/trainer qualifications.

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Online learning meets learners’ needs at Central College Nottingham

By Joanne Shirley

Cathryn says: “If people choose to gain a qualification, it’s a personal decision, but a lot of police trainers have teaching qualifications. There is a recognition that people come into training with extensive knowledge and skillsets and some forces have mapped these to awarding body qualifications such as NVQs. “But there is a broad spectrum of skills involved in police training and we have complex issues around the contextualisation of that training. We encourage people to take their training to the next level, perhaps with a teaching qualification, but no single teaching qualification meets all the requirements of what police forces need to deliver in training.”

Given the ever more complex and fast-changing environments in which police personnel must work – not forgetting changes to policy such as the recently announced direct entry for graduates at inspector level - the business of police training isn’t likely to become simpler any time soon.

• See also Pedagogue, page 34 Alan Thomson is editor of InTuition

Placing learners at the forefront of a Central College Nottingham action research project has led to increased online curriculum delivery, content that is better-aligned to the needs of the students and more support and training for staff.

Between January and March 2015, Central College Nottingham undertook a research project titled ‘Exploring the impact of online learning’. We asked a wide range of students what they wanted from online learning to ensure that all the technology we implemented in future fitted learners’ needs. We didn’t want a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach.

Different types of existing online delivery were explored, in addition to the development of new content. This included interactive content developed in Articulate Storyline, an elearning software package, which included quizzes containing instant marking and feedback and online gaming experiences as a learning tool. The project also provided research work placements for Level 3 IT students.

The response from learners was overwhelmingly positive: 83 per cent of the students surveyed enjoyed undertaking online learning and 85 per cent said the learning was suitable to their style of learning.

We have not only learned more about what our learners want in terms of online content but have also built stronger learning relationships by working with them to develop customised online content.

Last year, we increased online delivery to approximately 10 per cent across most curriculum areas at Central - in line with the recommendation of the Further Education Learning Technology Action Group in 2014.

In addition, BTEC-endorsed online learning is being used in five curriculum areas.

One particular success from the project was that we developed, and then piloted, a health and safety unit for construction to be delivered online. Student feedback was very positive and this unit is now being delivered online this year.

Some teaching staff found it difficult to see how an increase in online learning would enhance teaching. In response, our project team provided further face-to-face and online training for teachers to support them in the delivery of online resources

as well as sharing the positive feedback from learners.

An additional 126 teaching staff have received training to use the college virtual learning environment (VLE). Fully supporting teachers through technological change has helped to significantly improve their confidence and knowledge around learning technologies and approaches.

Central College also worked collaboratively with two partners to undertake research to gain a wide range of data. This included online content development with Street League Nottingham, a charity that helps unemployed 16- to 24-year-olds into work.

Street League wanted to replace a paper-based, employability skills workbook with an engaging online experience, so we developed a virtual interview game, in which the learner creates a character to which they can link their own successes and achievements.

All the students said they enjoyed the learning game with 80 per cent saying that it was ‘better than books’.

Research was also carried out with Confetti Institute of Creative Technologies, Central’s partner for delivering Creative Technology courses. The research suggested that the recent introduction of a VLE at the institute had benefited students and increased achievement.

Our research project ended in March 2015, but roll-out across the college continues.

In September, the college received an Outstanding Teaching, Learning and Assessment Award from the Education and Training Foundation (ETF) and the Association of Colleges in the East Midlands (EMFEC) as part of an ongoing project involving colleges and training providers.

We are now also sharing our knowledge and resources across a wider network in the East Midlands.

Joanne Shirley is head of training and learning technologies at Central College Nottingham.

The resources created as a result of the project can be found at: http://digital.centralnottingham.ac.uk/ colab

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Leading Learning

Research offers comprehensive picture of FE teacher training For the first time, data from the FE Advice Line, Individual Learner Record and the Higher Education Statistics Agency has been collated and analysed, reports Charlynne Pullen When the Education and Training Foundation (ETF) was established in 2013, one of the ambitions for the new organisation was to gain an understanding of the landscape of initial teacher education (ITE) provision.

The FE Advice Line, which began long before 2013, has always supported people who want to teach in further education by talking them through the different qualifications and possibilities for training.

Our hope was to use this knowledge, along with data from the Individual Learner Record (ILR) and the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA), to report on the provision available, the characteristics of learners, and the destinations of those learners.

This data has not previously been collated, analysed and presented in this way, so there has never before been such a comprehensive picture of FE teacher training.

In July 2015, we published the first report on ITE, which told us that the average age of a trainee teacher was 38, and that most FE teacher training courses are completed part-time. For many, the report simply confirmed their anecdotally based views, but it gave the ETF a firm evidence base on which to inform its policy-making.

The new report, which will be published shortly, suggests that, with respect to qualifications awarded in 2013/14, the picture of ITE remains similar to that contained in the previous year’s report.

Just over two-thirds (68 per cent) of the courses are delivered part-time, and there are still 25 main FE teacher training qualifications, from level 3 awards to level 6 or 7 PGCEs. City & Guilds is still the largest awarding organisation accrediting these qualifications, at 40 per cent of such

qualifications. On the higher education side, the University of Huddersfield is the largest provider, with 495 accreditations.

The report also collects information about the learners on ITE programmes.

This includes their average age, which has declined slightly from 38 last year to 37, although it is still much higher than the average of a trainee school teacher, at 24.

Learners studying at level 5 and above were mostly studying part-time (90 per cent of those on diploma courses and two-thirds of PGCE/CertEd learners). In total, there were 36,230 learners who achieved an ITE qualification in 2013/14, of which: • 1,670 completed a diploma; • 2,620 completed a PGCE/CertEd; • 3,800 completed a certificate; and • 28,140 completed a different award.

Looking at learners who were enrolled on diploma, CertEd or PGCE courses in 2014/15, the highest number were in the North West of England with 1,040 learners, the first time numbers have topped 1,000.

However, the other side of the country saw a drop, with the number in the North East down to 320 (from 440), in the East Midlands down to 430 (from 690), and in the East of England, down to 480 (from 630).

When this distribution is considered in terms of a percentage per 100,000 of the economically active population (EAP), proportions are still low at between 16.2 and 19.7 per 100,000 working-age adults.

However, London has the lowest proportion in England, where only 15.4 diplomas are awarded per 100,000 of the EAP. Of those who completed their diploma/ PGCE/CertEd, around 59 per cent of learners progressed to a teaching position

in FE. This data is less robust than other information about these learners, as it comes from a survey of students in higher education institutions (HEIs) six months after they completed their course. Nevertheless it is indicative of their destinations.

Of those who progressed to teaching in FE, 85 per cent found work in FE Colleges.

The remainder found work with private training providers (12 per cent) or adult and community learning (3 per cent).

Most new teachers (63 per cent) worked full-time, a slight reduction from those who qualified in 2012/13. In 2013/14, around 70 per cent of new full-time teachers earned a salary between £20,000 and £30,000 and 10 per cent earned salaries of more than £30,000. In 2012/13, 60 per cent earned a salary of more than £20,000.

This data, alongside the other data the ETF collects about the current workforce, enables us to provide a full picture of those currently working in FE and those about to do so. Understanding the spread and distribution of qualifications, future entrants, and providers means sector workforce policy and workforce development services can be made on the basis of evidence.

Charlynne Pullen is research programme manager at the ETF and leads on work to improve intelligence about the sector’s workforce, both current and future.

If you want more information about this aspect of our research work please email charlynne.pullen@etfoundation.co.uk For more on the ETF’s research visit: www.et-foundation.co.uk/research

Four areas of support via ELMAG portal Leaders and aspiring leaders will find a range of resources to support their practice on the Excellence in Leadership, Management and Governance (ELMAG) online portal.

The ELMAG portal is where leaders, managers, governors – and those seeking information and advice on entering management – can find a range of support for personal and organisational development.

Support is available in four main areas: • Course finder – search for learning and training opportunities from across the education and training sector. Find out

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about the exclusive courses and opportunities only available through ELMAG. • Resources – access articles and research to enhance your understanding of key leadership and management issues.

• Reflection – use our leadership self-assessment tool to review your leadership skills and identify your development needs.

• Networks – connect with your peers, including opportunities to seek and offer mentoring and coaching.

Visit www.elmag.org.uk to find out more.

InTuition

15/02/2016 19:36

Tamsin Mae Reed

https://set.et-foundation.co.uk

Specialist colleges: defying the label

By Alison Boulton Like so many others who grew up with David Bowie’s music, I was shocked by his death in January. He was a great artist in so many senses. But more than that, he represented diversity, difference and creativity; he believed in himself and in doing what he believed in. His approach to life was collaborative and inclusive.

The young people we work with in specialist colleges are often perceived as different and face many challenges as they grow through their teenage years into adulthood. Skilled staff work with them to develop their creativity and selfbelief. Together with the students, they collaborate with others to design learning opportunities and outcomes that will enable our young people to lead fulfilling lives and make their way in the world.

Back in 1972, when I saw Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust tour, children with special needs had only been given access to a school education two years previously – interestingly, in the same year the oldest specialist college, Royal National College for the Blind, celebrated its centenary. Some 40 years on, in 2014, ambitious legislation in the form of the Children and Families Act urged all of us to be aspirational for the young people

we work with and to focus on achieving positive outcomes.

Along with other providers, The Association of National Specialist Colleges (Natspec) supports the act and has worked closely with the Department for Education to realise its ambitious agenda, which clearly reflects the work we do.

However, there have been many challenges to effective implementation, not least economic circumstances, which often militate against a personalised solution in favour of the cheapest option.

Young people are not told about all the available options and local offers are selective in the information they offer.

There are some specific aspects of implementation that have also proved problematic. Many local authorities have lost the expertise they once had in this area. Inexperienced staff who are asked to produce Education Health and Care Plans (EHCP) sometimes struggle to understand the complex needs of young people, are unsure how to communicate with them and don’t properly consider their views when making decisions.

Writing outcomes that will enable colleges to develop an individualised study programme is central to the EHCP approach, but the quality to date has

been far from helpful. EHCPs often reflect school thinking, and use language and goals which are not age appropriate – the ‘copy and paste’ model. Often the outcomes are vague, generic and without an adult focus, such as ‘to develop language and communication skills’.

The challenge doesn’t end when young people get into the college of their choice. If you saw the BBC series Defying the Label last summer, you will recall the frustration for college leavers of finding a job, or somewhere to live that is geared towards young people rather than the elderly. So, however positive their outcomes, young people and their families often face another battle to live the adult life they have prepared for.

Maybe we’d all like to be heroes – just for one day – but in reality that isn’t what our students want. What they want is the chance to lead an ordinary life, make friends, live with whom and where they choose, be part of the community they live in, find a job and have a good social life. Let’s hope that before too long, this legislation delivers on its promises.

Alison Boulton (pictured above with students) is policy officer at Natspec

InTuition

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Let us help embed English and maths in your teaching, whatever your subject!

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Free online modules to develop your personal maths or English skills at Level 2 Register now www.foundationonline.org.uk English • Grammar, punctuation and spelling • Reading critically • Evaluating writing • Writing effectively and clearly • Writing for impact • Speaking Maths • Number • Algebra • Measure • Geometry and trigonometry • Probability • Statistics

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Resources

https://set.et-foundation.co.uk

Istock

Professional standards resources

Prevent duty awareness training Free support for practitioners, support staff, leaders, managers and governors is available on the Education and Training Foundation’s Prevent for FE and Training website.

The expanded site offers Home Officeapproved resources to help providers comply with the new Prevent duties.

The Foundation is also offering Prevent duty workshops and training for safeguarding officers. There is a two day workshop on 7 and 8 April in Manchester and another two day event on 1 and 2 June in Nottingham (see link below). The workshops can also be delivered in-house for providers and on a bespoke basis.

Learning modules are available on the website and include relevant case studies

in a range of provider settings that bring both the duty and its implications to life.

Each module takes around 45 minutes to complete.

For example, how would a librarian address the issue of a student telling them they have heard that a fellow student is posting anti-Semitic statements online?

Or what would an apprenticeship tutor do if they are contacted by an apprentice to say that some of his fellow employees are viewing pictures of extremist violence and extremist literature online?

The aim is to give those completing the modules an up-to-date understanding of how the Prevent duty applies in an FE and training context and their responsibilities relating to it.

The training modules are free to use and can be found on the Foundation’s online learning website www.foundationonline.org.uk You can access the full range of Prevent duty support, including details of the forthcoming workshops, from the Foundation at www.preventforfeandtraining.org.uk

Foundation online learning The Education and Training Foundation’s online learning hub has been redesigned to make it even easier for practitioners to access a whole range of professional development support and training.

You can find free online courses to support you with the Prevent Duty, teaching and learning, maths and English, leadership, management and governance, and equality and diversity. To see what’s new visit www.foundationonline.org.uk

Remember to have a look at the full range of resources for teachers and trainers developing their professional practice.

The resources build upon the Professional Standards for Teachers and Trainers, which were launched by the Education and Training Foundation in 2014.

The standards have now been embedded in the workbook for all Qualified Teacher Learning and Skills (QTLS) applicants registering from September 2015.

As part of the self-evaluation section of the workbook, applicants are asked to carry out a self-assessment against the standards using the on-line tool available on Foundation Online Learning.

The results of this assessment are used to put together their Professional Development Plan which outlines areas for future development.

In March, the Society for Education and Training will be launching a new dashboard for its members. This will include a CPD resource that offers an enhanced version of the online self-assessment tool (http://goo.gl/qKWsBB). It will also include a facility for recording CPD activity.

Both the workbook and online selfassessment tool can be accessed from the Foundation’s website www.et-foundation.co.uk/ professionalstandards

Area Reviews As the government’s Area Review process continues throughout 2016 and into 2017, a range of support is available for leaders and practitioners from the Education and Training Foundation.

Among the highlights in early 2016, is the Foundation’s Leading beyond Area Reviews leadership summit, in London on 9 March 2016. Speakers include Nick Boles MP, Minister for Skills and Munira Mirza, Deputy Mayor of London for Education.

Leading Beyond Area Reviews is selling fast. For more details and to book, visit www.etfoundation.co.uk/ leadershipsummit For further details of support around Area Reviews please visit: http://goo.gl/28fIDl

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Geoff Petty

Get your students thinking, not just clicking: using technology to learn It’s not sufficient to get students to use technology, or to display it to them.

You must set activities that require the students to think. But which activities?

Geoff Petty is author of Teaching Today and Evidence Based Teaching and has trained staff in more than 300 colleges and schools.

Further reading Hattie, J. (2009) ‘Visible Learning: A Synthesis of Over 800 Meta-Analyses Relating to Achievement’: Routledge Lemov, D. (2010) ‘Teach Like a Champion’: Jossey-Bass Marzano R. Pickering, D. Pollock, J. (2001) ‘Classroom Instruction that Works’: ASCD Petty, G. (2009) ‘Evidence Based Teaching’: OUP Petty, G. (2013) ‘Teaching Today’: OUP

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It’s easy to be dazzled by technology, and to let it distract you from your main purpose.

Then you end up doing what impresses, not what teaches.

To help us examine this issue, please have a look at the following two e-learning assignments, A and B; they are alternatives for the same topic. Assume both A and B make use of the same resources. Which would you choose and why?

E-learning assignment A. “I hope you enjoyed my presentation on the colour-printing process. Below is a list of ace websites, awesome videos, and absurdly great animations on colour printing. You will find these totally brilliant for your essay. Dig in! Tell your mates which ones you enjoy most on our class Facebook page, and on your Twitter feed. I’ll be looking out for deep insights and pics of you working on Instagram. Enjoy!”

E-learning assignment B. a) Look at the following resources on the colour-printing process and prepare for the following tasks. (You will NOT be shot if you make notes with pencil and paper while studying these resources). b) Create a flow diagram that summarises colour printing in your own words, with your own diagrams: include all the key points. Check your work against the success criteria c) Upload your flow diagram to the class’s WorkInProgress page. d) Peer-assess three flow diagrams done

by others using the success criteria (I’ve emailed you whose to do). Look at the others too, and their peer assessments. e) Look at the three peer assessments of your own work, and improve your flow diagram. f) Self-assess and improve your flow diagram using my key points, which I will send you when you have done (e) above.

Assignment B involves lots of tasks, making notes from resources, creating a flow diagram, peer-assessment and self-assessment. What is more, there is plenty of feedback available for learners requiring them to improve their understanding, and the goals are clear because success criteria and key points had to be used by the learner. In repeated rigorous trials in real classrooms the activities in bold above have been found to be exceptionally effective.

By comparison, a simple requirement for students to use technology has a very modest effect on learning indeed.

Interestingly, John Hattie reports research that shows students learn more if they share computers rather than have their own.

(Marzano 2001; Hattie 2009; Petty 2009).

Assignment A (which I hope is a bit of a parody) does not require that the student thinks much about the topic they are supposed to be learning, and they don’t get much if any useful feedback on how to improve their understanding.

The difference between A and B is not the digital resources, which we imagine

InTuition

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https://set.et-foundation.co.uk

Wikipedia is not the answer to everything Your students probably think Wikipedia is the hotline to The Absolute Truth, but Wikipedia itself disagrees. Ask your students to discuss this page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Why_Wikipedia_is_not_so_great

Similarities and difference in reptiles and amphibians

to be the same, the difference is that in B students had to think about what they were learning, and they get feedback on how to improve their understanding.

Countless professional development sessions concentrate on the technology; it is dazzling I know. But those most knowledgeable about learning with digital resources always concentrate on the learning process and see the technology as a means to this end.

You could replace ‘colour-printing process’ in the above assignments with almost any topic, at almost any academic level, from almost any curriculum area, and the story would be much the same. If you consider an in-class learning session rather than assignment, again the story remains the same.

It is the thinking not the clicking that creates learning.

So, my belief is that we should spend more time looking at our use of technology from the student activity point of view.

But which activities are likely to create the best learning?

There are thousands of rigorous classroom-based research studies that compare different teaching methods.

These show that the same methods tend to work exceptionally well whatever the subject or academic level, which was a surprise to many.

As I’ve mentioned in previous issues of InTuition, the most powerful teaching methods almost all involve student activity. And if you need more persuasion, studies of the very best teachers, from the value-added point of view, find that they keep their students very active indeed (Lemov 2010).

The methods that work best are very adaptable and can be used in e-learning assignments, in class, at home, indeed in any situation where technology is used.

What follows is just a few of them, see Petty 2009 for many others.

Reptiles Amphibians

Characteristics of neither reptiles nor amphibians

Effective e-learning tasks when getting students to apply their learning a) Same and different: This is a task that requires the learner to identify similarities and differences between two or more topics or concepts. Comparing the concept they are studying with one they are already familiar with is useful.

Do a ‘same and different’ task on the board with some other topic to show them how to create such a diagram as this is not an easy activity.

Students can also be asked to compare an analogy with the real thing, for example a car battery with a water pump (which is an analogy for a car battery). b) Graphic organisers Students are asked to create their own diagrammatic representation of what they are learning, for example a mind-map, flow diagram or a same and different diagram.

These diagrams are graphic, but also show the organisation of the information, so are called ‘graphic organisers’. c) Evaluative thinking Ask students to look at a couple of websites, PowerPoints, or animations, for example, on the same topic and then ask them to evaluate them. Which one explains best?

Which has most information; what important ideas are missing from each? This makes them think carefully about the content. d) Self-, peer- and spoof-assessment As in assignment B (see left), ask students to self-assess and/or peer-assess work, preferably using assessment criteria you have given them.

Examples of reptiles, their characteristics, illustrations of reptiles, etc

Characteristics that reptiles and amphibians have in common Spoof assessment involves giving all your students the same anonymous piece of work to assess. You can use this to show how to do something well, and/or to give them some common mistakes or misconceptions to seek out. For example, if you want students to see how to justify their arguments, you could show them anonymous work that does this well, asking them to assess it. Ideally, show them three good examples, which all do it slightly differently. e) Decisions, decisions Students physically manipulate cards, objects or symbols that represent the concepts or ideas they are learning about. The same and different diagram above is an example.

Students can drag and drop text and diagrams on a Word document to match, group, sequence or sort them in some way.

When presenting new information a) Advance organisers Give students summaries in advance of what they are about to learn, in graphic organiser form. These provide a means for students to structure the topic in their heads. This is particularly useful if students need to understand relationships between concepts in the new material - you can show these relations in your organiser. b) Relevant recall questions Ask questions that require students to recall any prior learning they need to understand the new topic they are about to study.

Then ask them to self-assess their answers against model answers. This brings essential prior learning into the learner’s short-term memory, and checks it before building the new learning upon these foundations.

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Books

Editor’s pick

A trustworthy guide to lead you through the digital forest Excerpt: Digital Literacy Skills for FE Teachers Think about how you use digital technologies in a professional capacity (page 29) Which social networks, media, apps, tools and devices are you ‘resident’ upon and which do you occasionally ‘visit’? Does this make a difference to how you use them? How critically engaged are you in each? Do you have more of a deeper understanding of those you are resident upon compared with those you visit?

Digital Literacy Skills for FE Teachers

By Jonathan White Sage Publishing: paperback 978-1-4739-0458-3

When I started teaching in the late 1990s, PowerPoint presentations were considered the height of digital sophistication. Since then, the proliferation of apps, social media, cloud-based software, mobile devices and free open-source software has created a new world of pedagogical possibilities.

Many teachers have grasped these opportunities with both

Other New Publications Embedding English and Maths. Practical Strategies for FE and Post-16 Tutors.

By Terry Sharrock Critical Publishing: paperback 978-1-9103-9170-9 This is a very timely and practical addition to the growing canon on teaching English and maths, with the added bonus

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hands and are using technology to enhance their students’ learning, or even to turn traditional learning on its head through flipped learning and MOOCs. Others are still gingerly dipping their toes into digital waters. Whichever camp you fall in to, this thoughtful book provides a useful framework to help us consider some of the important questions this new technology poses.

Author Jonathan White, a teacher and librarian, has drawn together current thinking and research. And while the book is full of useful ideas, it does not just provide a ‘how to’ guide, but asks the reader to consider their own relationship with digital technology and how this might be developed. He backs up theory with case histories and examples, making the ideas practical and accessible.

The book starts by exploring what it means to be digitally literate. This goes beyond

of being written specifically for teachers and trainers working in vocational settings.

Sharrock, a teacher and Ofsted inspector, understands the pressures on vocational trainers who, as he puts it, may have come into FE to pass on their knowledge in plumbing but who are now being asked to teach Functional Skills English and maths to learners, many of whom are less than comfortable and confident with these subjects in the light of negative experiences at school.

functional technological competency, to consider wider issues, such as maintaining a professional online presence and considering what it means to be a responsible digital citizen.

It also encourages us to take a critical approach to material we find online and helps us think about how to pass these skills to our learners – helping them to avoid the ‘cut and paste’ culture. These ideas are neatly drawn together in a skills framework, mapped against the further education Professional Standards 2014, which allows teachers to evaluate their own digital competence.

The book steers teachers through the abundance of digital tools on the market and helps them to choose the best ones for their students. It also encourages teachers to go beyond being passive consumers of the web to become creators of their own digital resources, pointing out that despite the democratising

potential of the web, only one per cent of people are involved in producing content.

Over the past 10 years, a thick forest of technology has grown quickly around us. Teachers are expected to operate professionally within this digital world and to guide learners through it. It is surprising and worrying, therefore, how little training most of us have received in this important area.

This book does not provide all the answers, but it helps us to think about the questions.

It is a book of two halves.

The first half is devoted to contextualising the need for English and maths, not least to meet the demands of Ofsted’s Common Inspection Framework. Part one also discusses some of the barriers to learning and ends with a section featuring case studies.

Part two contains 20 practical activities – 10 for maths and 10 for English.

The right-hand pages set out activities for you to give your learners. Left-hand pages

contain your notes for the activities opposite and include suggestions for extension activities.

And, so you don’t get caught out, there are answers to some of the more challenging activities at the back of the book.

Sam Hart is a teacher educator and English lecturer at City College Brighton and Hove

MEMBER OFFER Order your copy of this book from www.sagepub.co.uk and use code UK15CF43 to claim a 20 per cent discount on the RRP. This offer is valid until April 30, 2016.

MEMBER OFFER SET members are eligible for a 20 per cent discount on the RRP for this title. Call 01752 202301 quoting code EEM2016. Offer is valid until April 30, 2016.

InTuition

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https://set.et-foundation.co.uk

Editor’s pick

A book that acts like a coach: supportive and instructive Excerpt: Becoming an Outstanding Personal Tutor Reflective practice for your personal tutor role (pages 146-147) In terms of your personal tutor, the following key points highlight what reflective practice is and isn’t, as well as the expected benefits and challenges of undertaking this activity regularly. It is: • a time to think clearly, be honest and consider the facts of your chosen episode for reflection; • an activity that can be undertaken individually or with another person (such as a mentor or colleague); • a process that should be undertaken regularly, for example once a week; and • a skill that can be learned and honed.

Becoming an Outstanding Personal Tutor

By Andrew Stork and Ben Walker Critical Publishing: paperback 978-1-91039105-1

All further education teachers will surely gain something from this well-structured and useful book. Certainly, the range of topics covered should appeal to a wide audience.

Chapters include setting boundaries, the learner experience, solution-focused coaching, observations, reflective practice and

Understanding and Supporting Behaviour through Emotional Intelligence

By Victor Allen Critical publishing: paperback 978-1-9093-3077-1 The book’s subtitle is A critical guide for Secondary Teachers but don’t let that deter you as there is much that further education teachers of young adults may usefully learn from its pages.

Allen does a good job of setting out the context before

measuring impact. The book also challenges readers to identify their own teaching style. The interesting twist it offers is its focus on the benefits of a coaching style to support learners.

The authors continue to challenge the reader and chapters are peppered with critical-thinking activities and case studies. For example, one challenges the reader to consider how the definitions of personal tutoring and coaching fit with their own experience.

Each chapter begins with a series of aims that allow the reader to quickly identify what each is about and what they will gain from it. Chapters conclude with short summaries, learning checklists and an interesting self-assessment system.

The self-assessment system allows practitioners to grade both themselves and their

launching into more practical issues such as creating an emotionally intelligent classroom and how to go about changing behaviour.

Each chapter is replete with questions that prompt readers to reflect on their practice as well as case studies and references.

MEMBER OFFER There is a 20 per cent discount on the RRP for this title. To order call 01752 202301 and quote USBEI2016. Offer is valid until April 30, 2016.

institution, from minimum standard to platinum. For example, when self-assessing against ‘Using solution-focused coaching with learners’, the minimum standard covers things like encouraging learners to define clear goals and thinking about how they will achieve their goals. The platinum standard requires the reader to measure the impact of their coaching conversations and share their experiences.

The structure allows the reader to work through chapters consecutively or they can identify key areas on which they wish to work – the chapter aims come in handy here. The book lends itself well to working either way.

Crucially, the book is easy to read which should work well for busy teachers with a full workload. At 204 pages it is concise and it’s easy to carry

Leading the Use of Research & Evidence in Schools Edited by Chris Brown IoE Press: paperback 978-1-7827-7111-1 Another book aimed at schools but with considerable relevance to teachers working in further education and skills settings.

The editor pulls together a dozen essays from teachers and academics that explore concepts relating to evidenceinformed teaching and many

between home and work.

The book acts like a coach itself. And, like all good coaches, it does not give all the answers but instead encourages readers to reflect on their own approaches to scenarios. It is supportive and instructive, and I believe would make a welcome addition to the bookshelves of the majority of FE practitioners.

Becky Hamilton is a newly qualified teacher delivering science and functional numeracy at Darlington College

MEMBER OFFER There is a 20 per cent discount on the RRP for this title for SET members.

Call 01752 202 301 to order quoting code BOPT2016.

The offer is valid until April 30, 2016.

of the practicalities.

Chapters cover topics including: the links between evidence and quality; professional learning communities; overcoming obstacles to evidenceinformed practice and understanding impact.

MEMBER OFFER Order this book from ioepress.co.uk using code InTuitionFeb16 to claim a 20 per cent discount on the RRP. Offer valid until April 30, 2016.

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Forum

A space for practitioners to air their views. They do not necessarily reflect the views of the Society for Education and Training

PEDAGOGUE Try writing the objectives for dealing with Joe Public It is interesting to see how the College of Policing is refining the standards for police training across the country (InSight, page 24). For just one minute spare a thought for our colleagues who dedicate their time to nurturing young people who aspire to be the protectors of our way of life.

These aspiring constables are entering possibly the only profession in which, regardless of the situation, the expression “not my job mate” doesn’t feature in the

lexicon of phrases available.

As the first person on the scene it is your job. Members of the public expect the uniform to take control.

Most of us will have a good whinge when an awarding body changes a qualification or assessment requiring us to rewrite objectives and lesson plans but just try to get your head around the objectives for a session on delivering an agony message for example. Thousands delivered every year and each one unique to the situation.

Hindsight does not exist for a constable

My story

Strictly online

A few weeks ago, Tim Woodward received an Outstanding Commitment award from Greater Manchester Police (GMP) for his voluntary work with the force’s cadet officers.

“My role is designated as a cadet leader and, at present, I work with the cadets every Thursday evening from 6pm to 8pm,” says Tim. “I provide a liaison between GMP and Bolton College to support the delivery of the GMP Volunteer Police Cadet Scheme.

The purpose of the scheme is to enable young people with an interest in being a police officer to gain first-hand exposure to the policing family and to develop an understanding of the function of the police while supporting their community through voluntary community engagement.”

Tim began his police career with The Mersey Tunnels Police, a non-Home Office police force within the Merseyside Force area, before joining Bolton College in 2012.

“We were predominantly a roads policing unit but also dealt with general policing duties as well. I achieved the rank of sergeant and I qualified as an officer safety trainer through Cheshire Police and developed my teaching and training skills by delivering programmes to new and serving officers.

“I studied my Professional Diploma in Teaching (PDE) at Bolton College through The University of Bolton and the material I learned has provided a valuable insight into teaching, learning and assessment practice.

“I hope I’m able to utilise my experience as police officer to bring my knowledge and expertise to bear. I attempt to develop a good rapport with students by engaging with them on an individual level as opposed to developing a group mentality.”

Tim Woodward is a police studies and public services lecturer at Bolton College

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confronting a situation, a luxury only afforded to people who wish to dissect incidents after the event with all the time in the world, nor do they have years of life experience on which to draw.

We all have a challenging job but, next time we are beginning to have a whine about writing the objective for putting a roller in someone’s hair, doing fractions or changing brake pads, let’s spare thought for our colleagues in public services.

Just what is the objective for dealing with ‘Joe Public’?

The Independent touched a nerve when it published the article “State schools must drop ‘outdated snobbery’ against apprenticeships, says Nicky Morgan” on 23 January, 2016. The following is a small selection of the readers’ comments.* rwalker561 It is difficult to break a vicious circle like this when virtually all teachers need a degree to get work. Meanwhile, there are many skills out there that teaching is short of - like computer programming - where the bias towards degree-educated teachers prevents many highly-skilled individuals from imparting their knowledge to the next generation.

Eowyn Rohan And Nicky Morgan has yet to veto the absurd revision to the financial model, which authorised academy and free schools to employ people as teachers without them being ‘qualified to teach’. bebe Many who know their stuff may be unable to teach it effectively; but they have several weeks’ training and are monitored for the first year.

Alan Hawley While it sounds like a good idea that FE colleges/employers/ training providers are allowed into school, it does add an additional organisational burden to already overstretched teaching staff.

Desmodromic For many, university is the soft option. Their unfitness for the real world would be too rapidly exposed by a technical college.

Jabbathehut A significant proportion of university courses are already vocational.

Even if they aren’t, they have a practical element in them.

KE55 Wasn’t it politicians who insisted that everyone should “aspire” to go to university, closing down technical colleges and allowing polytechnics to convert into unis? How about an apology? * Some comments have been abridged.

Full story and comments at http://goo.gl/wnioD8

InTuition

15/02/2016 19:32

https://set.et-foundation.co.uk

NoticeBoard CALENDAR 1

MARCH

Society for Education and Training professional development event, Manchester (see news, page 7)

9

ETF Leadership Summit, London (details below) AOC HR Conference and Exhibition, Birmingham

22

AoC Learning Technology Conference, Birmingham (details below)

APRIL

Leadership summit The government’s ongoing Area Reviews of further education and skills are the subject of the Education and Training Foundation’s Leadership Summit 2016 on 9 March. Skills minister Nick Boles will open the summit, which will examine the strategic challenges that lie ahead for the sector.

The event, to be held at Westminster Kingsway College, London, will include feedback and insights from FE providers that have already taken part in the review process. http://goo.gl/Y5Dv1X

Learning technology It can be hard to know how to make best use of rapidly evolving technologies to enhance teaching and learning.

Hopefully, delegates to the Association of Colleges’ Learning Technology Conference on 22 March will come away with some answers.

Themes include: the role of social media in teaching; the use of gaming to increase levels of engagement; using

2

AoC Governance Summit, London

3

AoC HE Conference, London

4

EMFEC training event (details below)

Society for Education and Training professional development event, Sunderland (see news, page 7) AoC Communications and Digital Marketing Conference, London

SET Functional Skills members’ consultation event, Manchester (see page 13)

Learning and Work Institute training event: Demonstrating impact for quality and the CIF (details below) International Women’s Day

10

11

7-8

14

14-18

Society for ACER workshop: National Education and An introduction to Apprenticeship Training professional mindfulness, St Ives Week development event, Nottingham (see news, page 7) Education and Training Foundation Prevent duty training event, Manchester (see resources page 29)

8

Learning and Work Institute training event: Using digital technology in English teaching

learner analytics and data; using apps in learning; making sense of ‘flipped learning’.

The conference will be held in Birmingham. Delegates are advised to bring a laptop. http://goo.gl/2zQ7b8

MAY

15

17-19

4

12

Learning and Work The Education Institute training Show, Birmingham event: Embedding equality and diversity into the curriculum EMFEC training event (details below)

how to use RARPA as a selfassessment tool. For details and booking visit http://goo.gl/doBPGF

stress and anxiety levels. For more details and booking visit: http://goo.gl/JSgGZG

WBL Training

This event is aimed at vocational tutors, including those who teach apprentices or students on traineeships, and assessors. Run by the Learning and Work Institute, it aims develop an understanding of what E&D means as well as exploring how to embed E&D into lesson planning. For details and booking visit http://goo.gl/ IJxD6U

E&D training

New webinars are available from the Society for Education and Training in March and April.

A webinar, due to be held on 22 March, will focus on Future Apprenticeships. On 12 April Tricia Odell and Teresa Thomas, both from SET, will discuss the recognition route for Qualified Teacher Learning and Skills.

All webinars, including the most recent on autism, are available at https://goo.gl/l5AruX

Specially designed for workbased learning providers, EMFEC (the Association of Colleges’ membership body in the east Midlands) is running three spring time training events.

The first, on 4 March, is called ‘On target for success’ and will examine how the aspirational and challenging targets referred to in Ofsted’s new common inspection framework can be used to support workplace teaching and learning.

For details and booking visit http://goo.gl/Qn83Rr

Adult learning

Mindfulness day

The one-day training event run by the Learning and Work Institute (formerly NIACE) aims to demonstrate how recognising and recording progress and achievement (RARPA) supports quality improvement in organisations. This event will also highlight developments in

This workshop, run by the Association of Colleges in the Eastern Region (ACER), introduces participants to the theory and practice of mindfulness. It will explore how mindfulness can improve staff wellbeing when working in an education context, under high

SET webinars

Functional English This workshop, run by the Learning and Work Institute, will explore the particular benefits for teachers and trainers of using learning technology in teaching Functional English and GCSE English programmes.

Delegates will explore specific technologies and e-learning software and apps directly. Laptops will be provided for participants to use in pairs. http://goo.gl/KOBev8

InTuition

35_Noticeboard.indd 35

Learning and Skills Research Network workshop, London

Issue 23 | Spring 2016

35

15/02/2016 19:31

Inspirational leadership in a time of change www.elmag.org.uk The leadership portal of the Education and Training Foundation

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www.elmag.org.uk is aimed at all leaders in all parts of the sector.

Course discounts may be available for small providers. Bursary support is also available for certain individuals.

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15/02/2016 19:29