West Midlands Centre for Excellence in Teacher Training
Management Meeting
Thursday, 19 September 2013, University House, University of Warwick
Attendees:
1.
Ellen Buttler
Julie Chamberlain
Vron Leslie
Fergus McKay
Anna Hraboweckyj
Mike Smith
Apologies
None.
Ellen Buttler has taken over Elaine Goodall’s role and was welcomed to the meeting. Everyone
introduced themselves.
2.
Minutes of Management Meeting, 6 June, 2013
These were accepted as a true record.
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Matters arising
FM informed the group that the WMCETT board meeting had taken place this week and possibilities
of working with the LEPs had been discussed, especially now they have more money than they did
before.
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Chair’s update
A. The Education and Training Foundation had come into existence on August 1 with two years of
£18 million funding, plus some residue funding from LSIS. The Foundation would be taking over the
Excellence Gateway for at least a year. The Foundation had been tasked with looking into the
Leadership and Management programme that came out of LSIS, and other work seems to be being
done by the AoC. The Foundation was also tasked with developing new projects, and has 32 staff. It
has identified some themes and will provide pump-prime funding for those.
B. The Department for Business Innovation and Skills had announced bursaries would be available for
Level 5, 45-credit programmes for training SEN teachers.
C. The government had earmarked £1.3 million over two years for the CETTs to run training
programmes for maths and English teachers to meet the demand when students have to achieve a C
in English and maths at GCSE. From next September there are funding implications if support systems
are not set up for students who have not achieved C or above. WMCETT will deliver a CPD training
course for people who have not got a full-blown maths or English qualification who are currently
delivering functional maths or English courses.
NCETM has previously worked with the schools sector and now they are working on this initiative,
and have developed four modules around key areas in mathematics. They are also charged with
training the deliverers of those sessions and 60 people have to be recruited nationally to deliver the
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training. The course is six days and as yet they have not explained what the other two days are. At
the end individuals would be awarded a certificate of completion. Following on from the maths
enhancement programme, an English enhancement programme will be rolled out.
VL asked about quality management, and FM said the CETTs will cover QA. Steve Pardoe would be
employed to oversee it and part of his brief was to work closely with the people delivering it.
FM said WMCETT also had to set up maths and English forums and he thought people would be
eager to come along and share their views, and that organisations and practitioners would welcome
the programme in general.
MS said from the practitioners’ point of view he thought the bursaries were a red herring. He
thought there would be interest in an SEN initiative that was CPD based. There was a constant churn
of people coming into FE as part of career change and that was what they needed.
MS said if it was going to be part of the general practitioner’s brief to teach GCSE maths to
apprentices this was going to be a huge demand. AH said she also thought there would be a huge
demand for it from third sector practitioners.
AH asked how it was going to be marketed and FM replied that it would be sent out through our
usual networks and contacts. MESH groups would be established in the autumn term and we would
like to invite people from all different walks of life to engage and inform practice.
MS said the perceived demand might just be the tip of the iceberg. He said if it tied into the LEPs’
skills strategy it might be possible to get some match funding for it.
FM said he had had a meeting within the university about contacting the LEP about their skills
strategy and he had been thinking about contacting the LEPs although unfortunately they appeared
to be in competition with each other, and at different stages of development.
MS said across the West Midlands LEPs had about £80 million to be spent on the skills agenda over
the next few years. FM said the LEPs did not have people to do the work, just advisory boards to
advise them. WMCETT wanted to re-engage with the LEPs and he was meeting someone in the
Coventry and Warwickshire LEP soon to talk about what we can offer. AH said Birmingham City
University was involved in the LEP’s skills work.
5.
Project manager’s update
JC reported that since the last meeting she had worked on the meeting with ACETT and the
Foundation held at the university in July, and the work coming out of that to start getting the GCSE
maths enhancement project off the ground.
She had also sorted out new contracts for the Priority Area Co-ordinators up until July 2014, and was
also planning a newsletter to go out before the end of the year.
6.
Current activities
AH – talked about changes for the Third Sector with the government’s introduction of a more holistic
programme, including Talent Match, helping people with multiple and complex needs, neets, and
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NESTA. She said it was forcing various agencies with different expertises to come together and plan
substantial business plans to produce projects in a co-produced way. She said there would be £10
million for helping people with multiple and complex needs.
FM asked if it was working or if it was problematic, and AH said it was hugely problematic. People
would only do collaboration or co-production if it made them more competitive.
MS said his local housing organisation had set up a training arm. There was an issue with the Third
Sector being stuck in the past. AH said she had done some work in Herefordshire which was like
going back in time compared with Birmingham.
AH said anyone can now set up a Community Interest Company, and it could be the next scandal
waiting to happen. VL said especially when that was linked with the lack of teacher training
qualifications now required. AH said people could set themselves up as a CIC and be a training
organisation as long as a certain number of your training places went to charity.
MS said a lot of training providers were becoming CICs as it meant they could apply for grants.
AH summed up the Changing the Dynamics LSIS-funded project which finished in the summer. It
looked at connections between the FE colleges and Third Sector and there had been a series of active
dialogues between senior members of staff. Outcomes included a greater will for collaborative
activity, some at a strategic level and some at a practical level. It would need to be looked at in a
wider variety of areas to investigate further some of the findings.
EB said it was very interesting and there was definitely a need for it. Colleges got confused about
who was offering what. She had worked on changing non-accredited training to accredited in her
previous job.
AH said some colleges did not see the adult community as part of their remit. EB said if the
community was put at the heart of the programme there was a very real need to make it clear about
what was being offered by everyone. Some people would much rather learn in a community setting
such as a school or a library. MS said adult education budgets were being cut to the bone.
EB – talked about the new teacher training qualifications replacing PTLLS, CTLLs and DTLLS which
were a variation on a theme. In the diploma there was more of a focus on teacher practice and this
was probably because of the CIF and Ofsted’s focus on teaching, learning and assessment.
She also talked about the raising of the participation age in education and the need for young people
to continue to study English and maths if they have not achieved at least a C grade.
EB discussed the revocation of the 2007 regulations and the fact that organisations do not have to
make sure teachers have a recognised qualification. How that would change things she did not know
as Ofsted have to look at quality and one thing will include how teachers have been trained. More
people might do the certificate rather than the diploma.
EB talked about the £60,000 LSIS bid the department won to produce courses to teach English, maths
and disabled learners. The first two had started and the disabled learners course would run from
October if there was sufficient interest. There was a question mark over whether bursaries would be
available in time or whether it would need a January start.
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FM said in the short term he did not think there would be a decline in the number of people taking
teacher training qualifications.
EB said the colleges she had spoken to still wanted to push people through the diploma as they felt it
was important the staff were developed at that level.
VL said a lot of individuals will want the reassurance themselves that they are good teachers. FM said
if some people had a qualification it would give them a chance to go from part time to full time and a
promotion.
MS said the certificate was down to the individual, when it went past that it needed the support of
the employer and that was where it would fall down.
EB said with some colleges training 14-year-olds there was a need for CPD courses in managing
behaviour, safeguarding issues, and things staff needed to be aware of. MS felt accredited CPD was
more valued.
VL asked how the maths and English courses fitted in with the enhancement programmes. EB said
they were qualifications in their own right and the enhancement programme enabled people to
deliver the GCSE curriculum.
VL – talked about the end of the Advanced Teaching and Learning Coach programme which WMCETT
had delivered across the West Midlands region. Eleven people went through the refresher training,
and six completed the learner programme. FM did internal moderation and external moderation
was carried out across the West Midlands. Different colleges were still running the programme
despite the end of LSIS, which meant they would not get a certificate.
MS – said the end of LSIS had left a big gap for his WBL network, as 40 per cent of what they did with
CPD was LSIS funded. They were trying to make inroads with the LEPs as if they wanted to increase
the skills base of the West Midlands it had to start with education. The next year would be significant
as far as funding was concerned.
He said at the network’s AGM they had a speaker from UCAS who talked about a clearing house for
FE linked to the HE one. Part of it was about career advice and progression from 16 to 18, and part of
it was a market place to advertise vocational courses and sixth form colleges. There has been money
from HEFCE to set it up but it has to be self-financing within a year. It is at
https://www.ucasprogress.com/
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Any other business
AH said how useful the CLL barbeque and information event had been in finding out what the
department was doing.
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Next meeting
The date for the next meeting was set for Tuesday, 28 January, at 10.30am, at University House,
University of Warwick, room number to be confirmed.
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