West Midlands Centre for Excellence in Teacher Training
Management Meeting
Thursday 12 May 2011, Hundred House Hotel, Great Witley
Attendees:
1.
Fergus McKay (Chair)
Julie Chamberlain
Elaine Goodall
Jill Hardman
Margaret Hunter
Vron Leslie
Mike Smith
Apologies
None.
2.
Minutes of Management Meeting, 21 January, 2011
These were accepted as correct.
3
Matters arising
Item 3: FM asked MS about the podcasts done last summer for the WBL Shots website which were
now on line. MS said there would be the opportunity to do some more.
Item 3: FM said there had been a restructure at NEW College but WMCETT Advisory Board chair
Shelley Phelan had been appointed to one of the new jobs, and had agreed to continue as WMCETT
chair.
Item 4 Action point: FM said the University of Warwick registrar was involved in the LEP and FM had
been asked to attend a meeting.
Item 4: FM said he had tried to contact David Tolfts again re the SER programme and how WMCETT
could be involved. MS said HWSTPA had been successful in gaining funding under the SER
programme for the next year up until March 2012. All the money was now allocated.
Item 4 action point: MH said she was trying to get the voluntary sector involved in functional skills
training. She said the current functional skills module was very generic and the voluntary sector
needed something more specific. MS said Heather Frier had been employed through the SER
programme to deliver three events.
FM said Heather Frier had also been working with Katie McCombe and the PDP on functional skills
workshops funded through LSIS IAS funds. MS said his organisations had also worked with Heather
and it was easy to apply for funds, and this might be useful for voluntary organisations.
Action point: MH to look into this
4
Chair’s update
Fm reported that the Advisory Board had agreed to support WMCETT continuing until the end of
August 2012. We could not bid for grants unless we could show we were operational. We had
already bid to LSIS’s Regional Response Fund and been successful.
The national CETT group ACETT was meeting at the beginning of June, funded by the IfL sub
contracted through LSIS.
There was a discussion about the situation regarding teacher training funding and speculation about
whether it would be ringfenced – a decision was due soon.
The University of Huddersfield had successfully bid for a project with JISC to create a new on-line
version of their journal and were appealing for more reviews and articles for it from each CETT.
VL said teaching unions were fighting the IfL about the £68 compulsory payment, and MH agreed it
was too much for people who did not get it paid for them. MS said everyone delivering a
government-funded contract had to be registered with ACTOR, which was administered by the SFA.
He said it was duplication of the IfL’s work, though people had to prove they were qualified to teach
and had QTLS, but didn’t need to show their CPD.
Action point: MS to send ACTOR registration information to all
FM said a couple of CETTs had merged, and a couple been taken over by HEIs and were being used
differently everywhere – to promote, develop or act as a conduit.
5
Project Manager’s update
JC listed news stories she was preparing for the July newsletter, and asked for more story ideas.
She ran through the Final Report for 2010-11 which had been produced for the Advisory Committee,
which listed the work of WMCETT for the past year, and she thanked David Grayson for his hard work
on Sector News over the past years.
JC talked about funding for the forthcoming year and the need to bid for grant money to fund
projects.
FM said for a long time LSIS did not view CETTs as part of the sector but they have recently relaxed
that position which meant we could take more out of any contract we had. We needed four or five
such contracts in the next 16 months to keep WMCETT going for another year. MS asked to what
extent the university was helping WMCETT. FM said he had not had a response to questions about
integrating the CETT into the university.
6
End of year reports
MH said she had mainly been working with WCAVA, WAYC and ACL on developing PTLLS with their
network members. She was now trying the same with Worcestershire and some of the things had
been taken up by their own organisation. Warwickshire have run large numbers of PTLLS
programmes with their staff. WCAVA had taken PTLLS with Fircroft College to be fast-tracked to be
able to teach. So far more than 60 people have taken PTLLS courses and some had gone on to be
trained to teach it.
The next stage was mentoring and Observing Teaching and Learning training – they need to put some
people through it so they can become observers in their organisation. They are looking for money for
that.
FM said he, MH and JC had attended an event where he had presented candidates with PTLLS
certificates and people had requested a CTLLS next and that was something we were looking into. He
said Sue Spiers’s role in the training had to be recognised. MH said SS had really understood the
sector. EG said SS was having to sort out the work that was being submitted and getting the
administration right was part of the process candidates should also get right.
MS said more than 200 people had now gone through PTLLS and it was still running well, with the
CBED DTLLS programme also now growing. He said PTLLS was being run across all the West Midlands
and leading the way in terms of professionalising services in the work-based learning sector.
He said providers needed to start looking at the government’s priorities and the role that
apprenticeships played, and functional skills, and how staff could be upskilled or moved around to
meet those needs.
More voluntary sector organisations such as the YMCA had joined his training network.
The big issue was funding for next year to support CPD. Finding funding for accredited qualifications
had always been hard but MS said he wanted to get to the stage where the organisation could fund
qualifications themselves so they could support accredited qualifications. He was looking to put in a
£100,000 bid for training and wanted to do it with the CETT, and part of it would be for accreditation.
He suggested putting together a bidding team from the CETT and HWSTPA. However it was a two
year project.
Higher apprenticeships – MS said he felt the academic part of the qualifications was being pushed
more towards the colleges and there was an issue about people being able to deliver at level 4 or 5
for specialist subjects. Funding to get a qualification at a higher level was non existent, although it
could be self funded or funded by an employer.
FM said the Russell Group universities including Warwick had rejected what had been put together
and it would take colleges coming to the university to say they needed it to make them see the
potential market. MS said 10,000 higher apprenticeships had to be delivered in the next 18 months
so it was a pressing imperative.
EG said the ESRC had run two skills conferences which had gone well, one at Warwick and one at RAF
Cosford. The Cosford one had six workshops and more than 35 people. The one at the Warwick had
more than 45 attendees. The department had said it would charge people if they did not turn up.
WMCETT had worked with CfBT and the work had grown during the project which had involved
working with teacher trainers in skills for life subjects. The work Steve Pardoe had done had been
very well received and we were making the most of the information he picked up. He had also been
able to pick up some extra work when there was a capacity issue in the team.
JH said the RRF bid we had won aimed to link up training providers in the wider sector, with the LEPs
and BIS. We want to find out what the learning and skills brief of the LEPs is and what the SFA
funding strategy is. Three meetings are planned, one across the north part of the region, the centre
and one across the south.
JH said the people who had been very useful to the LEPs were the regional observatories who
provided most of the data the LEPs had used, but the West Midlands regional observatory had gone.
Steve Sawbridge, regional co-ordinator for the AoC, was being helpful in putting things together.
MS suggested inviting Chamber of Commerce representatives, the SFA and local authorities. He said
Diane Tilley was the contact for the Worcestershire LEP. He also suggested Sajid Javid, PPC to John
Hayes.
VL said the in April 2010 there were around 1,400 page views for the CoP on the website, and 46
people accessed the bulletin, but in April 2011 that was 2,000 page views and 162 people.
The Forum was valued but getting money from members was difficult. They all said they would
contribute but only Warwick and Staffordshire did so. FM said he was disappointed in the HEIs’
response.
VL said there had been a Professional Dialogue seminar at RAF Cosford on Ofsted, one at Warwick on
teaching and learning principles, and another was to take place at Cosford looking at the revised
teacher training qualifications. She had written an article for the last CETT journal about it.
College visits – VL and FM had been to TCAT, and were planning to visit NEW College, Hinckley and
North Warwickshire and Bournville, to look at how they manage their programme.
Use of the human library resource – VL said she was still waiting for case studies to make it viable.
The PDP wanted something doing on DTLLS seminars but needed funding for it. The SLC training was
also possibly back on the agenda.
7
Business plan
FM said professional dialogues were very popular and could mutate into a regional event where
people put forward ideas and talked about them in a completely different environment. VL asked if
work-based learning and ACL were doing things like forums. MS said he had research and
development groups which were very popular and he needed to extend it to include the CETT. He
said they were very specialised, based around occupational areas rather than teaching.
JH said Sue Blake might want to know about it.
8
Any other business
An opportunity to put forward a bid to NIACE was tabled, with bids from £10,000 - £75,000 invited.
JH said it was all about people training people to set up informal learning in their communities. A lot
of people would bid for it to keep their groups going. She suggested asking WEA what information
they had about learning champions in the West Midlands.
Action point: MH to talk to network and JH to talk to WEA about what they are doing.
9
Next meeting
The date for the next meeting was set for Monday, 26 September at 10.30am, at committee room
0.1, University House, University of Warwick.