West Midlands Centre for Excellence in Teacher Training
Management Meeting
Friday 21 January 2011, University of Warwick
Attendees:
1.
Fergus McKay (Chair)
Julie Chamberlain
Elaine Goodall
Margaret Hunter
Vron Leslie
Mike Smith
Apologies
Jill Hardman sent apologies, and Elaine Goodall apologised for only being able to attend briefly.
2.
Minutes of Management Meeting, 4 October 2010
These were accepted as correct.
3
Matters arising
Item 3 Action Point: FM said Rob Smith of LSRN had been invited to the next Forum meeting taking
place on 28 January. It is hoped he will invite anyone doing an action research project or who had an
idea for one to get involved with publishing it via LSRN. The Forum members can then cascade back
to their colleagues.
Item 3 Action Point: Podcasts recorded by WMCETT in the summer had still not been broadcast on
WBL-Shots.
Action point: MS to pursue this further.
Item 3 –MS said Subject Learning Coaches were being registered as consultants on the SER
programme so they could be used in that capacity.
Action point: FM said he would take the issue of mapping qualifications to the national CETT
meeting in two weeks time.
Item 4 – FM said Shelley Phelan had agreed to replace Anne O’Grady as Chair of the Advisory Board.
Item 6 – FM had contacted David Tofts of ALP and had met, and had also held a useful meeting with
Sue Blake, LSIS Regional Development Manager
4
Chair’s update
FM said there was a national CETT meeting at the University of Warwick on 7 and 8 February and the
future of the CETTs would be discussed. He said they would want to look at the business of licensing
the CETTs and using that label.
JC had worked out costings for keeping WMCETT going from September 2011-August 2012. FM said
the role of the CETT had changed from using funds to carry out initiatives, to putting people in
contact with other people and possibly working with them on projects which we are not able to bid
for funds for ourselves. He added that the University of Warwick had a remit for widening
participation and the CETT’s activities could support the development of this particular initiative.
WMCETT need to get the approval of LSIS and the Ifl, plus the WMCETT Advisory Board, to carry on
but he hoped they would be happy to approve.
MS asked how WMCETT would keep any money it was able to generate. FM stated that the
university allowed the CETT to keep any money it generated (apart from paying central service
charges).
MS said HE representation would be needed on the board of the Local Enterprise Partnership; FM
believed he had been invited to attend a meeting before Christmas which had been postponed.
Action point: FM to investigate
VL asked what evidence we have that we have had an impact on other organisations we have worked
with.
Action point: JC to distribute Peter Byrd’s analysis report on WMCETT
JC said there were also the Host reports carried out for the first three years of WMCETT and she had
started to carry out assessment of the impact of Professional Dialogue seminars, and found everyone
who attended the first had positively changed something in their work. This work is ongoing.
Action point: JC to look at more methods of impact assessment
MH said Community First had accessed funding after hearing information about it from WMCETT.
FM also reported that after talking to a group of college principals about project work funded by the
LSIS Excellence and Improvement Fund they were successful bidding for E&I funding.
FM talked about his meetings with David Tofts, who manages the SER programme in the Midlands
and East Anglia. He said he was struggling to get the networks off the ground in some parts of the
Midlands. MS reported that in his area programmes were running very successfully. They had run
seven events so far and had 19 more planned between now and the end of March, with £3-4,000
being drawn down for each event.
FM said they had talked about doing some work around challenging behaviour or advice and
guidance and DT was going to talk to his board about it, but we haven’t heard anything yet.
Action point: FM to contact David Tofts again
FM reported on another meeting with Sue Blake, LSIS Regional Development Manager, and
distributed an information document she produces regularly which includes information about
accessing funds. We are planning to help distribute it further through the website and WMCOP
bulletin. SB wanted to continue to meet about once a month.
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 HF and it
was easy to apply for funds, and this might be useful for voluntary organisations.
Action point: MH to look into this
5
Activities update
EG said she had been working with Steve Pardoe on some work with CfBT about how many people
still needed to be qualified in literacy, language and numeracy teacher training. He had carried out
meetings and an on line survey to write a report, and found so far the numbers actually delivering
the training have decreased. She said the idea was to target teacher trainers and work with them.
The project was working with Worcester and Staffordshire universities.
EG had done some work for the project as an expert speaker including in Bolton and Taunton, and
there may be some work for the university as a spin off in Taunton.
VL asked if the report produced could go out in the WMCOP bulletin and JC asked if it could go on the
website.
Action point: EG to check if the report could be used like this.
EG added that there would be two Skills events on 6 April at RAF Cosford and 8 April at Warwick.
MS addressed the first item under his remit on the business plan of ‘raising awareness of HE
opportunities’ and said the new Specification of Apprenticeship Standards from BIS included
information on intermediate, advanced and higher apprenticeship frameworks. It has guided learning
hours included and starts in September, but he said he did not know where the expertise to teach at
HE level was going to come from until staff could be developed in house.
FM said WMCETT had been approached by colleges to develop higher level CPD courses for teachers
teaching HE in FE and this would link together well. MS didn’t want colleges to have the monopoly on
delivering higher level CPD but there was a question of the capacity of WBL to deliver the guided
learning hours needed.
Action point: MS to circulate apprenticeships specification standards from BIS.
MS said with regard to the business plan point about recruiting eight IAG champions, 15 had been
registered through the SER programme. They had done the gold standard mentoring course through
WMCETT and he was now looking at sourcing some funding for an IAG equivalent at Level 4.
FM handed out a copy of the evaluation of the CBED pilot programme and said Jill Hardman should
be congratulated for producing such a thorough report. Where employers had commented they had
been very positive and noted an improvement in quality and an impact on their organisation.
Another 16 people had been recruited for the course, funded through the Coventry and
Warwickshire Lifelong Learning Network.
MS asked how the plan by LLUk to film mentors from the programme was progressing. JC said Jennie
Wright from LLUK had been in touch with Phil Broomhead from Riverside Training in Hereford and
dates were being agreed.
MH had carried out a survey of qualifications in the Third Sector and had a low response. Those who
responded had been interested in teaching qualifications, had known about PTLLS and one had got it,
and they were interested in CPD and developing themselves further but were hampered by lack of
time and money.
VL asked if there would be any value in running on line CPD modules. MH said some people in the
sector didn’t have the skills to access them, and FM pointed out the cost of developing and
delivering, and that such training would have a short shelf life.
MH reported that WCAVA and WAYC found it difficult to access funds to undertake CPD
programmes.
WCAVA were holding an event in Dunchurch Village Hall on Tuesday, 1 February where members
would get their PTLLS teaching certificates and there would be workshops to look again at the
training needs of the sector. People who had done PTLLS wanted to go on to a higher qualification.
VL said WMCETT had agreed to support two more Professional Dialogue seminars and the HEI Forum
network was continuing. It had come out at Ofsteds that it was of value to the HEIs, and they could
learn from each other. The next seminar was to be on 1 March.
VL has also produced a ‘Use Of’ guide about the human library and sent it out to colleges for
responses. She has had one case study so far, but wants more feedback before deciding whether we
try another.
VL and FM had visited Worcester College to discuss with them what they thought about professional
qualifications and discussed issues they had. Similar visits to North Warwickshire and Hinckley and
Loughborough are being planned.
6
Additions to business plan
VL talked about a proposal for DTLLS students to have an event similar to a Professional Dialogue
seminar where they could meet and mix with other students from different areas/backgrounds.
Action point: JC to circulate updated business plan and ask for more ideas from all
7
Newsletter and website
JC showed a proposed new front page for the website which included more pictures and a slideshow.
It was agreed it should be used to replace the old one, and other aspects of the website would also
be looked at to make it more useable.
She also read out a list of proposed stories for the next newsletter and asked for more suggestions.
MS suggested some information on the new apprenticeship structure.
Action point: MS to write article on the apprenticeship structure
8
Any other business
There was none.
9
Next meeting
The date for the next meeting was set for Thursday, 12 May at 10.30am at the Hundred House Hotel,
Great Witley.