West Midlands CETT Advisory Board Meeting
held on 8 March 2011 at NEW College
Present:
1.
Shelley Phelan (NEW College) (Chair)
Julie Chamberlain (Project Manager WMCETT) Secretary
Fergus McKay (Director WMCETT)
David Lamburn (University of Warwick)
Maureen Atkinson (Chair of Learning Strategy Group, RAWM)
Mike Smith (HWSTPA)
Apologies
Ros Partridge (Dudley College and LEAFEA) was not present.
2.
Minutes of the Advisory Board meeting, November 2010
They were agreed as a correct record.
3.
Matters arising
JC said she had tried to find out from ACETT whether there would be winding up costs if WMCETT closed
down and had been unable to discover anything.
Action point: JC to pursue this further with LSIS
4.
Project Manager’s update
JC talked through the annual report which she had put together detailing all the projects WMCETT had
been involved in over the year April 2010-March 2011. She also handed out an LLUK flyer about the work
WMCETT had done for an ACETT/LLUK project, with resources and a video now available on the LLUK
website and on YouTube.
FM referred to one item in the report and said that when people within the Third Sector had been trained
to teach PTLLS to colleagues the impact had been significant. We had attended an awards evening to
present certificates the previous week. SP said achievement was often not celebrated enough.
FM said WMCETT was heartened by the increased number of page viewings and visitors to its website over
time. He said information by a number of organisations we work with or support was on there and people
often used it as a resource site.
4.
Financial update
JC tabled figures which showed WMCETT’s budget for the past four years and how much was still unspent
from the 2010-11 budget. She said the Advisory Board had already agreed that WMCETT could continue
until the end of the academic year, in August. She presented a paper on WMCETT’s financial future which
included the cost of continuing until the end of August 2012. She asked the Board to approve the CETT
continuing to operate in this way.
MA said it was important to continue so WMCETT was in a position to take advantage of any more funding
opportunities that could come along. FM said WMCETT currently had a bid in to the LSIS Regional Response
Fund for a project to set up Change Exchange networks.
MS said there were a lot of infrastructural changes that needed to be made to support the Level 4/5
apprenticeships. He was applying for the second year of the SER programme funding and in the coming
year would be looking at how the private sector could support the new apprenticeship framework.
DL asked if the money available now was new money. Some had come off old contractors to be spent
differently this year.
FM said the CETT supported the university’s widening participation agenda and indirectly the development
of new qualifications, such as three new courses for clerks for governors.
MS said the foundation degree level of apprenticeships had to be accredited and doing that would help the
University of Warwick with the widening participation agenda. Subjects covered included financial services,
IT and engineering. He said he saw it as a real opportunity and a growth area but WBL had never delivered
at this level before so staff would have to be trained and it would need to be accredited.
6.
Director’s update
FM said he was heartened at a recent meeting of ACETT by the messages coming out of LSIS and IfL that
they believed there was a role for the CETTs. The CETTs had been reclassified so they were no longer
standing outside the sector so can bid for funds, which was something that had been lobbied for.
On teacher training funding, FM said the CETTs had lobbied the government to ringfence teacher training
funding for the lifelong learning sector. There was a recognition that if they reduce any support for that it
could mean the end of the drive for professionalisation.
PTLLS was going to be increased from a six credit to a twelve credit course. FM said Michael Gove had
announced that teachers with QTLS in the lifelong learning sector have the right to teach in schools. MS
said there would be some resistance from schools.
7.
Future of WMCETT
This had mainly been covered under the discussion on the budget update. DL said it would be foolish now
not to carry on. MS asked how much Warwick valued WMCETT. DL said widening participation would be
increasingly important to the university.
Action point: FM/MS to provide DL with details of costs and information on apprenticeships
8.
Any other business and next meeting
The date for the next meeting was set for Tuesday, September 27 at 5pm at NEW College.