Improving the scope and range of the VCS ITT network
Keywords
VCS, Participation, Capacity building, ITT Network
Summary
The VCS ITT support network has been operating since February 2009 with a member
ship of over 60 people. Most of its members are tutors or teachers working in Voluntary
and Community organisations although there are a number of people who are employed
as tutors by local authorities or the health service delivering training in the community.
The network is administered by Community First and offers regular updates through
email newsletters of developments in Lifelong Learning, CPD events and training
opportunities.
This research is being carried out with members of the network to find ways that the
network can support them more effectively. It is hoped that the research will provide a
range of ideas to support the development of a stronger identity for the network and a
sense of community between the members. The research looks at ways of enabling
members to communicate more readily with each other, to share experience and to find
solutions to common problems. It also aims to find cost effective ways and means of
airing views and in promoting these views to decision and policy makers. It also aims to
establish ways in which learning can be enhanced and best practice cascaded
Context
Reforms to the further education workforce in 2007 have meant that many more tutors,
trainers and teachers are required to undertake teacher training qualifications and aim
for qualified teacher status. The reforms apply to people working in the VCS as well as
those in Further Education Colleges and for Work Based learning providers. As a result
many more VCS tutors are undergoing training to gain teaching qualifications. In addition
they are required to undertake a minimum number of continuing professional
development hours in order to
Teachers in mainstream education establishments have well established infrastructure
to support their teaching practice and development. People working in the voluntary and
community sector often work in isolation and have little access to information and
guidance to support their professional development. They are therefore at risk of
becoming marginalised and overlooked.
Specialist support networks are therefore a vital resource offering up to date information
about developments in lifelong learning with the added advantage of offering support
that is relevant and appropriate to tutors in the VCS enabling them to deliver a high
quality experience for their learners. Support networks also provide an opportunity for
VCS tutors to feedback to decision makers their own experience of delivering training,
the relevance of the qualification framework, CPD and other issues that impact on their
role.
The purpose of this research is to find ways of enhancing the support a network of VCS
tutors/ trainers can provides and make it one that people in the sector can relate to more
readily and use most effectively.
Aims and objectives
The project aims to improve the effectiveness of the VCS ITT network. It aims to
establish an identity for the network that its users can recognise and participate in more
readily. The network currently includes tutors trainers and teachers from a range of
organisations involved in lifelong learning in Herefordshire and Worcestershire. Most are
employed either in a paid capacity or as a volunteer in voluntary or community
organisations. Organisations include small local groups providing support to deprived
neighbourhoods, learning centres delivering IT to rural communities and projects
working with older people to promote good health.
However the network also has members who are employed by statutory bodies such as
the Primary Care Trust delivering training or education to patients in the community and
tutors employed by local authorities who are working with families in children’s centres
and other settings. It also includes people who are self employed who are contracted to
deliver training to a variety of organisations in the community.
Not all members deliver training that is statutorily funded and many are not required to
undertake teaching qualifications or join the Institute for Learning. However most
members recognise that it is their interests and the interest of the organisation they work
for that they deliver training to the highest standard. They regard it as essential that they
gain appropriate qualifications and undertake professional development.
The network therefore includes teachers/tutors with a wide variety of skills and subject
specialisms who therefore have a wide range of needs in terms of the support they
require for their professional development. This provides challenges to the network in
providing relevant useful and meaningful information and support that meets the needs
of its members.
There is an enormous range of websites and other resources to support tutors and
teachers and the danger is that people are overwhelmed with the amount of information
that is available. Filtering of information is important but with the diversity of members it
is difficult to ensure that this is effective.
This research therefore looks at ways the network itself can be a mutual support group
and forum for VCS tutors. The research looks at ways members might cascade
information and provide appropriate resources that are most useful and meaningful to
members. This would enable the network to establish an identity that members could
recognise and feel part of. The research looks at the resources and methods available to
support this objective. It also looks at the activities that members would find useful and
examines the most effective ways of delivering these. One of the issues that make a
review of the network essential is that of funding. The research therefore looks at ways
the network can operate in the most cost effective way possible. It is mindful of the
constraints faced by voluntary and community sector organisations in providing services
with limited means.
The objective is to provide tutors in the sector with a network that fully reflects their
needs and the needs of VCS organisations that deliver lifelong learning. It is hoped that
this research will enable the network to continue and grow so that the views and needs
of tutors/ trainers/teachers in the sector are incorporated in initiatives supporting the
development of lifelong learning.
Strategies
Prior to carrying out my research I decided to seek advice from the Getwithit team based
with Community First who are responsible for providing ICT related information, advice
and guidance to the voluntary sector in Herefordshire and Worcestershire. This team
have experience and expertise in delivering innovative solutions to problems associated
with the delivery of services by the voluntary sector in the two counties.
The Getwithit team helped to design my survey and also provided me with an update on
current ICT developments that are helping networks to operate most effectively. I also
explored with them how ICT can be used to communicate with large groups of people
with a common aim. As a result I included questions in my survey about social
networking and the use of the blog to find out whether network members were familiar
with them and whether they might be used by the network
I started my research with a survey of members of the network. The survey was
designed to find out
 The sources members use to support their teaching practice and professional
development
 Which ones are most useful and why
 Why are least useful and why
 Which other networks do they belong to
 What do these networks provide
 How well informed they felt about the lifelong learning teacher training
qualification framework and the institute for Learning
 How well informed they were about Continuing Professional Development
opportunities
Exploration of the initiatives provided by the network was carried out into which have
proved most useful in helping members to develop their teaching practice and their
professional development. I was interested in finding out what more could the network
provide and what they found to be most useful and what was least useful
The survey also included a section which asked them in what other ways could the
network support them.
The survey was carried out using the software ‘survey monkey’ which has proved to be
an effective means of gathering data in the past. The response was relatively small with
eighteen people taking part in the survey.
However I felt that this was a large enough sample for me to be able to gain some useful
insights into the network and its membership
Analysis of the survey showed that over half the tutors/trainers were also carrying out
other roles within their group. These included a volunteer coordinator, development
worker, psychotherapist, extended schools coordinator, manager and infrastructure
support worker.
All of the respondents were paid members of staff but most were part time or on short
contracts. One of the respondents also volunteered as a tutor for another organisation
I was interested to find out what resources people used to support their teaching practice
and professional development. In view of the diverse nature of the respondents it was no
surprise to find out that there were many sources of information available.
Participants in the research cited a range of web based sources including IFL, BBC,
Skills for Life Network, NIACE, OCR, Excellence Gateway and UK online. One tutor who
is involved in the delivery of ICT training felt that there were a range of web based sites
that provided rich sources of information to support her training delivery and professional
practice.
Other sources of support that members used included network meetings, word of mouth,
volunteer centres and bureaux, professional supervision and consultation, peer support
groups, desk top research, publications, newsletters, conferences and ongoing
professional practice within the sector. CPD training sessions, workshops and meetings
were also mentioned.
It was important to find out from participants which of the sources of support and
information they found most useful so that development of the network could be
responsive to their needs. I therefore asked them to tell me what they found most
effective and useful.
Here are some of the responses from participants
‘Varies - they all offer things at different times and in different ways.’
‘All are useful for the piece of information, ideas skills you are looking for. I like looking at
sites to stimulate ideas and compare and reflect on my practice.’
‘Training courses and CPD events - I learn best from listening and practical experience’
‘All useful in different ways. Training events and meetings probably most useful’
‘action learning sets , conferences, continued work experience in sector’
‘Really depends on what I am looking for. NIACE is one of my favourites’
Overall participants in the research reported that CPD training events and workshops
were the most useful and effective means of keeping up to date with their professional
practice
I also wanted to find out which of the sources of information they found to be least
useful. It was interesting to find that for several people who responded to the survey
newsletters were not viewed as a useful method of support. The ITT network had used
these extensively as a means of communicating with members.
Here are two of the comments received
‘emailed newsletters - email overload means that I rarely have time to read them
properly’
‘Newsletters can be good but only if I have time to trawl through them for the part that is
useful to me’
Apart from finding newsletters unhelpful respondents also found
‘that websites that you have to join and pay to look at information. You can’t even decide
if useful or not’
‘Training courses that are not appropriately tailored (or flexible enough to respond) to the
VCS so that it feels like hoop jumping’
‘Large documents of information, they are difficult to get through and take in. Also hard
to apply to practice.’
‘OCR hasn't got much teacher support but does have practice papers.’
In order to get the full picture from members of the VCS network of the support that is
available to them I wanted to find out whether people belonged to other support
networks. I thought it would be interesting to find out what these provided and whether
there were lessons we could learn to make the VCS network more effective and useful
to its members. I felt that this might provide me with ideas that might be incorporated into
our own service.
I found that seven people belonged to other networks. Four of them belonged to IFL and
the other three belonged to networks that operated within their specialist subject
including the Association of Psychotherapists and EXTEND and Tai Ji Quan Dao
In terms of the support that was available from these networks respondents reported
they provided:‘Knowledge about training for PTTLS etc. What others are doing. PD opportunities. A
place to share practice and experience. Potential funding information.’
‘CPD events (via ACPP) Information sharing platform via e-group’
‘regular newsletter’
‘They have a wealth of useful information on line. They also give useful CPD guidance
and information.’
‘ifl regular news and a CPD site’
‘CPD days, residential weekends and internet’
‘Membership, access to CPD’
The main role of the VCS network to date has been to provide information about the
Institute for Learning, The Qualification Framework and Continuing Professional
Development. I wanted to find out how well informed members of the network were
about these particular areas.
Results from the survey showed the following:Qualification Framework
3 people felt not very well informed
11 felt quite well informed and
4 felt very well informed
Continuing Professional Development
3 people felt not very well informed
14 felt quite well informed and
1 felt very well informed
Institute for Learning
8 people felt not very well informed and
10 felt quite well informed
These results demonstrated to me that there was still a lot of work to be done to keep
people up to date with issues that would impact on their professional development and
enable them to take full advantage of all the opportunities to improve their teaching
practice.
The last area for the survey was to explore whether members of the network used social
networking. I wanted to establish whether this might be an effective and cost effective
way of developing communication streams for members
I therefore asked whether they used social networking sites and if so which ones they
used. 15 of the 18 respondents said that they used Facebook. I also asked them
whether they blogged but found that no one used this method of communication.
Having asked members for specific information I also wanted to give them the
opportunity express their own thoughts about the type of support that would be helpful
for their professional development. I asked the question:‘Finally, please describe any ideas, resources or initiatives that you feel would help you
develop your teaching practice’
Here are their responses:-
‘I would like some way of knowing where/when tutors are sought.’
‘I need more opportunities/action learning to share ideas and resources and resolve
teaching/training dilemmas’
‘There are initiatives for volunteers but I am not prepared to do a job of work that that
should be paid for but which the statutory orgs in particular try to get "on the cheap" ’
‘Just regular news regarding courses available to enhance my support tutor certificate
which I hope to gain soon and general info regarding workshops etc’
‘General information / training that is easy and quick. I think most of us are so pushed for
time that attending lots of events can be difficult - but sometimes reading alone can be
difficult to understand and confusing. Perhaps a networking meeting would be useful as I
am sure there are other people in the same 'confused' position as me’
‘local networking groups and further training courses for regular updates’
‘Local dedicated groups & websites to share ideas etc.’
‘Would like to see developed - more professionally led Volunteer Management
qualifications and support networks’
‘ensure that information is sent out in plenty of time for booking courses’
Having completed the survey and analysed the results I then carried out a number of
semi structured interviews with those survey participants who had indicated that they
would be willing to take a further part in the research programme.
The interviews explored in more depth peoples views about the benefits of belonging to
a network. I asked them to explain what they currently gained from belonging to a
network and what else they wanted to get out of their membership. I also explored with
them the how a network created a sense of belonging and whether the VCS network
provided this.
In addition I wanted to look at positive initiatives that could be introduced that would be
manageable on limited resources at their disposal bearing in mind that that tutors
trainers and teachers in the VCS are spread over a wide geographical area, have very
diverse experiences in the delivery of training and are employed or volunteer in
organisations that have a wide variety of aims and objectives
I looked in more depth at their experience of social networking in general. I was
interested in finding out how people used this relatively new innovation. I was also
interested in hearing people views about online resources and their capacity for and
interest in participating in online training such as webinars.
The results of the interviews demonstrated that attitudes towards ICT were more positive
than might have been expected from the initial survey. Respondents could see the
benefits from using social networking in order to communicate with other members. This
was tempered with the strong desire to carry on meeting on a regular basis with their
peers in order to maintain a sense of community
People felt that the network would work better if it could create a team building approach
and have a very clear common goal. Another interesting point was that the network
should also have a role for initiating and influencing change
Outcomes
Since carrying out the research funding to support the network has discontinued. In
order to continue the work of the network alternative means of maintaining and
administering it will have to be found. It is therefore essential that cost effective ways
keeping members engaged and involved will need to be explored and developed.
Effective mechanisms to enable members to engage with each other so that they can
share information and provide support are required. It is essential that these initiatives
are self sustaining and that members of the network are responsible for maintaining
them with little outside support
The most important outcome from this research programme has been the realisation that
the network needs to create and develop an identity that is clear and specific. This
identity would need to have relevance for tutors and trainers across the whole spectrum
of specialisations regardless of the nature of the organisation they worked for. The
original survey and its follow up indicated that the focus of the network should be on
Continuing Professional Development. The overwhelming feeling of tutors and trainers
was that subject specialisation was so varied in the VCS that there was the danger that
individuals were unable to filter information to enable them to identify initiatives and
opportunities that might be of value to their teaching practice. The network would not
therefore continue to provide subject specific information. Other professional bodies that
individuals and organisations have access to would continue to provide this kind of
support.
Many of the participants in the survey were users of social networking. Communication
by members through blogging or a Facebook site would be an effective means for
people to keep in touch. These could all be set up at no cost and contributed to by all
who had information to share. It would be easy to provide it with an identity to encourage
people to join and is an effective medium for keeping people in touch with their peers
and create a sense of community and identity.
Rural isolation and the problems of working in small organisations could be addressed
by using ICT more effectively. Training events held delivered online by Community First
have proved popular and the organisation is actively exploring ways of expanding these
to include CPD events for tutors. It will be important for the network to keep up to date
with developments in ICT.
The research process also established that the network should have a distinctive logo
and title. This would ensure that teachers, tutors and trainers in the sector would
instantly recognise and associate with the provision of specific information that is aimed
at enhancing their teaching practice.
The research has therefore resulted in a number of initiatives that are being developed
These are aimed at providing the resources, support and information that is appropriate
to VCS tutors in the two counties specifically to support their teaching practice. It is
hoped that they provide a balance between providing cost effective support whilst at the
same time enabling members of the network to meet and share experiences and
expertise.
These include:
 A quarterly meeting including a CPD workshop held at a member’s venue
 A yearly programme of events
 A facebook group
 A peer mentoring group
 ‘How To’ leaflets produced by members
 Webinars to support CPD
The challenge will be to keep the network functioning without a central administrative
point. The most effective way of ensuring the continuation of the network will be to keep
it close to the needs and requirements of its members and ensure that they have the
responsibility for providing support to their peers.
Key learning points
What we have learned from doing this project
Carrying out the project has enabled us to better understand the needs and challenges
faced by tutors working in the sector and where the VCS network can play a better part
in supporting their professional development. It has enabled us to reassess and refine
the range of support that is provided through the network. We have learned what does
not work for members. We have discovered the methods of communication that people
in the sector value most highly. We have taken steps towards making the network self
sufficient.
What has the organisation learned
The organisation has learned more about how ICT can support individuals and the
importance of using recent developments in social networking to change the way
networks can operate. It has also given us the opportunity to expand our range of online
training provision to include CPD opportunities
How far did we achieve our aims
Many of tour initial aims were achieved but as funding to maintain the network has now
ceased the challenge will be to carry on the work perhaps by seeking alternative funding
What worked well and less well
The use of survey monkey was an effective tool although my perception is that this type
of survey is becoming so widespread that people are becoming tired of responding to
this kind of questionnaire now. This might explain the relatively low response rate in the
initial survey. Time has been an issue and the research would have benefitted from
having longer to interview more people and follow up more responses to the survey
What would we have done differently
I would like to have combined carrying out a survey with a CPD training day or workshop
where members of the network could have got together and discussed with their peers
the ways in which the development of the network could be taken forward. I think this
would have provided an opportunity for the network to take steps towards establishing a
stronger, more cohesive network. A variety of factors prevented this from happening but
it is hoped that this will take place in the future. The network continues to grow. As the
benefits from undertaking PTTLS and higher qualifications become more widely
recognised more people in the voluntary and community sector will undertake the
awards and will participate in CPD opportunities. The research would have benefitted
from having more views from a wider range of individuals representing more groups.
Better publicity may have enable this to happen
How will we share our findings
The findings will be shared with network members the infrastructure consortia of
Herefordshire and Worcestershire through a variety of media including electronic means
meetings and at the next Community First annual general meeting
Sustainable
It is hoped that the network will continue to grow and flourish as Community First
continue to deliver PTTLS and CPD events and as members of the network take on
more responsibility for sharing information and providing support.
Next steps
Details of the initiatives that we have introduced or are planning to carry out are
discussed above include more CPD events and the exploration of ICT solutions which
will overcome some of the challenges faced by members working in the VCS.
Contact details
Louise Jones,
Training and Learning Adviser,
Community First,
Malvern View,
Willow End Park
Blackmore Park Road
Malvern
WR13 6NN
Tel 01684 312756
email:- louisej@comfirst.org.uk