When FE and specialist colleges join forces to support each other, this really benefits learners. This report provides examples of where this has happened and also examples of how colleges are exploring with local authorities how to make the SEND system work for learners. Lots of food for thought and ideas that you might want to explore in your own college.
Extending your education and training offer to include more children and young people
City College Norwich, ETF's Centre for Excellence in SEND (community) held a short webinar, exploring the benefits for employers to engage with learners with SEND and understand what employers really want. They shared their experiences and impact during the climate of COVID 19 of engaging and securing employment for learners with SEND. The webinar and associated PPT were to support providers to have the tools and knowledge to understand what employers really want and how to engage them effectively.
This resource has been developed for the Education and Training Foundation by Natspec to support providers who are currently – or who plan to be – working with learners with profound and multiple learning difficulties (PMLD). Natspec has a wealth of experience in this area and is pleased to share that with the wider sector. Although there are many challenges to working with learners with PMLD, it is also enormously rewarding.
A toolkit for, and case study exploring, a project that placed teacher staff in industry work placements to accrue experience, then cascaded their experiences to colleagues, and ultimately endeavoured to improved students' learning experiences.
In this Education and Training Foundation National Technical Programme outstanding teaching, learning and assessment (OTLA) project Blackburn, Bolton, and Nelson and Colne colleges trialled an approach to employer engagement to boost the skills of digital teachers and align technical qualifications with the Post-16 Skills Plan and T-levels. The project supported teachers to bring real-world learning into the classroom; deliver an employer-led curri
Abingdon and Witney College worked with industry/vocational experts to deliver outstanding teaching, learning, and assessment (OTLA) in programming for robotics and automation and simultaneously upskill college staff in an area of engineering critical to the future of the sector. Selecting a mandatory, externally assessed BTEC engineering unit which required programming expertise outside of that held by the college’s engineering and computing staff, the project paired an industry expert and a teacher to co-deliver the programming elements of the BTEC unit.
Taking a proactive and creative approach that aimed to unlock potential and transform prisoners' lives, this national technical outstanding teaching, learning and assessment (OTLA) project by Weston College Prison Education Service sought to carve a pathway from entry into prison to entry into an apprenticeship on release from prison. The project focused on the hospitality and catering vocational sector.
A case study, along with research resources, exploring a project that aimed to bring together training providers and employers to revisit the current construction curriculum and develop it further to meet the specific skills needs and gaps of local employers.
This action research project, which trialled new exemplar Functional Skills maths and English activities, was part of the ETF Phase 3 Outstanding Teaching, Learning and Assessment programme in 2017/18. The aim was to investigate the newly created activities, to evaluate their effectiveness, and to identify training other teachers might need before using them. The project found that an experienced subject specialist teacher would be able to use the activities but an inexperienced teacher would struggle without guidance.
