The  agenda 
for the next NFEC National Council meeting is now available in the
                                                         MEMBERS AREA. of our web site

If there are other items you would like addressed - let us know!

NFEC’s next National Conference will take place on Thursday 26 and Friday 27 November, at the Holiday Inn, Coventry (just off Junction 2 of the M6).

It will be an excellent opportunity to learn about the changes that are impacting on providers now, and even more so in the coming months.  Delegates can have their say and help ensure that the changes stay on the right side of reasonable.

We are looking at the most profound impact on Providers for the last 20 years!  The Qualification and Curriculum Framework (QCF) will impact on your organisation, on the delivery and funding of learning/training programmes and it will have a radical effect on the qualifications available.  When first mooted it seemed very sensible but we now see that it will affect nearly everything you do - and not in the way you would wish!   We will be looking closely at its likely effects on Day 1.  

And we will also be looking at how the Diplomas are going.  

It is vital that you have the opportunity to address these matters directly with presenters and through them feed back to those who are instrumental in driving the changes.  So join us and have your say.

Structured workshop sessions will allow delegate views to be collated and addressed.

A UK Skills Competition will take place in parallel with the main Day 1 programme. It will form part of the preparation for the Skills Olympics of 2011 and it will be one of your workshop options.  You can view the activities and cheer on the competing teams from around the country..  

Day 2 - There will be an opportunity to hear about innovative thinking on an area of technology that is very likely to affect what will be included in the training of engineers in the future. A leading motor manufacturer will describe developments in the context of the emerging ‘Green’ agenda.  

Also included are presentations on apprenticeships in both the Building Services and Engineering Sectors and these will bring delegates up-to-date on what will replace the Technical Certificate in apprenticeship programmes.  Again, you will have an opportunity to challenge the thinking and task NFEC on what you want us to do.

The revised Inspection Framework will also be addressed with an opportunity to question how this will affect the post-16 Sector.

Workshops will always led by practitioners and you will be able to choose the sessions that suit you best.   

Don’t miss this opportunity to help us to help you keep a lid on the level of change and frustration you will face in the coming months.  

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Meetings have been set for the Midlands - Friday 6 November at Shrewsbury College of Arts and Technology and for the South West - Friday 20 November at Bridgwater College.  Further announcements on this will be made soon and these will appear on the NFEC web site..

On the modus operandi:

London and South East has been returned to two separate Regions. . Apart from these two, NFEC is also represented in the South West, North West, North East and Midlands.

NFEC expects there to be at least two regional meetings a year – Autumn and Spring - but the number will be what the Regional Group decides.  NFEC will be happy to provide support for the Groups where necessary and to publish programmes and minutes on the web site.

Meeting venues will be a matter for the Groups but it is likely that Centres around the Regions will host them.   

Each region will have Regional Representatives who will attend the NFEC National Council, to bring regional thoughts and concerns into discussions at the national level.  These will be key contributions to the development of policy and for action planning.  The Representative will be elected by the Group and will serve for whatever period the Group decides.

Bob Millington (NFEC Director for Regional Coordination and National Liaison) will be attending as many as possible of these Regional events. NFEC Directors Alan Gray and John Lockey will also participate in this way.  This will not only help inform and contribute a national perspective to the regional discussions but it will also aid understanding of and response to any emerging national issues.

Bob, Alan and John will, if called upon, advise Regional Group leaders on possible discussion items and appropriate speakers.  

More meeting dates and programme details will be appearing on 
the NFEC website shortly.

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3 gold and 6 bronze medal wins at largest skills based competition in the world !

It’s now official:  Britain really has got talent, as clearly demonstrated by the exceptionally skilled team of 26 young people who spent four days in early September competing at the skills equivalent of the Olympics – the WorldSkills Competition in Calgary, Canada.  At an emotional closing ceremony attended by all 900 competitors from the 46 nations that took part, as well as a further 6,000 team supporters and judges, it was announced that the UK had won an amazing three gold and six bronze medals at skills ranging from painting and decorating to floristry and autobody repair.  In addition the UK was also awarded 14 Medallions for Excellence given to competitors who achieve at least 500 points, deemed the world class standard.

Team UK were understandably ecstatic about their achievements.  The Team, who are all under the age of 25 and chosen throughout the home nations, had each trained hard for the event over the last eighteen months.  Social lives were put on hold as each individual perfected their skill to make sure they were at the world class level needed to compete against the very best young skilled people in the world.  Independent Education Foundation Edge is the Premier Supporter of Squad and Team UK, as part of its commitment to raising the status of practical and vocational learning.

You can see the official Press Release by clicking here.

On to the 2011 Skills Olympics in London – can we do even better?  Maybe you have a candidate?  Why not view the next UKSkills competition which will take place in conjunction with NFEC’s National Conference at the Holiday Inn, Coventry on 26 and 27 November.

More details at UKSkills Home Page                                        

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The Faculty of Technology at Lambeth College ran a pilot to explore the embedding of Functional Maths within the new 14-19 provision.  Described as a mini action-research project, it saw a small group of tutors chosen to establish whether increased collaboration between SfL tutors and vocational tutors would have a positive impact on learner retention and success rates. If so, a similar model could be implemented across the whole organisation, to enhance embedding through blended learning and hence improve functional skills achievements.

Lambeth College is a large inner city general further education college in the London Borough of Lambeth. The college has a wide range of provision for learners 14-16 (through link programmes), 16–18 years and for adults. The college had established embedded and integrated programmes with vocational schemes of work (with references to LLN).  Nevertheless, it was still struggling to see any significant impact on success rates as a result of those efforts. The pilot was carried out with a group of NEET learners (16-18), many with additional learning and social needs.

The recent Ofsted inspection (published April 2008) reported that ‘Practical standards were high in engineering and construction' and there was evidence of 'marked improvements in achievement rates at Level 1 for learners aged 16-18'.  The College wanted to measure the impact of a more collaborative embedded approach in the hope that this would increase learner engagement, improve learners’ attendance and success rates, for learners aged 16-18 at entry level 3 and adults at L1.

The pilot looked at Functional Maths, with one group of learners, in one vocational subject area in the Technology Faculty.   The team was made up of one vocational tutor (motorcycle engineering), one numeracy tutor, one numeracy learning support tutor and one literacy tutor.   The Deputy Faculty Director (SfL) and the Technology Faculty Director contributed to the pilot by sharing resources and organising workshops and meetings

Team comments:

“Both groups will now have more Numeracy and Literacy within their Motorcycle classes. For me, this project has opened my eyes to ways of helping the less able learners achieve higher goals than anyone could have foreseen.   The whole of the year group will benefit from this trial.”

Motor Vehicle Tutor

“The pilot was a useful means of getting together with other colleagues and working collaboratively.  Finding ways of identifying areas that link with the numeracy or the literacy - and how to better support/deliver a given topic - sometimes proved quite challenging.   However, even with a variety of mixed-bag resources it proved to be a positive and effective way forward.”

Numeracy Tutor

You can get the full story by going here - it is well worth reading!

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When it was initially formulated, almost all of us welcomed the concept of a credit-based framework for qualifications.  We said ‘Yes, great idea – we will have rationalization and everyone will know what is available and what is required.  All we need beyond that is that the resources are in place, so that the qualifications can be delivered, and that practitioners have the lead time to assimilate the requirements and prepare to give the learners a reasonable deal.  These are the key requirements upon which quality depends’

So what have we got?

What we have at this moment in time, in both engineering and building services (and very likely other Sectors as well), is a ‘yes, no, maybe’ situation. These are the answers you are telling us you get from the various organisations involved.

In April 2002 we wrote to Ivan Lewis, then Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Education and Skills, describing ‘An Impending Crisis in Vocational Education and Training’.  Given the current state of play with the QCF, the development and approval of qualifications to populate it and the considerable impact upon apprenticeship frameworks, what we are looking at here is something that begins to make the 2002 issue look like nothing more than a fairly trivial problem.

You will likely recall that what was proposed then was that Progression Awards 'were the future' and existing (and popular) awards like the C&G 2000 and 3000 Series would be withdrawn.  Same issue, the development dragged on and on but the introduction point was fixed and practitioners were being given little time to prepare.  On what planet do these ‘bright ideas’ people live?   They have clearly never delivered learning and if they did they would not have wanted OFSTED to come around!  Does anyone know whatever happened to progression Awards?

So where are we now?  The Awarding Bodies, in many cases, are still awaiting finalised specifications from the SSCs, so no one yet knows what the qualifications will look like, never mind getting them to OFQUAL or into the Framework. The SSCs seem to have no comprehension that Learning Centres need to produce marketing material to let potential clients know what will be available and so plan accordingly.

What is the situation with NVQs?  Again confusion reigns. There is a document ‘Operating rules for using the term 'NVQ' in a QCF qualification title’ – available at OFQUAL   It states that the award title may be used in brackets for certain awards which meet specific criteria e.g. ‘Confirm occupational competence and/or licence to practise as its main qualification purpose’.  Some SSCs are unable to decide whether they will go down this path.  No doubt, like me, you can recall hearing that NVQs are the future – it now seems that ‘they have a great future behind them’!

And what about funding?    The LSC has published a number of documents on the issue, available at www.lsc.gov.uk.   They say that they 'will fund single units, but not yet’.   They talk of ‘full awards’, to be determined by the SSCs - so does that mean they will probably not fund the 12 Credit Award, but will fund Certificates and Diplomas.   

Funding will not be available for NQF qualifications which have been superseded by QCF ‘equivalents’.  And don’t think that 10 hours funding will be available for each credit; they have noted that this does not necessarily mean contact time!

The Apprenticeship Framework Technical Certificates are to go, as is the PEO.  The day release programmes in your Centres are likely to look quite different next year – but as yet no one knows by how much!  

If you have any further information, either positive or negative, do please let us know?    

On the positive side, IMI Awards already have a QCF Level 1 Diploma qualification approved and available – get details here

NFEC will be pursuing these issues on your behalf – get in touch and let us know we have your support!  

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‘Functional skills’ constitute the latest attempt to provide learners with the ‘rounded’ ability to perform well in dealing with the wide range of scenarios that they will encounter in life - at home, in work and in leisure pursuits.  Will it be ‘third time lucky’?  We generally fit work roles to individuals by looking at their qualifications, but what we are doing is tacitly assuming that the qualification represents ‘what the individual can do’.   We do know however that such an assumption carries significant risk! 

The likelihood of optimising potential and success in career (and life) comes not only from being good at applying technical job skills – the individual’s performance will be limited unless he/she can apply the technology of the day, make business judgments and (most important of all) be able to influence the people around them.   For example, you could be first rate and fully registered as a Gas Systems Engineer, but if you want to develop and run a business as a Sole Trader, you will only succeed if you can not only price a job and use technology to keep records and accounts, but you must also (crucially) be able to persuade people to give you the business.

Parallel examples can be found in all areas of engineering and technology and indeed right across the economy.

Yes, you can argue that individuals learn these skills ‘as they go’.  Of course they do – but the question is ‘Can we not do better than that’?   Well, yes, we can – and that is where functional skills come in!  We all know that we learn quickest and best when we are young.  Old dogs, etc.  So we can raise the level by providing opportunities for learners to develop these skills, to a good extent, before they have to take on their adult responsibilities.

You may say ‘Well, we tried Key Skills, and they didn’t work – and we tried other versions before that!  So what’s new?  We even tried integrative assignments, but nobody liked them’.   Well, yes, we did ‘do’ all of that – but we didn’t really do it right.  Far too many Centres tried to ‘bolt on’ Key Skills and brought in experts (?) to teach them separately.  We can (and must) do better this time!

But how, and where/when do we start?

Functional Skills must be ‘in place’ for all 14-19 learners from September 2010, so now is the time to act!   Learn more about FS by going to http://www.qcda.gov.uk/6062.aspx.

You might have been in the Pilot which has been running from 2007.  Even if you have there is some very useful information available on what has been happening - go to http://www.qcda.gov.uk/22237.aspx to get the background. 

You can download a PDF file by clicking here – it provides comment from a range of functional skills pilot centres and brings the centres experiences together as the ‘Top 10 Steps to Success’.  Well worth a read and to inform your centre’s cultural development. 

The strategy is to develop the culture – then everything else will follow.  Get key people trained and enable them to cascade the training.  Run your own internal ‘pilot’ to help build the culture for success.  Each teacher should re-write one learning activity and a related assessment assignment to embed development and assessment of Functional Skills.  Do not use ‘FS experts’ – mainstream teachers will then see FS as ‘not my problem’ and learners will see it as ’marginal’, and success will be low.

All Centres are entitled to free training during 2009-10.  You can get details here. http://www.qcda.gov.uk/20669.aspx. 

In addition, there are Regional Functional Skills Teams and Regional Facilitators in place now to help you get going and you can link into the Functional Skills Support Programme by going to  http://www.fssupport.org/.  The site provides advice, guidance, materials and resources and more will be added in the coming months.  Post-16 practitioners may wish to approach via the LSIS Excellence Gateway, using: http://www.excellencegateway.org.uk/functionalskills.  The programme is designed to prepare practitioners, leaders and managers to introduce functional skills in their centre, from developing applied learning to adopting a whole-organisational approach to the implementation.

When you have had visited all of these links you will certainly conclude that there is lots of support and resources available.  However, despite all of this being available externally, Functional Skills will only be a success within your institution if the culture is right and everyone ‘buys in’

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Edexcel is offering opportunities
 
as Principal Examiner and Principal Moderator 
- for Engineering and Manufacturing programmes.  

You can view their advert by clicking here.  

From the advert you can link to their site for more details and you can use an email link if you have questions or would like to apply. 

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