Thursday 26 November

09.15  Arrival and Coffee ; Conference Registration

09.30  NFEC Ltd AGM – John Lockey, current NFEC Chair

10.15    Welcome and Introduction – Bob Millington MBE

10.20   Jas Dhillon – Senior Manager, Adult Skills for Work Team,
                                    QCDA

             Final Preparations for QCF Implementation

             In the run-up to 2010 when all qualifications must be reformed to
             comply with QCF guidelines, are developments still progressing
             according to plan and what outstanding issues remain for successful
             implementation?  What are the advantages for both providers and
             employers and will the administrative burden on providers increase?
             How are the relationships between awarding bodies going to be
             affected by such as the development of “shared” and “restricted”
             units?

10.55    Leighton Ernsberger – Senior Policy Manager for QCF
                                                     Implementation, LSC

             Funding Strategy in Support of QCF Implementation

             Developments have been progressing to produce a funding
             strategy that will effectively embrace the QCF model of programme
             structure. What methodology is likely to emerge to fund this
             new structuring of qualifications and how will it operate?

11.35   Coffee; Visit educational exhibitors;

12.10    Eugene Incerti - Director of Skills Competitions, UK Skills 

           UK Skills Competitions – Preparation for World Skills London
              2011

             With the success of the 2009 Skills Olympics in Calgary behind us,
             how are preparations developing for those for 2011.  How can
             providers and employers become involved?  Following this
             presentation, delegates will have the opportunity to view a
             demonstration of activities that form the basis of preparations for
             World Skills London 2011 taking place in parallel with the first day of
             Conference.

12.40   Lunch (and check-in for residential delegates)

             Visit educational suppliers and exhibitors

13.40  Workshop Briefing – Bob Millington

             Workshop Session 1  

             Given the success of the workshop format at previous
             conferences, the following workshops are being made
             available with the opportunity to rotate and therefore broaden
             the experience that can be gained from them. They will be led
             by practitioners and be chaired by an NFEC Director. Please
             prepare clear, concise feedback.

•         View the skills competition running in parallel with Conference.
  

•         Apprenticeships - In preparation for the presentation on SASE, what concerns are emerging and how might they be addressed, including those on which NFEC may need to make representation.
  

•         Engineering Diploma - One year on, what lessons are being learned from the delivery, organisation and development and use of teaching materials?
  

•         The Manufacturing Diploma was launched in September – what are the initial findings in the delivery of this new programme?  Are there lessons to be learned from experiences of delivering the Engineering Diploma?
  

•         Implementation of the QCF - View of awarding bodies (EAL, C&G & IMI Awards)

14 50    Chris Morecroft – Principal, Worcester College of Technology
                                            and Chair of the AoC’s HE in FE Group

             HE in FE – A Change of Direction?

             In the early part of this year, proposals were still in place for
             olleges to establish their own vocational degrees to be known
             as Bachelor of Vocational Studies. This plan has now been
             dropped in favour of more direct funding of degree courses
          .  Either way, are we moving to a position where some colleges
             will take the place of Polytechnics – a slot vacated when the
             latter became universities?

15.25   Workshop Session 2 – An opportunity for delegates to rotate
              and attend another workshop of choice.

16.25   NFEC  Directors - Review of Day 1

             Review of the issues from Conference so far and the
             Workshops.  Identification of actions for NFEC from Day 1. To
          include succinct presentations from Workshop chairs on
             identified issues for NFEC to address.

Close of Thursday Session.

Conference Dinner (Residential delegates and invited guests)

Dinner wine sponsored by EAL

.Friday 27 November

08.45   Registration and Coffee - New Arrivals

09.00    Ian Carnell – Head of Learning Strategies, SEMTA – but also
                                       representing the views of Summit Skills

              Specification of Apprenticeship Standards for England (SASE)

              SASE sets out the requirements with which each recognised
              Apprenticeship Framework in England must comply.  Launched in
              February of this year, the SASE will replace the existing non-statutory
              “Blueprint” and is in response to the Government World Class
               Apprenticeships published in January last year.  How does the SASE
               differ from the Blueprint and what will be the advantages to
               apprentices, employers and providers – is there a watering down of
               standards with the demise of Technical Certificates - a view from
               both SEMTA and Summit Skills.

09.35     Workshop Session 3 – In accordance with the feedback from
               previous conferences, some of the workshops are being
               repeated from the first day of Conference.

•         Apprenticeships - In the light of the presentation on SASE, what concerns are emerging and how might they be addressed, including those NFEC need to make representation on.
   

•         Engineering Diploma - One year on, what lessons are being learned from the delivery, organisation and development and use of teaching materials?
   

•         The Manufacturing Diploma was launch in September – what are the initial findings in the delivery of this new programme? Are there lessons to be learned from experiences of delivering the Engineering Diploma?
   

•         Implementation of the QCF - View of awarding bodies (EAL , C&G & IMI Awards)

10.15    Adam Leatherhead – Team Leader, Systems Engineering
              for Freelander2 Stop/Start System, Jaguar Land Rover

               Developments in automotive engineering have and continue
               to gather speed.  What features of the cars of today are likely
               to change to accommodate the expanding demands for a
               more green society?  A view from the leading development
               centre of Jaguar/Land Rover on the intricacies behind the JLR
               Stop/Start System.  Also, what is the future direction of hybrid
               systems for Jaguar/Land Rover?  How might these
               developments affect the content of programmes of training for
               engineers of tomorrow?

10.45     Coffee;  Visit educational exhibitors;

11.15     Isabel Sutcliffe – Director of Qualifications, EDEXCEL

                The future of the Established Vocational Qualifications with
                the Emergence of Engineering and Manufacturing
                Diplomas?

                There is still much talk and indeed, some confusion over the
                future of the well established vocational qualifications in the
                light of the emergence of the new diplomas. What is the
                current thinking and have the mixed messages from
                Government on this mater been clarified?

11.50     Bob Busby – National Lead Inspector for Engineering

                Following consultations and pilot inspections, OFSTED has
                introduced from September this year a revised framework for
                inspection of post-16 education and training.  Whilst the
                revised arrangements will build on the current Common
                Inspection Framework, what key differences and/or
                enhancements are there and how will they be of benefit to
                the learner, provider and employer?

12.25       Plenary Session – NFEC Directors

                This to be kept very focused and closely related to what actions
                 delegate would like to see NFEC take in relation to the themes and
                 topics from the Conference. The structure of the discussion will
                 encompass

• Issues from workshops and conference
  

• Related agreed actions for NFEC

• Agree themes/topicsthat delegates would like to see covered 
  at the Spring 2010 Conference.

12.45    Lunch,  Conference Close & Departure  

We try to continually improve the value of your conferences – it will be a great help if you would complete and leave your evaluation form for this event with Bob Millington, before you go.  Thank you.  

And remember, the conference is not the end.  As well as keeping you informed, it is also a means of helping us focus more closely on what we can do for our Members.  After the conference, please feel free to contact us, to find out what action plans are in place to resolve the issues that have emerged here, as well as others that are already 'in hand'.  We look forward to hearing from you soon.