Gavin O'Meara: Recent Episodes
Gavin O'Meara
Beth Curtis, Protocol discusses recruiting End Point Assessors and Dual Professionalism at EPA Live.
Beth discusses the two routes to attracting End Point Assessors:
One from the instructors and assessors who were delivering Frameworks, but as Beth explains End Point Assessment is very different and the importance of occupational competence and particularly logging CPD of occupational competence is key for End Point Assessment organisations.
The second group is to attract people from industry, but a lot of work needs to be done to raise awareness of Apprenticeships to professionals. There is also the potential problem that in some occupations the salaries will be very different in some roles and the sector needs to think about how they can become an attractive employer to industry professionals moving into FE and Work Based Learning.
Check out the podcast to hear what Beth has to say.
Richard Meredith from OneFile discusses Ofsted at EPA Live in Wembley.
Richard discusses evidencing learner progress for Ofsted and explained that he was recently attending the Ofsted review for 16-19 and how Ofsted are now particularly interested and making a shift to the impact on a learner. He explains this is particularly around the learner journey, where have they progressed from, where are they now, what are they progressing into. With this in mind and particularly looking at the Three I's of Ofsted (Intent, Implementation and Impact) Richard makes some helpful recommendations and useful ways to evidence a learners progress.
FE News chat with Lucy Dunleavy, Founder and CEO of LearnBox about the modern learner and the future of learner engagement at the EPA Live conference.
Lucy explains that the modern learner is time shy, easily distracted and needs bite sized training to meet their needs. Lifelong learning is changing, the non accredited lifelong learning route could involve Googling a problem or watching a YouTube video to learn something like DIY or to solve a problem such as fixing a boiler.
When then explore what the FE and Skills sector can learn from the modern learner and how we can engage them with accredited training, particularly how to engage learners out of the classroom. Lucy explains that bite sized micro accreditation is a fantastic way to build an accredited lifelong learning strategy.
LearnBox are best known for using video to deliver bite sized training for Functional Skills, and the results / outcomes have been incredibly positive. We ask Lucy, what can the sector learn from this, particularly with new ways of engaging learners. She explains that the World Economic Forum list the most important skills for the future are Creative thinking, critical thinking and problem solving and Lucy highlights that these should be taught and drawn out in schools, if not in adult education to enable these core skills for the future.
We then ask Lucy for her views on how to teach learners to learn to learn, to be ready for the jobs and skills requirements of the future.
FE News chat with Leonie Thompson, EPA Manager from NOCN about the systems and procedures that are a part of the End Point Assessment process. Leonie then goes onto chat about aligning curriculum to Apprenticeship Standards, Planning for a successful Gateway and finishes with some top tips to ensure a successful End Point Assessment
FE News chat with FE Commissioner, Richard Atkins about his role as the FE Commissioner, particularly how the majority of his role which is supporting and developing the 240 FE Colleges across the sector.
Richard explains that although his role is perceived to be all about dramatic college interventions with failing colleges, this is incredibly rare and only happens on a very small handful of minor cases. The majority of Richard's role is developing a consultancy support service for colleges to continually develop and improve the 240 FE Colleges that are incorporated.
Richard discusses the National Leaders of FE and National Leaders of Governance and the Diagnostic Assessment service rolled out by his team to over 60 colleges. This is a free service to help high performing colleges as well as colleges that are struggling or looking to improve. Richard explains that it takes time to deliver long term sustainable improvements (it took him 7 years in his previous College Principal role) and he sees this as the norm for it to take time to deliver excellence.
Richard goes on to explore how we can continually support and improve the sector, whilst trying to remove the stigma of asking for help and support. He then goes onto give some recommendations from the best strategies and processes he has seen in colleges.
After hearing about all of the many support structures in place for FE Colleges, we then go onto ask Richard for his own views to see if a support structure should be in place for Training Providers.
FE News chat with Dr Jay Derrick from UCL. Jay is a Senior Lecturer at UCL, IOE - Education, Practice & Society and Institute of Education. He is also a Senior Lecturer on an Engineering MSc encouraging lifelong learning and agile skill sets for engineers.
Jay discusses how to develop the foundations for learners and professionals to develop stackable skills to prepare for the jobs of the future or new roles that they will progress into.
We have also recorded another podcast with Jay discussing informal lifelong learning
FE News chat with Dr Sam Duncan from UCL about her recent research project called RABiT (Reading Aloud in Britain Today).
The funded project explored hundreds of adults reading aloud behaviours across England, Scotland and Wales and covered a wide range of ages, genders, ethnicities, faiths, educational backgrounds in both urban and rural locations to explore if there were any patterns or stark differences in adults reading aloud practices.
Sam explains the RABiT project, particularly the importance of documenting and analysing adult reading aloud practices. Sam unpacks the research to explores when and why adults read aloud and why this is important and how this can change in different communities, context, languages or stages in a person's life. Sam then explores the RABiT findings to investigate the potential impact that adults reading out loud has when looking at neurodiversity.
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FE News catch up with Dr Jay Derrick to chat about informal Lifelong learning. Jay is a Senior Lecturer at UCL, IOE - Education, Practice & Society and Institute of Education.
Jay has a particular passion for lifelong learning and reflects on the many recent reports around the importance of Lifelong learning. Jay then goes onto discuss the importance of lifelong learning policy, particularly informal lifelong learning.
Jay unpacks the recent UNESCO report that quotes "Adult learning infrastructure as a central feature of a healthy democracy" and how the traditional infrastructure that was developed in the UK is becoming harder to access for adult learners.
Check out what Jay has to say about Lifelong learning and particularly the importance of informal lifelong learning.
FE News chat with Rob Bosworth, Vice Principal at Exeter College about the College of the Future
Collaboration instead of Competition. AELP's Mark Dawe discusses the FE System of the future
FE News podcast with Association of Employment and Learning Providers CEO Mark Dawe at the #AoCConf 2019. We chat with Mark about what the FE system of the future be? Mark discusses a collaboration across the sector and also what he has learnt from his international trips to USA, Australia and Russia.
Check out the podcast to hear what Mark has to say
FE News podcast with ETF's Mark Wright, discussing the future of leadership and development in the sector.
FE News chat with AoC's Chief Executive David Hughes about T Level Industry Placements at the #AoCConf 2019.
FE News podcast with Cath Sezen, Senior Policy Manager - Further Education with the Association of Colleges. We caught up with Cath at the AoC Annual conference 2019. Cath chats about the T Level programme to date and what the future developments could hold.
Please check out the podcast below to hear what Cath has to say about T Levels:
FE News podcast with Martin Doel, Visting Professor and Associate Director Post 14 Centre of Education and Work at UCL Institute for Education.
We caught up with Martin at the #AocConf 2019 after he led an interesting breakout session at the Association of Colleges conference on How to Avoid Education Administration, which was a session primarily aimed at Governs to help them better understand Education Administration.
Martin shares his tips and advice in the podcast below. Martin's main tips are to triangulate information across the Principal and Finance Director and another source to have a balanced picture of the college. To enable the board to have independent sources of information within the college, consider the Financial Director's well being and enable them to have leave, and potentially to explore an audit whilst they are away to have an open look at the finances. Martin also recommends the Board to have space to have private conversations to discuss the progress or any concerns how the organisation is functioning, without the Executive present.
Please check out Martin's podcast below:
FE News chat with Lewis Cooper, Director, Independent Commission on the College of the Future at the Association of Colleges annual conference 2019. We chat with Lewis about the progress of the commission on exploring the College of the Future.
Lewis discusses the progress to date and gives some examples of their findings so far.
Click below to hear what Lewis has to say about the College of the Future.
FE News catch up with @matthewsyed at the #AocConf 2019 annual conference. Matthew discusses Growth Mindset and Diverse Thinking for leadership teams. Check out what Matthew has to say on the podcast below
FE News chat with Steve Mariadas, Chief Executive Officer of the South West Institute of Technology.
FE News chat with David Didau about 'Analogue Learning'. We often hear about the latest innovations in EdTech and how adopting technology improves the learning experience, increases access and enables continual learning. David chats about the power of traditional Analogue learning at the #SETConf19
FE News chat with Teresa Carroll, the Education and Training Foundation (ETF) Head of Wellbeing and Inclusion about the new report on SET members Mental Health and Wellbeing findings that were released at the annual SET Conference 2019.
Teresa discusses the reporting findings, some of the interesting initial outcomes were that newly qualified and practitioners nearing retirement were the most positive. Interestingly, those newly qualified practitioners in years 1 and 2 post qualification stage were at the greatest risk of being under stress. Teresa also pointed out that those teaching staff with real world experience and particularly those with disabilities flagged a negative experience and Teresa flagged that this is an area in particular that the team are interested in exploring more and addressing this to make it a more positive teaching experience.
Teresa then gives some practical tips to help practitioners with their mental health and wellbeing.
Please listen to the podcast below to hear more information from Teresa.
FE News chat with Vikki Liogier, the Education and Training Foundation (ETF) Head of Learning Technologies and Angela Sanders who is an Associate Consultant at ETF about Digital Skills, particularly Essential Digital Skills for CPD.
Check out the podcast below.
FE News chat with David Didau at the SETConf19 to discuss the top tips for Practitioners, teachers, trainers, lecturers and Assessors to progress their career and also how to gain the skills that employers are looking for.
FE News chat with Marie- Claire O'Brien, from New Leaf Initiative to discuss 'hard to reach' learners and how to get involved in offender learning at the #SETConf2019.
Geoff Petty discusses his top tips for new and existing practitioners at the #SETconf2019
FE News chat with Sally Dicketts, Group Chief Executive of Activate Learning about the importance of Coaching for Practitioners and Leaders at the SET 2019 annual conference.
ETF's David Russell discusses how the 2019 General Election could impact FE practitioners
FE News catch up with Education and Training Foundation's CEO, David Russell at the SET (Society for Education and Training Foundation) 2019 conference. We chat with David about how the election could potentially impact the sector and practitioners.
These are uncertain times and depending on the outcome of the election and which Political party wins, or whether a potential coalition Government of multiple parties comes into power after the 12th December election, David explores what could this mean for the sector. David chats through what he anticipates would remain as the delivery models after the dust has settled after the election.
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