Member Article

Unprecedented prominence meets unprecedented pressure

2012 promises to be a year of great challenges for the learning and skills sector: The year where unprecedented prominence meets unprecedented pressure.

On one hand, the sector has not felt at the centre of the action for quite some time, with Vince Cable announcing that the further education and skills system can make “a major contribution to economic recovery”.

Recent months have seen the government unveil a flurry of new strategies and policies aimed at reforming the sector, ranging from the eye-catching announcement of a National Careers Service to growing government attention on the quality and relevance of apprenticeships.

On the other hand, this renewed emphasis on learning and skills providers comes at the exact moment that budgets are being squeezed like never before.

And that’s not the only pressure the sector is under. Further Education minister John Hayes has even gone so far recently as to suggest that not only will contracts between the government and providers be tightened, providers – and those with whom they sub-contract to - failing to meet quality standards may even have funding withdrawn.

Yet, taking a step away from the policies, for any provider, central to a culture of continuous improvement there must be a rigorous approach to self evaluation which puts the learner at the heart of what they do.

The Government’s recent “New Challenges, New Chances” report promised to reduce the regulatory burden on providers, including the welcome removal of the requirement to submit an annual Self-Assessment Report (SAR) to the SFA.

This is good news and our discussions with providers over the last month have demonstrated that the removal of a yearly deadline to complete the SAR has afforded them the opportunity to reconsider their approach to managing quality. For most, this will be about evaluation that is part of the day to day operation and captured and reviewed at regular intervals rather than the cramming which takes place for many providers in November and December.

Mesma was formed by a group of experienced further education professionals with a goal of using technology to drive up standards of teaching, learning and assessment across the sector.

The assessment and improvement planning software we have developed – which is already being used by local providers Zodiac Training and Access Training, and which will be rolled out in Key Training and Sunderland College by end March - is designed to give providers the confidence that what they are evaluating is not just in line with the soon to be changing Ofsted standards but also engages their workforce throughout the year in a process of gathering their ideas and assessments and giving them ownership over important improvement initiatives.

Assessments and improvement plans are left to one member of staff, sometimes far away from the reality of the day to day operation. Their work is then filed away and only looked once a year at most. Our belief is the more learner-facing employees can be encouraged to evaluate their own performance in a structured way and play a role in delivering improvements, the more the FE sector can play a key role in economic recovery.

And it’s by doing this that our sector can take an important step to face up to the challenges of 2012.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Carole .