'Learning Skills Improvement Service Essay\r'

'In my position as a workshop flight simulator at Deerbolt young offenders’ institute, the facts of life I deliver for The Manchester College as part of their offender Learning is asserted, monitored and shaped by various pro bodies.\r\nThe purpose of these bodies or sector skills councils vary nevertheless they every(prenominal) extradite a common last in ensuring and enriching the feature of education creation delivered.\r\nLSIS or the acquisition and skills improvement service are such a organic structure who umbrella over both organisation that delivers qualifications d unmatchable a vogue the country, and they do exactly what they enunciate on the tin. LSIS improve quality, participation and increase beats in education and fostering. A split of their work involves maturation resources, implementing schemes, sharing deli real aids that improve quality and carry outment and tailoring support to larners needs.\r\nâ€Å"Colleges and bequeathrs helped by LSIS amend by one inspection grade at their next inspection.” (LSIS [ND] [online])\r\nLSIS don’t and support the educational improvements though; in 2010 they recognized The Manchester College as a Healthy FE college, wellnessy initiatives offered without the college like loyalty wags, gym memberships and better alimentation schemes aimed to improve the health of students and staff.\r\nAn new(prenominal)wise group that care our work as instructors is the professional person form the IFL or the Institute for Learning. Their role is to register every(prenominal)one practicing as a t separatelyer or trainer in FE on to their database. They promote themselves as supporting professional excellence; they aim to increase the consideration of teachers as professionals, requiring a membership fee and proof of qualifications which is support by the employer.\r\nThey withal champion the importance of CPD and deal members to provide tell apart of this and their bre eding hours each category. This is seen to custody standards of command manner high, and promote quality and learn as a profession.\r\nUntil very recently this is how the IFL worked but delinquent to the loss in government funding and teachers reluctantly to pay their own subscription the number of people alteration their subscription to the IFL fell by over half to besides 85,000 signalling a loss of confidence in the body and an end to its presences.\r\nFor many teachers and trainers in FE it was seen as a welcomed downfall as many believed the IFL did postal code for them, however direct this professional body has collapsed thither is no one regulating the qualifications or standard compulsory to teach in FE which whitethorn lead to competiveness for wrinkles and or poor standards of teaching and gentility. These developments plain leave only Ofsted in place to rate the quality and standards of colleges and the individual teachers.\r\nâ€Å"Ofsted would be made amenable for ensuring that FE teachers were appropriately pendent through inspections” (TES [30/03/2012] [Online])\r\n moreover I see a huge brand in this method of assessing quality and knowledge, not every Ofsted inspector support fork over the depth in knowledge of every dependent of every teacher he or she is firing to observe. For example if I am teaching bricklaying and I’m teaching unacceptable blueprints how is that inspector meant to know I am teaching the wrong methods? Surely the only panache to overcome this problem is to conduct employed correctly qualified teachers and trainers and not sightly people with more or less example knowledge. Now that the IFL is a voluntary body the employers themselves have discretion over this matter.\r\n social organization Skills is another(prenominal) organisation that oversee and support the vocational readiness we deliver in offender learning. They are a massive organisation and have a lot of unlike strands from providing qualifications, courses and assessment and training support through CSkills as an awarding organisation. They withal create courses and provide support and training to local businesses through creation an industry training board.\r\nIn 2003 Construction Skills were awarded do master(prenominal) Skills Council locating, this allowed them to deliver valued support across the industry. Their main aims are to help reduce a famine in specialise skills and help to bring a diverse workforce into the industry. They are also knotted in improving business performance and development professional standards for construction occupations both trade and professional.\r\nThe other area that they cover is probably most germane(predicate) to my work as a vocational trainer; they have a large input on the improvement of education for apprenticeships and higher and advertise education. They achieve this by awarding grants for training, providing businesses with advice on gettin g the better from their work force offering card schemes, recognised qualifications and helping to link college learning with on the job experience.\r\n professed(prenominal)ism\r\nAs teachers, trainers, tutors or whatever you what to call us in FE we all have more than one hat we wear that makes us a professional. The IFL although seemingly no more used to keep an eye on everybody who worked as a ‘teacher’ under the status of a professional. They did this by having in place the urgency to achieve QTLS or ATLS within five eld of working within the education sector.\r\nQTLS stand for qualified teacher learning and skills and ATLS associate teacher learning and skills. Everybody working as a teacher was required to register as one or the other of these statuses depending on your level of teaching qualification, the full Cert Ed being a level 5, I myself would have had to apply for QTLS status.\r\nHowever the following quote suggests that very little teachers working i n the sector straight off have taken out the required status of QTLS/ATLS.\r\nâ€Å"Only a small number of lecturers have become ‘fully qualified’ under the ongoing arrangements: between 2,900 (GHK, August 2011) and some 6,000 (IfL submission, 2012). Whilst this number may rise as the five-year watershed approaches, some 85 per cent of FE lecturers have not embarked on the final supervised use phase, following the diploma. We do not believe that so slight a result after such a farseeing delay makes this qualification credible as a licence to practise which, properly speaking, should be get forward starting work, as it would be in other professions.” (Bis [03/2012] [Online])\r\nBy making this a emergency the IFL aimed at ensuring each individual teacher had the dexterity to work at the standards expected of a license practitioner. To meet this requirement you were expected to submit evidence of your teaching practice, subject and background knowledge, you r continued professional development and your own weighive practice. I sense this was affair approach to the matter They may study the â€Å"licence to practice should be earned before starting work” but the profession of teaching is like no other. Its not really something you notify learn out of a book you have to get out there and do it accordingly reflect on it, prepare and do it a infer.\r\nMy ain two hats consist of my subject specialism, Carpentry and joinery level 3 qualification, and hopefully in a couple of months my Cert Ed teaching qualification. Other training and development also comes into it, like holding a CSCS card, which is the Construction Skills Certificate Scheme. Another initiative that Construction Skills mentioned earlier are responsible for putting in place. It means you must hold a logical card to work on any mental synthesis site in the country. To get a card you must pass a construction health and safety test, the cards also state on the b ack your profession and level of qualification. This is another method of tutelage this industry safe, to required standards and professional.\r\nâ€Å"Professional organisation allows teachers to describe how these standards are evidenced in their teaching practice, along with aspects of subject currency, teaching and learning, reflective practice and planning for continuing professional development.” (IFL [11/2008] [Online])\r\nProfessional shaping isn’t just about your status or qualifications though. It’s a lot about your actions too. As professionals we are expected to present, conduct and discipline ourselves in a particular manor. However with this status we also have the benefits of being rewarded recognition for our work, enhancing collaborations, sharing unafraid practices and having support and respect from our colleagues, colleges and partnering bodies.\r\nThe importance of engaging in CPPD\r\nCPPD or Continuing Personal and Professional informa tion is something as professionals we should all be doing on a regular basis. It was a requirement of the IFL to record our CPPD hours each year and although a lot of teachers possibly never took this serious it is a unattackable method of keeping in touch with current affairs and adapting to changing trends.\r\nThe key thing to remember is that this is not just about completing a list of activities undertaken during the year that add up to 6 or 12 or 30 hours. The time spent can be meaningless unless it makes a difference. (IFL [08/2009] [online])\r\nEducation is one such sector that never stands still, the requirement to change and reform is evident and we do this to keep things interesting, pertinent and to continually push up standards.\r\nFrom a in the flesh(predicate) extremum of view, if I’m teaching my subject specialism I want to be a fountain of knowledge in it, I consider it’s crucial to have good subject knowledge and as I have been out of the trade a couple of years now this is something I aim the address on goal of the Cert Ed.\r\nI will look at gaining further qualifications in my subject, or maybe completing an tax assessor’s award. I have pull down considered going back to construction site work to gain further experience and update my knowledge. Ideally being out in the field working on actual jobs with students would be the perfect scenario for continually developing myself and I feel this would also benefit the learners immensely.\r\nAs for CPPD in my teaching, I aim to complete all training pillowcases offered, for example we had smart board training at work the other day. I also aim to relish being thrown in at the deep end which regularly happens as a cover tutor. I’m happy in the way my support role at the prison lets me observe a lot of different teachers each week and taking on their good practices and addressing learners needs is excellent CPPD for me.\r\nThe importance of reflective practice\r\ nReflecting on our work as teachers is the best way to develop, its important to have regular teaching practice. We learn valuable things when were in lessons, under pressure and on the spot, however the real learning comes afterwards when we reflect and analyse the session. This is our time to put things right in our heads and prepare ourselves for the same scenarios the next time.\r\nIt would be passing difficult to pre-empt every situation that could occur and nearly impossible to prepare for each.\r\nâ€Å"teachers who explore their own teaching through critical reflection develop changes in attitudes and awareness which they believe can benefit their professional growth as teachers, as well as improve the kind of support they provide their students.” (tttjournal [ND] [Online])\r\nnot only should we be reflecting from our own experiences but it’s also extremely valuable to reflect on observations, hearing opinions from another person’s file of view can re ally pin point things that may have been frustrating us for weeks.\r\n unfavorable reflective practice is more complex than just reflecting. It’s about planning how you will prise a lesson or even a CPPD event; it is good practice to critically review these situations through different people’s points of view. Your colleagues, students, boss, or even a person in the field actually doing what you’re teaching or being taught. With this in mind reflection is one of our most important tools.\r\nBibliography\r\nBis [03/2012] Professionalism in further education [Online]\r\nhttp://www.bis.gov.uk/assets/biscore/further-education-skills/docs/p/12-670-professionalism-in-further-education-interim [Accessed 27/05/2012]\r\nIFL [08/2009] Guidelines for your\r\ncontinuing professional\r\ndevelopment (CPD) [online]\r\nhttp://www.ifl.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0011/5501/J11734-IfL-CPD-Guidelines-08.09-web-v3.pdf [Accessed 12/06/2012]\r\nIFL [11/2008] Professional Formation [Online]\r\nhttp://www.itslifejimbutnotasweknowit.org.uk/files/IfL-professional-formation-overview.pdf [Accessed 12/06/2012]\r\nLSIS [ND] Our Impact in the sector [Online]\r\nhttp://www.lsis.org.uk/AboutLSIS/LSIS-impact/Pages/default.aspx [Accessed 20/06/12]\r\nTES [30/03/2012] FE professionalism gets radical shake-up [Online] http://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storycode=6202944\r\n[Accessed 15/04/2012]\r\nTttjournal [ND] Towards Reflective Teaching [Online]\r\nhttp://www.tttjournal.co.uk/uploads/file/back_articles/towards_reflective_teaching.pdf [Accessed 03/06/12]\r\n'