Teach Too
Professional community of practice
What’s in a name?
Every August the drama of A-Level results day inspires widespread coverage in the national media. Quite rightly A-Levels are seen as important and worthy of widespread coverage. But the majority of qualifications are vocational, a fact that has led the BBC to call for a media day for vocational qualifications.
The advent of T-Levels, providing universally-recognised technical qualifications at Level 3, aligned to 15 technical routes, should lead to greater recognition amongst students, parents, employers, the wider community and indeed the media.
Parity of esteem
The 2016 Sainsbury Review promoted parity of academic and vocational routes and qualifications. To Sainsbury, vocational education was most definitely not seen as a second-choice. Technical education routes should be rigorous, relevant and demanding, with a clear line of sight to the occupational areas needed in our society and economy. This concept was not new. The watershed 2013 Report of the Commission on Adult Vocational Teaching and Learning (CAVTL) proposed the Two-Way-Street approach at the heart of technical education. Providers and employers working collaboratively to enable effective knowledge transfer that would lead to improved outcomes for learners. Training providers going ‘on-site’ to learn from industry professionals and industry technical experts sharing their knowledge and skills, teaching. This model supporting dual professionals to learn how to ‘Teach Too’.
The focus is on a core and tailored approach to the design of vocational qualifications and curricula- a nationally specified core with a tailored element to meet local demand. This approach being underpinned by the two-way street, with colleges, training providers and employers working together to develop local elements of qualifications and curricula to meet the specific needs of employers and learners- giving employers a direct influence in shaping skills programmes and qualifications.
Provider-led projects
Teach Too phase 4 included a range of provider-led projects. These are embedded in local contexts and a series of impacts are emerging as to how Teach Too principles and practice can inform provider-employer partnerships to address local skills needs. These include the use of cutting-edge resources to give teachers and learners a deep understanding of the contemporary workplace. Curricula are being designed that have significant potential to support technical education reforms implementation in terms of Apprenticeships and T-Levels. This blog is intended to support providers ‘Route Readiness’.
Over the coming months, we shall be posting more blogs from colleagues and providers implementing Teach Too principles and practice. We invite you to post and share your thoughts, knowledge, insights, resources, ideas or experiences with colleagues, building a Teach Too Community of Practice so that we may learn from the effective practice of one another and the challenges presented.
Examples of collaborative practice
Craven College worked with Swissport on site at a local airport as part of aviation mathematics module.
Teach Too practical resources
Teach Too resources
Teach Too is now in its fifth phase with delivery partners to be appointed shortly. The fourth phase saw the production of resources that were trialled with a wide range of providers across the sector. The toolkits cover all of the main principles of Teach Too and are intended to assist both providers and partners in building capacity to prepare for the technical education reforms. Insights are provided into approaches to support collaboration with employers, curriculum co-design and delivery, and dual professionalism.
Case Studies
New case studies include a broad range of contexts, vocational sectors as well as provider and employer types. Gateshead College worked with a range of small employers in the digital sector to provide staff and learners with insights into the diverse nature of the digital sector.
Independent Training Provider KM Training partnered with a number of hair and beauty employers. This allowed a rich understanding of contemporary techniques to be developed across the partnerships.
A Milton Keynes College-led project was to provide a line of sight to work for offender learners. The Teach Too model provided an effective framework to support teachers and offender learners in developing a contemporary understanding of the rapidly moving construction and recycling sectors.