This event was facilitated with Hilary Read.
Scroll down for a summary and feedback.
Check out Twitter #2017SC
This year, Hilary Read and I decided to hold
an event which would be a combined conference and CPD day.
Our aim for the day was to help practitioners in the sector to find out about current and future changes. We also wanted everyone to feel comfortable to ask questions, to network with like-minded people and to enjoy the day.
All delegates were given a free copy of our book ‘The Best Vocational Trainer’s Guide’ and had electronic access throughout the day to the documents referred to during the event.
Delegates were able to hear from the following speakers:
Gavin O'Meara, FE News & FE Careers who talked about developments in the FE, skills and training sector and how to keep up to date with the constant changes.
Jonathan White, author of Digital Literacy Skills and Librarian at the University of Derby. Jonathan talked about digital literacy and how to use free/low cost technologies in teaching and learning.
Hilary Read stood in for the Ofqual speaker who had to withdraw due to the election. She explained The Post 16 Skills Plan and what Technical Qualifications involve.
David Russell, CEO of The Education and Training Foundation (ETF) spoke about supporting practitioners and the needs of FE.
After the speeches, there was time for questions which were wide ranging and topical. The big concern for most is what will happen to the teaching, assessment and quality assurance qualifications after the July 2018 extension.
During the breaks, delegates were able to talk to staff from companies who exhibited at the event.
I spoke about the differences between the QCF and the RQF, one of which is that awarding organisations (AOs) can now create their own qualifications. This will have the implication that there might be different versions of qualifications which were originally standardised across AOs under the QCF system.
Hilary spoke about the changing role of the assessor/coach within apprenticeships. You can see a short video of her talking about the 20% off the job aspect here.
I followed this by explaining what CPD is about, i.e.:
Some examples of CPD can be found here, and a short video of me talking about CPD can be seen here.
There was the opportunity for delegates to discuss the topics of the day in group workshops which proved to be very lively.
We both felt the day went really well, we received great feedback and were both humbled with the amount of support we received. We have some fantastic followers who it was good to meet for the first time or again.