New Diploma Resources

Resources for everyone involved with the new diplomas

Key Skills reprieved for apprentices only.

Posted on | July 19, 2010 | 2 Comments

Taken from the TES on 16th July bu Jonathan Wells of Guroo Functional Skills

Key skills, which are being phased out in favour of functional skills, have won a stay of execution as the Government seeks further discussions on the way forward in apprenticeships.

John Hayes, the further education minister, told the annual conference of the Association of Learning Providers (ALP) this week that functional skills had been due to replace key skills in apprenticeships later this year.

But Mr Hayes said the introduction of functional skills, which are designed to offer practical education in English, information and communication technology (ICT) and mathematics across a number of qualifications ranging from GCSEs to apprenticeships, had to be examined further.

“That is why, after speaking to providers, I have decided to extend the use of key skills in apprenticeship frameworks to March 2011 and continue to consult with the sector on the best way forward,” he said.

The ALP fears functional skills are designed for school pupils and will not meet the needs of apprentices or adults. While key skills are successful in delivering basic skills, the ALP is worried success rates will fall under functional skills.

ALP leaders have also called for a single procurement agency for all employment and skills provision.

Martin Dunford, ALP chair, said: “We need ministers to be even bolder if we want to avoid a lost generation of young people and a raft of employers complaining that they don’t have skilled recruits available to take advantage of any upturn.”

The ALP has submitted a six-point plan to the Government on how to provide a more cost-effective FE and skills system. Recommendations include providers being rewarded for successful outcomes and a preferred supplier register.

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New GCSE course in personal finance teaches pupils how to manage money

Posted on | July 9, 2010 | 2 Comments

This should really be part of PLTS in the diploma in my view - Jonathan Wells Guroo Functional Skillsl

I used to switch off when the business news came on GMTV in the morning as I was getting ready for school,” confesses Emily, a Year 8 pupil at Coloma Convent School in the south London suburb of Croydon. “But now when I hear them talking about interest rates going up or down, or the budget, or the cuts that are going to be made, I really listen because I feel I understand what they mean. And,” she adds with a smile, “I’ve even been explaining it all to my parents.”

Emily is among the first group at the school to undertake the new GCSE in personal finance offered by the Assessment and Qualifications Alliance (AQA), the largest of the three English exam boards. She is also one of the first pupils in the country to study for the qualification, which was only launched in September, just as we were all beginning to face up to the likely impact of the crisis in government finances.

There was initially, Emily and her classmates report, a bit of a question mark in their minds as to what personal finance actually meant, and whether it would have any relevance to them. Would it be frothy stuff about shopping, or overly involved explanations of the mechanism of interest rates? But now that the group is almost a year into the course – a compulsory one for the 300 girls in Years 8 and 9 at Coloma, taught for one lesson a week over two years – they understand why their assistant head, Andrew Corish, was so keen to slot it into the curriculum at this high-achieving, over-subscribed Catholic comprehensive.

“When I was told we would be doing it, I thought it would all be about things I didn’t really need to know about right now – things for later in my life, like saving and borrowing and mortgages,” admits Rachel. “Now though, I can see that it applies to all of us right now. For instance we’ve just been learning about recessions, and why Britain has got into one – which affects everyone.”

Others say it has changed their own – admittedly modest – spending habits with their pocket money or allowances. “Now I understand why we have to save,” says Naomi, “especially if in the future I plan to go to university. It will cost a lot of money, and you can’t just rely on your parents.”

Her classmate Niamh likewise has an eye to the future: “It’s much better that we learn how to handle our personal finances now, before we have money. That way we might be able to avoid getting into debt.” It is a sentiment to please mums and dads of secondary school age children everywhere, with university tuition fees likely to be rising, but the AQA hopes this new short-course GCSE will have a more immediate impact. The plan is to link it in with existing qualifications in more traditional economics and business studies, and so provide more encouragement for pupils who feel drawn to these longer established options at A-level.

The new syllabus covers such topics as money, work and the power of the consumer. After we have finished talking, Year 8 head off for a session on family budgeting with Celia Huggett, head of business studies at Coloma. Each is given eight credits – or tokens – and then challenged to make a series of lifestyle choices detailed and pictured on photocopied sheets.

They are asked to pick a property from among a range of houses that goes from a modest two-up, two-down, for three credits, to a footballer’s pad for five. They also have to budget out of their pot for their own transport needs – one credit for buses and trains, three for a large car – and for “leisure items”, from a two-credit computer to a one-credit sound system.

“And then,” urges Huggett, “don’t forget you have to decide how much you want to save in the bank out of your eight credits.”

As the girls attempt to balance dreams with realities, she talks enthusiastically about the new GCSE option. “The girls have been very receptive,” she reports. “It plays into concerns that they have about the world around them, and also into TV programmes they all seem to watch, like Dragon’s Den and Junior Apprentice.”

“Can we have two houses, miss?” a pupil shouts out. “Well you can, but that means you won’t have much left for anything else,” Huggett counsels. “All of them,” she confides, “will choose the computer, but plenty too will opt for positive choices like a bike over a car.” As the class then comes up to the front to bank their options, Huggett’s predictions prove more or less accurate – though few have set aside any of their eight tokens as savings.

The personal finance GCSE is one of a number of initiatives launched in schools recently in response to the need, highlighted under the previous government in the “Every Child Matters” agenda, for more focus on the area of how to handle money. The hope seems to be that if the next generation can be taught the importance of financial prudence at an impressionable age, Britain’s record levels of personal indebtedness may start to fall.

As the Personal Finance Education Group, a network of schools and teachers involved in teaching this new GCSE, puts it: “To make sense of the options open to them in adult life and become responsible consumers, children and young people need to learn to manage money – now.”

It is closely allied with the broader Personal, Heath and Social Education (PHSE) areas of the curriculum, and to citizenship. But many of the topics included under PHSE do not lead to a GCSE. You don’t, for example, emerge from sessions on sex education with a paper qualification.

Is teaching personal finance as an exam subject overdoing it?

“Well, the lessons are very different from other subjects,” concedes Roisin. “There’s more discussion, and we use video case- studies, but I do still think of it as a ‘proper’ subject. What else are GCSEs for if not to help you in your life ahead? And this definitely will help us.” And should it be made compulsory – as at Coloma – or offered as one option for pupils?

Year 8 is unanimous. They’re glad they’re doing the course, but might not have chosen it, had it been left up to them. “What I wouldn’t want, though,” says Esther, “is to have to go on and do economics or business studies at GCSE as a compulsory option like maths and English. That would be too much.”

Andrew Corish echoes the pupils’ enthusiasm. “It is a very structured course,” he says, “and most of the girls so far have reacted very well to it. They regard it as something serious and they take it seriously, so it makes sense to them that it is a GCSE.”

My visit to Coloma coincides with the coverage of Chancellor George Osborne’s first budget. Many 12 and 13-year-olds might be forgiven for not engaging wholeheartedly with this, but the personal finance students are keen to debate the public finances – jobs against benefits, saving against spending, and cutting now to drive down the deficit against cutting later to protect growth.

If they had to advise the Treasury, which way would they lean on that last question? Two hands go up in support of cutting now. The other eight want to take it more slowly. George Osborne clearly has some work to do in getting his message out to this unusually well-briefed group of future voters.

What’s in the course

The curriculum for the GCSE in personal finance lays particular emphasis on saving and managing money. Under saving, pupils cover the why, how and where, weighing up the respective merits of banks, building societies and National Savings options.

They acquire a “basic understanding” of shares, unit trusts and the working of the stock market. They tackle some of the questions in this area that many adults continue to find bemusing.

“Candidates should be able to recommend suitable methods of saving, and other financial products for different situations, and to justify their recommendations, appreciating the risks and rewards of each method.”

On managing money, the curriculum brings in not only redundancy, unemployment and long-term sickness, but also addresses some of the ethical issues that arise from investments: whether a company’s environmental record, for instance, should be considered before putting money into it, or whether the employment practices of its suppliers in the developing world should be a factor.

The curriculum touches on other topics that are potentially controversial in the current economic climate. “Candidates should understand how the supply of labour is affected by a person’s decision to work or not to work…[and] the reasons why the duration of unemployment might vary between individuals.” There is a section, too, on the pros and cons of UK firms outsourcing their production to developing countries to cut costs.

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Is the end of BSF a bad thing for diplomas?

Posted on | July 6, 2010 | 2 Comments

Jonathan Wells of Guroo Functional Skills writes

The withdrawal of the Building Schools for the Future programme is likely to bring forward a number of content projects in schools strangely in my opinion!
BSF was often the “get in the way” for lots of developments. Because it was so big and took such a lot of time to manage, the scheme would delay lots of other activities, often by years. Once it was rolling, the control of systems passed to the managed services suppliers so buying content to add to the school system was both complex and in some case quite expensive as managed service providers added their margin.
Schools who were relying on BSF to fix things in the next couple of years, will now have to choose to do something now.
So for curriculum developments such as Diplomas and Functional Skills, the dropping of BSF may very well improve things no end, by bring forward the developments to the proper curriculum time (now) rather than forcing a 1 or 2 year delay.

jwells@guroo.co.uk
0191 305 5051 direct
07753 822393 mobile
0191 305 5045 office

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Academies veer towards vocational courses despite doubts over worth

Posted on | June 28, 2010 | 2 Comments

Published in The TES on 25 June, 2010 | By: William Stewart

Official figures show impact of non-GCSE qualifications on league table standings

Academies are significantly more likely than other secondaries to use vocational and other non-GCSE qualifications that boost their league table positions, new Government figures reveal.

Among the most popular alternatives being turned to by schools are vocational ICT qualifications, judged of “doubtful value” by Ofsted, which can be worth multiple GCSEs.

The statistics come as the UK’s biggest exam board called on Ofqual, the qualifications watchdog, to investigate whether non-GCSEs deserve the value given to them in league tables (see story below).

The coalition Government has justified its academy expansion by stating that average academy exam performance is increasing at twice the rate of other secondaries.

But the Department for Education (DfE) statistics from 2009 highlight for the first time the impact of non-GCSEs on the proportion of pupils achieving the benchmark of five A*-C grades, including English and maths.

The difference in results when non-GCSEs are removed from the score in 12 state schools, including three academies, is more than 20 percentage points (see box below). This means academies were eight times more likely than other state secondaries to improve their league table standings in this way.

Academies made up only 4 per cent of state-funded secondaries in last year’s GCSE league tables.

Many schools argue they need alternatives to GCSEs to keep all pupils engaged with an education that suits their individual needs.

But Anastasia de Waal, education director of think tank Civitas, who has researched the qualifications offered by academies, said many are using “highly questionable” and “pseudo-vocational” courses.

“These new figures show academies are turning to soft options to boost their results, which is very worrying since the academy model is being used as the flagship model of improvement,” she said.

“It is particularly concerning when it is being championed by a coalition led by Conservatives who have repeatedly and consistently said that a full academic curriculum is a must for all pupils.”

The Conservatives last year proposed removing vocational qualifications from league tables because they were “far less academically demanding” than traditional GCSEs.

Nearly two-thirds of all state secondaries and 86 per cent of academies offered at least one non-GCSE course that counts towards their league table score, according to the DfE statistics.

The TES identified 116 schools where the GCSE benchmark score dropped by at least 10 percentage points when non-GCSE qualifications were removed. Twelve per cent of academies are represented in this group, compared with only 3.4 per cent of other state secondaries.

Mike Butler, Independent Academies Association chairman, representing around 100 academies, said: “It is important that vocational qualifications are not excluded from Government league tables.

“Vocational qualifications can be an important incentive for students, particularly in disadvantaged areas, to achieve, not only in those vocational subjects but in subjects such as English and maths.”

Nick Gibb, schools minister, said: “It is very important that young people are entered for the qualifications that are in their best interests rather than being entered for exams simply to boost the league table position of the school.

“We are going to radically reform league tables so parents have completely transparent information about exam performance.”

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TES letters 4 June

Posted on | June 17, 2010 | 2 Comments

Skills leap too far
News | Published in FE Focus on 4 June, 2010 | By: Carol Taylor

Section:
News

John Linfoot is misled by the necessarily short letter from me to which he responds (“Tests must get real”, Letters, May 7).

I was not defending specific literacy and numeracy tests: I was pointing out that the jump from Skills for Life to Functional Skills in one go is a case of too far, too fast.

The impact on learners, teachers and providers will be all too apparent over the next 12 months.

I believe in “horses for courses” - all this does is treat all learners as if they were the same, and clearly there is a need to help people who completed their initial education without strong enough literacy or numeracy skills.

Carol Taylor, Director of operations, National Institute of Adult Continuing Education.

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ASCL advocate a new general diploma

Posted on | May 15, 2010 | 2 Comments

Point 6 of the open letter from ASCL to the new education secretary is:

6. Strengthen post-14 qualifications by introducing a general diploma with a broad core of knowledge and skills.

I like the sound of that - Jonathan Wells

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New work experience in Diplomas booklet

Posted on | May 15, 2010 | 2 Comments

http://www.qcda.gov.uk/resources/assets/QCDA_10_4573_Work_experience_supporting_Diploma_programmes.pdf

Follow the link above for a new document from QCDA on work experience in diplomas.

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DCSF research report into diplomas

Posted on | May 3, 2010 | 4 Comments

Posted by Jonathan Wells of Guroo.

NATIONAL EVALUATION OF DIPLOMAS:
The first year of delivery

A Summary of the DCSF Research Report – Ref DCSF-RR220, March 2010 DSS
09/10
38

1. INTRODUCTION

In January 2008, the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) commissioned the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) and the University of Exeter to conduct the national evaluation of the implementation and impact of Diplomas over the period 2008-2013. This report presents the findings of research which explored experiences of the first year of delivery of the first five Diploma lines of learning amongst a sample of 30 consortia approved to commence delivery in September 2008. It presents the findings from surveys of pre- and post-16 Diploma and comparison learners, Diploma teachers and parents/carers of Diploma learners, and in-depth interviews with key stakeholders and Diploma learners in a sub-sample of 15 case-study consortia.

The Diploma consists of three main components:
• Principal learning – sector-related knowledge and underpinning skills needed to progress in relevant sectors.
• Generic learning – functional skills in English, mathematics and ICT, development of personal, learning and thinking skills, and a Project or Extended Project.
• Additional/specialist learning – additional subjects that offer the opportunity to study a particular topic in more depth, or to study something different that widens the learner experience such as another language, for example. Additional and specialist learning aims to broaden horizons and help to open up lots of different opportunities in future study and employment.

Diplomas also include learning in the workplace (a minimum of ten days’ work experience), and learning through realistic work environments, to enable the development of practical skills and work-related application of learning.

2. KEY FINDINGS

• Satisfaction with the Diploma
The majority of Diploma learners were satisfied with their Diploma course and were enjoying it. They found it to be interesting and different from other learning experiences and particularly welcomed the practical elements and links with the world of work.

• Information, Advice and Guidance (IAG)
IAG is important for a positive Diploma learning experience. The more satisfied Year 10 Diploma learners were with IAG prior to starting their course, the more satisfied they were overall with their Diploma. They also had more positive attitudes towards the Diploma and were more likely to think their course would have a positive impact on their future. The findings also emphasise the need for IAG to clearly inform learners about the subject content and learning style, particularly the balance between practical and theory-based learning.

• Diploma delivery
Collaboration between institutions was common and seemed to be working well. In-house delivery was also common, often because institutions felt there was no need for support from other providers to deliver particular lines of learning, although there were instances of institutions having concerns about collaboration.

• The teaching experience
Teachers felt the Diploma involved a different teaching and learning experience to other qualifications. They valued the opportunity for using a holistic model of teaching and the encouragement of independent learning, reported greater use of interactive teaching techniques and less dependence on textbooks and worksheets, and welcomed the link between theory and work-related learning. There was, however, more scope for consortium-wide approaches to monitoring the quality of teaching.

• Support needs
There were some challenges faced in teaching functional skills and mapping the skills to principal learning. There was also a desire across consortia for more guidance and support in relation to assessment (in general, not specifically relating to functional skills). Standardisation of assessment across partners remained under-developed.

3. RECOMMENDATIONS FOR POLICY AND PRACTICE

• Consortia may need support and guidance in how to develop consortium-wide quality assurance procedures (for example, in relation to standardised assessment and the quality of teaching practices). Any examples of good practice should be disseminated.
• More support and guidance needs to be given in relation to assessment, including approaches to the standardisation of assessment across partners.
• DCSF could consider exploring with Awarding Bodies how innovative teaching and the assessment approach could be more aligned.
• Consortia would benefit from further support and guidance on how to link functional skills with principal learning. The perceived disparity between the assessment approach and the aim of functional skills should be considered. Awarding Bodies should also be encouraged to review the level of difficulty of Level 2 functional skills examinations.
• The role of Level 1 Diplomas should be considered; firstly how best to promote Level 1 to teachers and learners so that take-up can be increased and courses could become viable; and secondly how to assist teaching staff in targeting Level 1 appropriately to those learners whose attainment to date suggests that they would not yet be able to achieve a Level 2 qualification.
• DCSF should consider how to further support consortia in ensuring that good quality and consistent IAG is provided to all potential Diploma learners.

4. RECOMMENDATIONS FOR CONSORTIA

• IAG should be a priority. Learners need to be made fully aware of the course content, learning approaches and assessment methods so that the qualification meets their expectations.
• The rationale for in-house delivery should be considered to assess whether a collaborative approach might better meet learners’ needs.
• A more strategic approach to deciding who should go on training courses, and which courses should be accessed, is required at a consortium level. Ensuring that the right people access training is essential.
• Consideration should be given to how best to broaden the additional and specialist learning offer within the planning and timetabling constraints within institutions, so that it meets its aims of providing high quality breadth or depth of curriculum experience.
• Consortia should consider how to develop effective quality assurance procedures across partnerships to monitor the quality of teaching and learning that are acceptable to all institutions within the consortium.

The full research report can be viewed/downloaded at: http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/research/ > Entering RR220 in the Free Text search field.

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Microsoft apprentice scheme

Posted on | May 3, 2010 | 2 Comments

Microsoft launches apprenticeship scheme for 3,000 young people
Rebecca Thomson Computer weekly and posted by Jonathan Wells of Guroo Functional Skills
Thursday 22 April 2010 16:21

Microsoft has launched an IT apprenticeship scheme which could see thousands of young people employed at the software giant’s partner and customer companies.

In the coming weeks 100 young people will start on seven-month apprenticeship courses. The company hopes 3,000 people will eventually sign up to the scheme, which will run for three years.

Apprentices work one day a week for a company and learn technical support skills for the rest of the week. The company pays them a wage and employs them at the end, but the training is funded by the government.

Stephen Uden, head of skills at Microsoft UK, said this was part of the reason why the company wanted to get behind apprenticeships.

“The government spends about £3bn a year on training, but so far not much of that has come to the technology industry.

“So we worked with our partner organisations and customers to develop an apprenticeship scheme. Apprentices get both the apprentice qualification but also a Microsoft vendor qualification.”

Microsoft has mainly played a facilitating role, matching interested employees with companies which needed them. It is also lending its brand name to the project, with Uden saying, “We employ about 3,000 people in the UK and our partner companies employ around half a million. But a lot of them don’t have well-known names, so our name and reputation give young people confidence because they recognise it.”

He said the company would stay in touch with apprentices, keeping their contact details and inviting them to its offices “from time to time”. Former head of the CBI Lord Digby Jones would also be mentoring some apprentices.

Uden said apprentices would also have the chance to develop their skills further if they wanted to, going on to study foundation degrees and possibly degrees. About 70% of jobs in the IT industry require graduate-level skills.

The current apprenticeships on offer are in technical support, although companies have shown interest in developing schemes for technical sales and software development. Microsoft said it would be open to developing other types of schemes if companies want them.

After three years the scheme will end although the company said it hoped knowledge of apprenticeships in the IT industry would spread through word of mouth, and become self-sustaining. “Hopefully, more IT employers will see this is a good way of recruiting new talent,” Uden said.

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Exam fees and so on

Posted on | April 26, 2010 | 1 Comment

Astonishing figures these. Schools spend £281m on exam fees , that’s a 7% rise in one year and an 82% rise in 6 years. AQA is the biggest recipient in schools with 42% market share followed by OCR 26% and edexcel 25%.

Take into account all income from all sectors and edexcel earn £205m from exams, AQA earn £144m and OCR £121m - so the big three have revenues approaching half a billion pounds and that’s before you get into all the specialist awarding bodies and the many smaller general awarding bodies such as EDI, WJEC, NOCN, NCFE, ASDAN and many many others.

The average price paid by schools for GCSE English was £27.41 and that’s an increase of 16% in four year, twice the inflation figure.

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