Learning Skills Improvement Service Essay Example for Free

Learning Skills Improvement Service EssayIn my position as a workshop trainer at Deerbolt young offenders institute, the education I deliver for The Manchester College as let on of their Offender Learning is instigateed, monitored and shaped by various dutyal bodies.The purpose of these bodies or sector skills councils leave however they all earn a common goal in ensuring and enriching the quality of education cosmos delivered.LSIS or the learning and skills mitigatement service be such a trunk who umbrella eitherwhere every organisation that delivers qualifications byout the country, and they do exactly what they say on the tin. LSIS improve quality, participation and annex patroniseards in education and training. A lot of their work involves pay offing resources, implementing schemes, sharing delivery aids that improve quality and achievement and tailoring support to learners needs.Colleges and providers helped by LSIS improved by one inspection class at their next inspection. (LSIS ND online)LSIS dont just support the educational improvements though in 2010 they treasure The Manchester College as a Healthy FE college, healthy initiatives offered without the college like loyalty cards, gym memberships and fo below eating schemes aimed to improve the health of students and staff.A nonher group that oversee our work as teachers is the professional be the IFL or the Institute for Learning. Their social occasion is to register everyone practicing as a teacher or trainer in FE on to their database. They promote themselves as supporting professional excellence they aim to increase the stipulation of teachers as professionals, requiring a membership fee and proof of qualifications which is supported by the employer.They also champion the wideness of CPD and require members to provide evidence of this and their direction hours each year. This is seen to keep standards of teaching high, and promote quality and teaching as a profession.Unti l very recently this is how the IFL worked besides due to the loss in government supporting and teachers reluctantly to pay their own subscription the number of state renewing their subscription to the IFL fell by over fractional to just 85,000 signalling a loss of confidence in the body and an end to its presences.For m each teachers and trainers in FE it was seen as a welcomed downfall as many believed the IFL did nothing for them, however now this professional body has collapsed there is no one regulating the qualifications or standard involve to teach in FE which whitethorn lead to competiveness for jobs and or poor standards of teaching and training. These developments seemingly leave only if Ofsted in set up to assess the quality and standards of colleges and the individual teachers.Ofsted would be made responsible for ensuring that FE teachers were appropriately qualified through inspections (TES 30/03/2012 Online)However I see a huge flaw in this method of assessing q uality and knowledge, not every Ofsted inspector can have the depth in knowledge of every subject of every teacher he or she is going to observe. For example if I am teaching bricklaying and Im teaching unacceptable practices how is that inspector meant to know I am teaching the wrong methods? Surely the only way to overcome this problem is to have employed properly qualified teachers and trainers and not just people with some subject knowledge. Now that the IFL is a voluntary body the employers themselves have discretion over this matter. mental synthesis Skills is another(prenominal) organisation that oversee and support the vocational training we deliver in offender learning. They are a massive organisation and have a lot of different strands from providing qualifications, courses and assessment and training support through CSkills as an awarding organisation. They also developing courses and provide support and training to local businesses through being an industry training boa rd.In 2003 Construction Skills were awarded Sector Skills Council stead, this allowed them to deliver valued support crosswise the industry. Their main aims are to help reduce a shortage in specialise skills and help to take a diverse workforce into the industry. They are also involved in improving business act and developing professional standards for tress occupations both trade and professional.The other area that they cover is probably near relevant to my work as a vocational trainer they have a large gossip on the improvement of education for apprenticeships and higher and further education. They achieve this by awarding grants for training, providing businesses with advice on get the opera hat from their work force offering card schemes, recognised qualifications and helping to link college learning with on the job experience. superiorismAs 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 professiona l. The IFL although seemingly no more use to keep everybody who worked as a teacher under the status of a professional. They did this by having in adjust the prerequisite to achieve QTLS or ATLS within five old age of working within the education sector.QTLS 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 to the full Cert Ed being a level 5, I myself would have had to apply for QTLS status.However the undermentioned extract suggests that very little teachers working in the sector today have taken out the required status of QTLS/ATLS.Only a small number of lecturers have become fully qualified under the current 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 l ecturers have not embarked on the final supervised practice phase, following the diploma. We do not believe that so slight a result after such a long delay makes this qualification credible as a licence to practise which, properly speaking, should be earned before starting work, as it would be in other professions. (Bis 03/2012 Online)By making this a requirement the IFL aimed at ensuring each individual teacher had the ability to work at the standards expected of a licenced practitioner. To meet this requirement you were expected to submit evidence of your teaching practice, subject and background knowledge, your proceed professional development and your own reflective practice. I feel this was affair approach to the matter They may say the licence to practice should be earned before starting work but the profession of teaching is like no other. Its not really something you can learn out of a set aside you have to get out there and do it then reflect on it, prepare and do it agai n.My personal 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 attribute a CSCS card, which is the Construction Skills Certificate Scheme. Another initiative that Construction Skills mentioned earlier are responsible for displace in place. It means you must hold a valid card to work on any building site in the country. To get a card you must pass a construction health and safety test, the cards also state on the back your profession and level of qualification. This is another method of keeping this industry safe, to required standards and professional.Professional formation 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)P rofessional formation isnt just to the highest degree your status or qualifications though. Its 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 s well practices and having support and respect from our colleagues, colleges and partnering bodies.The importance of salty in CPPDCPPD or Continuing Personal and Professional Development 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 maybe never took this serious it is a good method of keeping in touch with current personal matters and adapting to changing trends.The key thing to remember is that this is not just about completing a enumerate of activities undertaken during the year that add up to 6 or 12 or 30 hours. The time fatigued can be meaningless unless it makes a difference. (IFL 08/2009 online)Education is one such sector that never stands still, the requirement to change and reform is evident and we do this to keep things interesting, relevant and to continually push up standards.From a personal point of view, if Im teaching my subject specialism I want to be a fountain of knowledge in it, I think its important 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 completion of the Cert Ed.I bequeath look at gaining further qualifications in my subject, or maybe completing an assessors award. I have so far considered going back to construction site work to gain further experience and update my knowledge. ideally being out in the vault of heaven working on actual jobs with students would be the perfect scenario for continually developing myself and I feel this would also benefit the learners immen sely.As for CPPD in my teaching, I aim to sleep with all training events 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. Im lucky 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.The importance of reflective practiceReflecting 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 oblige and on the spot, however the real learning comes afterwards when we reflect and analyse the session. This is our time to put things serious in our heads and prepare ourselves for the same scenarios the next time.It would be extremely difficult to pre-empt every situation that could pass by and al approximately impossible to prepare for each.teache rs 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)Not only should we be reflecting from our own experiences but its also extremely valuable to reflect on observations, hearing opinions from another persons point of view can really pin point things that may have been frustrating us for weeks.Critical reflective practice is more complex than just reflecting. Its about planning how you will evaluate a lesson or even a CPPD event it is good practice to critically limited review these situations through different peoples points of view. Your colleagues, students, boss, or even a person in the field actually doing what youre teaching or being taught. With this in mind reflection is one of our most important tools.BibliographyBis 03/2012 Professionalism in further education Onl inehttp//www.bis.gov.uk/assets/biscore/further-education-skills/docs/p/12-670-professionalism-in-further-education-interim Accessed 27/05/2012IFL 08/2009 Guidelines for yourcontinuing professionaldevelopment (CPD) onlinehttp//www.ifl.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0011/5501/J11734-IfL-CPD-Guidelines-08.09-web-v3.pdf Accessed 12/06/2012IFL 11/2008 Professional Formation Onlinehttp//www.itslifejimbutnotasweknowit.org.uk/files/IfL-professional-formation-overview.pdf Accessed 12/06/2012LSIS ND Our Impact in the Sector Onlinehttp//www.lsis.org.uk/AboutLSIS/LSIS-impact/Pages/default.aspx Accessed 20/06/12TES 30/03/2012 FE professionalism gets radical shake off Online http//www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storycode=6202944Accessed 15/04/2012Tttjournal ND Towards Reflective Teaching Onlinehttp//www.tttjournal.co.uk/uploads/file/back_articles/towards_reflective_teaching.pdf Accessed 03/06/12