WEA Education Blog

Personalised public services

A couple of cabinet jobs ago, David Miliband spoke often of the need for 'double devolution' as the next stage in the development of public services. This is now recast as 'personalised' public services and is a theme in several new government initiatives.

An article in the current New Statesman (click to read) says:

"The new Labour guru Charles Leadbeater talks about "Public Services 2.0", echoing Web 2.0, where user-generated content - MySpace, Wikipedia, Second Life and so on - is all the rage. "For the past decade," writes Leadbeater (www.charlesleadbeater.net), "most of the debate about public service reform has focused on . . . making the public sector value chain work more efficiently to resemble private service delivery. But you cannot deliver complex public goods the way that Fed Ex delivers a parcel."

So people should no longer be treated as consumers or users, but as participants."

How does adult learning fit into this? On the face of it, 'demand led' provision should be thoroughly personalised. In reality it seems largely about contracting and procurement. However, leaving aside the metaphors of new technology, isn't this just what the WEA has tried to do for decades? A social network just waiting for the web?

Adults re-engaging

Did you see the recent 'Guardian' article by Alan Tuckett, the Director of NIACE, which illustrates the value of adult education to many people facing change or challenge in their lives? (click here to read)  It reinforces what we all know - that adult education can change lives and that adults have many intentions in attending classes and what they study can lead to many outcomes. It's good to see the case for these classes being put in the context of very significant reduction in opportunities for adults in the last two years and the likelihood of this continuing next year.

Ofsted visit next March

The WEA in England will be inspected by Ofsted in the week beginning the 10th March 2008. This inspection will cover courses running next term. The lead inspector will be Richard Moore who has many years experience of inspecting adult and community learning. He was involved in producing an Adult Learning Inspectorate guide to good practice in non-accredited provision in 2005 which you can see here: Download tm43_nonaccreditedLearningSupplement.pdf

Each WEA region has an inspection nominee to help regional colleagues - staff, tutors and volunteers - to plan and coordinate the visit.

To find out more about inspection from the Ofsted Inspection toolkit  click here. The Ofsted's Good Practice database is worth a close look. It's on Quality Improvement Agency's 'Excellence Gateway (don't ask me why) click here to see it.

Finally, the WEA Trustees approved our consolidated Self Assessment Report for 2006-07 at their meeting this week along with our Improvement Plans. The grade judgements are still as before validation but the leadership and management judgements were slightly amended:

 

Strengths:

· Strong management of change in a very large, diverse and complex organisation (LM1)

· Good quality teaching and learning underpinned by an effective and developing Quality Improvement Framework (LM2)

· Strong advocacy and delivery of responsive curriculum for adults across

England

including significant voluntary involvement (LM3)

 

Areas for improvement:

· Inadequate monitoring of learner progression (LM4)

· Accredited success rates below sector average in some Curriculum Management Areas (LM5)

· Inadequate reporting arrangements to support consistent implementation of tutor and staff qualifications, Continuing Professional Development and Equality & Diversity strategies (LM6)

You can read the report to Trustees on the Self Assessment process and recommendations here: Download report_for_trustees_on_final_csar.doc

New LSC funding models from 2008-09

The LSC published guidance for information on the 30th November on the new funding models from 2008-09. Next year will see the biggest change in the method of funding since 2001. You can download the document here Download nat-16-18-adult-and-emp-resp-funding-models.pdf. Further information and guidance will be developed over the next few months.

Tutor Network, Chesterfield meeting

Yesterday in Chesterfield 12 WEA tutors met with me to help thrash out ideas to develop a tutor network. It was a very enjoyable event and we came up with many ideas.

There was a positive view about establishing what will mostly be a virtual network. They agreed I should continue with this blog and we should look at building the network through e-mails, access to the WEA's Virtual Learning Environment (WEAVLE) and subject related teleconferences.

Keeping things practical as well as getting information on educational issues in the WEA was important. We looked at the position of WEA tutors and there seemed to be a consensus that, although sometimes an isolated role, the WEA tutor has an independence that is valued within an organisation that they identify with - beyond being their employer.

I'll be discussing the issues raised with colleagues over the next week and, from then, hope to contact more people about how this may develop.

New Learning & Skills Council Statement of Priorities

On Friday the LSC released its Statement of Priorities on its website click here. You can download the whole thing in .pdf ( a snappy 60 pages!)

Much of the media attention has been around NEETs (young people not in education, employment or training). But what of adult learning and the position of the WEA?

Pages 40 and 41 say:
"The continuing emphasis on our priorities for adult learning will require all institutions to consider how they can contribute most effectively to our strategy – offering a wider range of adult learning and contributing to the targets for Skills for Life, full Level 2 and full Level 3 achievements.

This will particularly be the case for local adult learning providers (including former external institutions) and specialist designated institutions  (This includes the WEA)

We propose to undertake a full review of the strategic role of these groups of providers, to help to identify how their important contribution to wider adult learning will be supported and delivered in the longer term. Pending this review, we will ensure that the institutions have reasonable budgetary stability in 2008/09. Local adult learning providers (including former external institutions) will receive at least 90 per cent of their 2007/08 budgets. The funds that specialist designated institutions receive for delivering PCDL will be maintained.

This protection will be subject to an assessment of the quality of provision and any Notices to Improve, so that we achieve the right balance between
budgetary stability and securing high quality provision for learners.

Later this year, the Government will consult more widely on informal adult education. This will mark a significant evolution of the strategy to ensure hat more people engage in learning for its own sake."

What Ofsted is saying about Adult Education

Last March the Adult Learning Inspectorate became part of Ofsted. It will be Ofsted that undertakes the next Inspection of WEA provision (due any time from March 2008 onward).

Ofsted will examine the work of the WEA as part of Adult and Community Learning (ACL). The Chief Inspector's Annual Report for2006-07 was published in October and only devoted seven paragraphs to ACL. You can see them here: Download CIAR0607ACL.doc

The next Inspection of the WEA will look closely at our own assessment of our strengths and areas for improvement. These are still being finalised and next Monday we will have these tested by an external panel before recommending them to Trustees for publication.  At the moment, our judgements are:

 

Strengths:

· Long-standing and effective partnerships that provide learning opportunities for adults from marginalised and disadvantaged communities (LM1)

· Good quality teaching and learning underpinned by an effective and developing Quality Improvement Framework (LM2)

· Strong advocacy and continuing delivery of adult provision across

England

through effective leadership at all levels including significant voluntary involvement (LM3)

 

Areas for improvement:

· Inadequate monitoring of learner progression (LM4)

· Accredited success rates below sector average in some Curriculum Management Areas (LM5)

· Inadequate reporting arrangements to support consistent implementation of tutor and staff qualifications, Continuing Professional Development and Equality & Diversity strategies (LM6)

 

I will confirm these and other key points of our self-assessment after that but I thought you might want to see how the Inspectorate sees provision similar to ours and to compare  our provisional assessment to those points.

PCDL and the SDIs!

Later this month we expect the publication of the Learning & Skills Council's (LSC) new priorities. Last year we were pleased that the Specialist Designated Institutions (SDIs)were specifically mentioned within the context of Personal & Community Development Learning (PCDL). But what are SDIs and what is PCDL?

The Specialist Designated Institutions are a group of colleges, including the WEA, that have clear and longstanding mission to use adult education to changing the lives of individuals and communities - click here to see more.

Personal & Community Development Learning is that strand of provision that has been identified as needing safeguarding as the FE sector is increasingly expected to focus its resources and effort on skills for employability.  SDI work is sometimes called 'PCDL type' provision.

One of the key aspects of PCDL provision is to build local planning partnerships and to listen to communities when organising provision. These partnerships are being established all over England and the WEA can, in theory, join any of them and shape their direction. Not easy when there could be over 140 in place!

The principals of the SDIs met with John Denham the new Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills in October. He is committed to the importance of ensuring everyone has the skills needed to succeed in the future and sees that as major challenge that can't be avoided. He also sees it as a matter of social justice and is interested in the 'social role of skills in adult education'. He argued that giving chances to people who hadn't had them before is vital and this requires a tightening and focusing of the education system for those over 16. We feel he recognised that this can cause some unexpected consequences - for example - for provision for adults and in the voluntary sector. He asked the SDIs to think how our experience, and our mission, could help the government deliver its clear agenda.

Can it? Can the WEA reconcile its history and working arrangements with the current agenda? There is always the temptation to say no; that we are different or do things differently. At the same time, the origins of the WEA are absolutely around increasing opportunities for adults in education and to help them influence and shape their education and, from that, be more able to influence their lives and the world around them.

Is that fair? If it is, how can we make sure it's part of every activity the WEA does? If it was, wouldn't we be able to have confidence if we need to defend our work to others who fund or inspect us?

PCDL could become a sideline area, a 'safeguard' because otherwise it would disappear or be left to the better off. Isn't it the job of the WEA, with our SDI colleagues, to influence the shape of this kind of work by practically showing its benefits in the classroom, by engaging with partnerships locally or beyond on our terms and by advocating the importance of education to adults?

What do you think? What are the three or four key messages we should say to every WEA class, every tutor, the LSC and the government. Let me know! Click 'comment'.

Observation of Teaching and Learning

Many of you will have seen the 'Guardian' article of the 30th October ('The rating game') on the way some colleges may be pressurising teachers through 'draconian' management of lesson observations . Such stories indicate the pressures and some of the dangers of a more simplified and less subtle approach to measuring quality in education. Perhaps the long promised reduction in bureaucracy brings with it a reduction in tolerance.

The WEA introduced its current Observation of Teaching and Learning scheme in 2004. For an organisation with provision as dispersed as ours, it is an enormous task to undertake. However, three years later, I'm convinced that it is the WEA that is learning from being systematic about this process.

Is that because of actions taken where classes are less good? It must be, in part. However, I think the scheme can confirm to tutors how important their role is and that we take it seriously and learn from observation.

The results, too, are very encouraging - not least because we know better than we did about what is outstanding as well as what isn't. One of the most sobering aspects of the 2004 unsuccessful inspection was that the inspectors saw some classes that were outstanding and we didn't know they were!

Last year, across the whole of England, in cities, suburbs, towns and villages 1232 tutors were observed out of 2806 contracted to teach with the WEA. Of those, using the Inspectorate's own language, 11% were outstanding, 59% were good, 28% satisfactory and only 1% inadequate. These grades are moderated and, of course, would be tested in inspection. Nevertheless, they are something of which we should be proud - partly because the percentages tell us so - and partly because we are able to rely on tutors to teach well, help students learn and - in effect - represent the whole of the WEA to their class, wherever it is. When compared to an FE college on one or two sites or an Local Authority covering a borough or a county, that is a real achievement.

Of course, that very issue is one that makes life difficult for the WEA. How, with this dispersed provision that goes so far to maintain educational opportunities where others have left, can we build a sense of association amongst those tutors? How can we help them to communicate with each other, share ideas, discuss their subject and their students' responses to it?

No prizes in guessing that I hope a tutor network, using the ubiquitous tools of modern communication, can help.

Welcome to the WEA Education Blog

Welcome to the WEA Education  Blog 

This blog is managed by me, Peter Templeton, as Director of Education, Quality and Strategy for the Workers' Educational Association in England. I hope to use it to improve communication within the WEA on educational issues and to make the blog useful to tutors, staff and volunteers.

I'm not publishing this blog more widely at the moment and I'm keen to develop the content of the blog around issues of concern to colleagues involved in education in the WEA. I want to keep this simple and to use it, if helpful, to encourage use of other developments in the WEA and to build a community of people interested in educational issues in the Association.

One my current priorities is to find a way to build a 'tutor network' across the Association. This is not to replace the important relationship between tutors and their local organiser and region, but to recognise the key historic role of the tutor in the WEA and to take the opportunity electronic media like this gives to raise issues, promote our mission and share ideas.

I am organising some teleconferences and meetings with small groups of tutors to ask them to help develop this network. When we feel we've got a clear basis established, I hope to contact all WEA tutors about it and to use this blog as one way to communicate with them.

What issues will the blog cover? I hope that will develop over time but there are always things arising that we could share and this may help. In the first instance, I plan to summarise our own assessment of the WEA's strengths and areas for improvement, the progress with our work with the Open University and the other Specialist Designated Institutions (SDIs), the development of the WEA's own Virtual Learning Environment (WEAVLE). I'll be asking people to help me with some of these!

However, I'll want to gradually move more to issues identified by colleagues and would appreciate comment and feedback to help develop the blog.

Let me know what you think.