Updates from the Consortium for Post-Compulsory Education and Tra
Tue, 16 Jul 2013 12:40:00 BST
The Consortium continues to model and share good practice. Latest news on the website includes information about the Annual Conference held in June and free online access to the ‘Teaching in Lifelong Learning’ Journal.
The Consortium for PCET Annual Conference 2013 took place on the 28 June at the University and was in association with the Teacher Education in Lifelong Learning (TELL) network.
The conference was centred around the ‘Policy directions in Teacher Education and Professional Development: Implications for further education and skills practitioners after de-regulation.’ Keynote speakers included Jim Crawley from Bath Spa University with his talk entitled ‘Desperate times...Desperate measures’ – How can we keep professionalism alive in PCET?’, with discussions moderated by Professor Robin Simmons and Dr Kevin Orr of the University of Huddersfield.
Workshops were as varied as ever and included:
- ‘The Professions’ Memory? History of Education, Teacher Training and the Radicality of the Past’ by Dr Daniel O’Neill, Liverpool Community College
- ‘On reflection...: Enhancing reflective practice through digitally recorded professional discussion’ by Jane Brooke and Heather Lister, Selby College
- ‘Give ‘em the old Razzle Dazzle – Jumping through the hoops of lesson observation in further education’ by Peter Wolstencroft and Carol Thompson, University of Bedfordshire
- ‘Occupying the debate – post-16 professionalism and the vanishing state’ by Dr Carol Azumah Dennis, University of Hull
Papers from the conference can be found on the conference website.
Recent events included the Teacher Training and Technologies Conference 2013.
This focussed on the delivery of further education teacher training via blended learning. This is very much a delivery method that has an increased profile and one that is certainly encouraged and favoured. However, the problems of maintaining quality whilst providing learning through blended learning can be challenging. This conference was open to teacher educators from across the country. The main speaker was Julie Hughes from the University of Wolverhampton, who has considerable experience of developing innovative approaches to teacher training in the FE sector using technology.
Projects have always been supported by the Consortium and the latest is to develop and pilot a flexible, online, APL/APEL process that enables prospective students with relevant experience and qualifications to progress straight onto the second year of the CertEd/PGCE (Lifelong Learning) part-time in-service course delivered through the Consortium partner colleges.
A wonderful example of how teacher training can inspire creativity in teaching is the production by Calderdale College teacher training students of a video 'Equality, Diversity and Inclusion', now also available on the Consortium website. Produced by the students, it puts across an important message in an entertaining way.
Finally, free access is available to the online journal 'Teaching in Lifelong Learning: a journal to inform and improve practice', the latest edition is volume 5 2013. Contributions are wide ranging and include ‘The emerging further education teacher training landscape’, ‘Museums, participatory arts activities and wellbeing’ and ‘Lost in translation? A background to action research into teacher education and training in China through interpreters’. The journal was transformed into an e-version through a JISC project which has developed a template for intra-university open access journals. The latest and previous issues of the journal can be found online.
The Consortium is a partnership of providers of education and training who deliver professional higher education qualifications. It’s a partnership of further and higher education institutions across the north of England. The Consortium is also a Centre for Excellence in Teacher Training in the Lifelong Learning sector, one of only ten in the UK. The aim of the Consortium is to model good practice in cross-institutional and cross-sector collaboration – as cited, for example, in the Good Practice Guide (HEFCE 03/15 p98).
The Consortium for PCET traces its origins to innovative arrangements adopted in 1966 by the Huddersfield College of Teacher Training (Technical). It then began to deliver training to in-service further education staff off-site and in a number of centres distant from its base at Holly Bank, Huddersfield. Initially this provision was delivered by tutors from Huddersfield in different geographical locations at designated further education colleges. Progressively over the intervening decades the colleges became increasingly involved in the support and delivery of the courses until that responsibility was effectively transferred to the host colleges. The Teacher Training College at Huddersfield became part of the Polytechnic there and then the University and these bodies continued to support delivery of the qualifications through an extensive network of colleges.
The University remains responsible for the quality assurance of these awards but, under the final agreement reached in 2002 that established the Consortium, it is just one of many partners in a unique collaborative partnership between further and higher education.
