Developing excellence in teaching and training CPD

Continuing professional development is very much part of educators’ lives. Identifying what kind of CPD is needed in line with personal and organisational objectives and then sourcing it can be difficult. We have created a comprehensive high-quality online CPD programme for FE TVET tutors and training providers. This brand-new programme ‘Developing excellence in teaching and training’ developed in partnership with the Education and Training Foundation (ETF) takes place online on 24-25 November. Registration for this content-packed and free to access programme is already open.

WorldSkills UK is an independent charity and a partnership between employers, education, and governments. Together, we are using international best practice to raise standards in apprenticeships and technical education so more young people and employers succeed. We are sharing our knowledge and experience based on our international benchmarking of skills and best practice exchanges and unique development tools to help educators in the FE sector reach standards of excellence in their teaching practice.

There are over 11 hours of sessions designed to have practical outcomes for delegates with expert panellists drawn from the FE sector, business, government and around the WorldSkills global network. As well as lively debate from interactive expert panel sessions, the main focus of the event will be practical workshops and insights fuelled by both expertise from our global network and our extensive experience from years of developing world-class, high-quality skills training and development which has enabled students and apprentices to compete in our skills competitions both nationally and on the international stage against their peers from over 80 countries.

Based around four key themes tailored to the modern teaching environment and changing societal influences and their challenges and opportunities, our CPD sessions offer exciting and varied content in standalone workshops and discussions of 45 minutes length, with 10 technical masterclasses of up to 3.5 hours. It’s an essential event for teachers and trainers who want to stay at the top of their professions. There will be insights and resources that cannot be sourced from anywhere else and are gauged to reflect the changing challenges and thinking affecting educators, students and apprentices today.

There will be lots of opportunities for delegates to raise questions during the live broadcast to really get into what matters most about skills training to FE educators today, so please do make sure you don’t miss out on what promises to be a uniquely inspirational and valuable event. Delegates can join for the whole programme or select individual sessions which are most relevant. Make sure you reserve your place for ‘Developing excellence in teaching and training’ CPD programme and join your peers in leading the way towards a skills-driven economy.

Four pathways to excellence

WorldSkills UK Way: The art of teaching and training is based on over 65 years of constant evolution keeping pace with the changing needs of education and business, we have designed these workshops and discussions to introduce innovatory thinking in teaching to mainstream excellence:

• Competence to excellence: Raising standards in teaching and learning. This workshop guides the journey towards achieving excellence that is achievable for everyone
• Effective technical teaching: Bringing learning to life are two separate sessions especially created for new teachers and more experienced teachers respectively, to explore the characteristics of excellence in technical teaching, along with recommendations, effective practice examples and resources
• Enhancing teaching practice through skills competition development programmes to raise aspirations and outcomes will demonstrate the importance of raising the games of students at all levels. Aside from technical skills, competitions help develop soft skills that employers say they value including communication, self-performance management, reliability and teamwork to develop role models that can help boost peers’ own performance in the workplace
• The olympian mindset: Embedding, transformational coaching skills for teaching and training, takes lessons from elite athlete training which help educators undertake approaches that result in a measurable difference in the performance of their students. The session goes beyond the technical skills to enhance attitudes and perceptions to create literally, a winning mindset, which combined with technical attributes drives up standards and improves resilience, making excellence the norm
• The olympian mindset: Applying transformational coaching skills to inspire high aspirations in learners of all abilities covers how to raise the level of outcomes for your students.

On demand content

• Developing learners’ fine motor skills for practical and technical learning sees our experts share their insights and experience of developing students to high levels of motor and cognitive skills, essential for technical learning and the world of work
• Building commitment to motivate and inspire students and apprentices explores the challenge of maintaining student engagement and commitment to their learning and development
• Introducing lean principles to curricula planning and delivery is a highly informative session helping educators to develop efficiencies in their work, organisation and management for increased productivity based around the five values of: defining value; mapping the value stream; creating flow; using a pull system and pursuing perfection.

Education 4.0

These sessions will showcase emerging technologies, how technology can support teaching methods and improve social mobility as well as future skills needed in industry and services.

• Skills for the future: Bringing employer needs into your teaching and learning will help you create relationships which will benefit your students in education and beyond into employment and ultimately, help UK business to grow and compete more effectively from a sustainable base. Learning outcomes from this session will include, identifying concepts of education for sustainable development (ESD), recognition of practices which develop ESD in a range of subjects, exploring different ways to inspire new learners and develop their skills, reviewing resources and tools to support approaches in teaching practice
• Skills for the future: Educator approaches to developing green skills explores how three very different education providers bring education on sustainability development into their teaching practice
• Emerging technologies to support future assessment will help educators consider how existing and emerging technologies are starting to play a greater role in changing assessment
• Technology to support social mobility looks at how the Covid-19 pandemic has changed both teaching and learning and what this could mean for the future modes of delivery
• Technology to support teaching methods is for educators to learn about existing and new productivity tools to support learners in their everyday learning environments.

Live technical masterclasses

This is an opportunity to engage with our training managers who are leaders in their fields to get the very latest insights into current and emerging skills that the UK needs to develop to compete locally and internationally. Themes covered are:

• Automotive Skills: Automotive body repair showcases adhesive joining and comment from educators who have successfully embedded these skills techniques and practices into their own teaching
• Automotive skills: Automotive refinishing looks at ways to help educators embed best practice into the curriculum inviting international experts to talk about their own countries’ educational systems
• Automotive Skills: Automotive technology covers diagnostic processes and associated self and system evaluative processes and principles. The session will discuss how to use mindset to develop strategies to solve complex faults in vehicle systems
• Digital construction and manufacturing: Digital construction shows how to digitalise your teaching and empower students and apprentices for careers in digital construction
• Digital construction and manufacturing: CAD highlights the skillset needed and explains the nature of performance excellence
• Network engineering: Cyber security This is an informative overview of encryption techniques, application and content identification using Palo Alto NGFW and other techniques drawn from our work in international standard-setting
• Network engineering: IT networking focuses on delivery of Linux in education, themes covered include quality of delivery and how to achieve excellence with advances in IT networking
• Industrial automation: Mechatronics and industry 4.0 aims to support educators in involving PLC programming with practical examples to make learning more attractive. Advanced programming methods including an example of web-based SCADA system will be covered, plus transferring data using the OPC UA protocol
• Manufacturing and engineering: industrial electronics explains how to embed Autodesk Eagle within the curriculum, with a focus on project-based learning to advance technical teaching to develop learners to a world-class standard
• Manufacturing and engineering: CNC milling and turning discusses the journey to excellence that our training managers have taken by using their experience of sharing best practice with international counterparts.

Equity, diversity and inclusion

Ensuring all young people have the opportunity to excel regardless of their ethnicity or background is a constant challenge for the FE and training sectors. This set of sessions gives expert guidance on how to understand the complexities facing both teachers and learners. A session on confronting perceptions, what young people face personally and professionally sets the scene and is complemented by sessions on overcoming learner barriers and understanding how to support learners.

A discussion on the subject of, ‘Is mental fitness a necessary part of education?’ will help educators understand what mental fitness is and why it should be a formal part of education. Learn what Fika the mental fitness and skills development platform and the leading awarding body NCFE have done to close the mental fitness education gap and get guidance on how educators can support learners’ wellbeing through developing mental fitness.

• Overcoming learner barriers shares best practice, tools and resources to support educators with understanding barriers their learners may be facing and how to support them effectively
• Is mental fitness a necessary part of education? This session will provide educators with an understanding of mental fitness and the importance of developing it with their learners
• Confronting perceptions delegateswill hear directly from existing and previous learners and gain insight into the perceptions they experienced. They will share advice on how educators can support their learners to overcome perceptions
• Inclusion in apprenticeships shares best practice to help employers, apprenticeship providers and colleges be more inclusive with their learners.

On demand content

• Adapting curriculum for special educational needs and disability (SEND) learners supports educators with their curriculum delivery to SEND students. These resources have been provided by The Education and Training Foundation, The Careers & Enterprise Company, Natspec and WorldSkills UK
• Safeguarding learners with The Education and Training Foundation supports and increases awareness of safeguarding policies and principles. It will enable educators to identify some of the digital safeguarding risks and improve knowledge of the subject as a whole.

Register for your free place at the: Developing excellence in teaching and training CPD programme