HGV driver hopefuls left in the dark as DfE ends bootcamp contract

Much-needed HGV drivers have been left in limbo after a provider’s contract to deliver their training using the government’s flagship skills bootcamp model was suddenly terminated.

Qube Learning has been in discussions with the Department for Education for six months after unforeseen increases in delivery costs made the training for the 16-week course “unviable”.

The DfE this week ended the contract a year after it was awarded. Qube’s owner Claire Capperauld told FE Week that she was “surprised” by the decision and claimed her company had recently been “specifically instructed to contact learners with regards to finishing their training”.

The DfE was tight-lipped about the reason for termination but promised that officials are “working to protect all learners impacted by this situation”.

Both parties have refused to disclose the value of Qube’s contract, or how many learners have been impacted.

Several aspiring drivers caught up in the dispute told FE Week that Qube had previously said that “thousands” were signed up to the course.

Many of the “gutted” and “frustrated” learners enrolled 12 months ago but never received any training. They have slammed Qube for a lack of communication and said they have been “left in the dark” while they miss out on other training and employment opportunities.

During the Covid-19 pandemic the Road Haulage Association (RHA) estimated a shortfall of 100,000 lorry drivers, caused by lockdowns, a boom in online shopping and a post-Brexit exodus of EU drivers. It prompted haulage firms to offer generous wages of up to £60,000 and four-figure sign-on bonuses.

By September 2021, the DfE had established HGV skills bootcamps to quickly train truckers and get them on the road. The programme, backed with tens of millions of pounds, is supposed to be a 12-to-16-week course with a guaranteed job interview at the end.

Qube Learning, recently rated as ‘requires improvement’ by Ofsted, was one of 24 providers approved by DfE to deliver the “new to HGV driving” bootcamp. It was one of only a handful that was approved to offer bootcamps in multiple locations in every region of England.

Tom O’Sullivan signed up to Qube’s HGV bootcamp last year after leaving a senior role in the NHS due to burn out. He viewed HGV driving as a good career for job security where he could also help an industry struggling with skill shortages.

He was accepted onto the course in February 2022 and month later took part in four webinars. He was then told to go for a medical so that he could apply for a provisional licence and sit theory tests, which he passed in July.

There was radio silence from Qube until December when he received an email to say the provider was preparing to start his training in the new year. He was shocked to receive a message this week telling him there was no way forward.

“It’s super frustrating”, O’Sullivan told FE Week. “I’ve made decisions to not pursue other opportunities because I was doing this. I could have been a year into paid employment by now.”

Liam Millington is another HGV bootcamp learner with Qube who has gone through a similar experience.

“It’s gutting, I’ve been looking forward to obtaining my licence for the past year. I haven’t told my family or friends yet as they were just as excited for me.”

Capperauld said Qube’s delivery model was different to many other HGV bootcamp providers because it outsources the practical training and testing elements to external suppliers.

She told FE Week: “Unforeseen increases in delivery costs since the contracts were issued in March 2022 including increased fuel, energy and staff costs meant that our model was no longer viable.

“We have been in discussions with the DfE since October 2022 regarding these challenges and were surprised that the contract was terminated after they had specifically instructed us to contact learners with regards to finishing their training.”

Qube isn’t the first training provider to raise the alarm about the higher-than-expected cost of delivery for HGV bootcamps. Systems Group Ltd went bust in November blaming inadequate funding levels. Around 2,000 learners, mostly on bootcamps, were impacted.

Capperauld said Qube has “made it clear to the DfE that we will support with learner transition as required”.

The DfE said it is “providing the opportunity for learners to enrol with another training provider so that they can complete their training”.

But an email to affected learners, seen by FE Week, asks that “you do not contact the department and wait for further guidance and instruction – we will email you by Friday 14th April with more information”.

The email added: “If you are contacted by any company regarding delivery of skills bootcamps in HGV driving, practical tests, licensing or similar, please do not take any action. The DfE is not able to reimburse any costs where a learner has elected to self-fund their training.”

College group offloads MAT amid compliance review

A leading college group is parting ways with its academy trust amid a governance and compliance review by government.

Luminate Education Group is set to hand over control of its four-school academy trust, White Rose, based in Leeds, to a larger neighbouring multi academy trust (MAT), Wellspring.

FE Week understands the move, sanctioned by the Education and Skills Funding Agency, follows multiple internal and external investigations and a complete relationship breakdown last year between leaders of Luminate and White Rose.

The case shines a light on the challenges college groups face in operating MATs and FE Week can reveal that a government review of college-led MATs is underway in a drive for more effective sponsorships. 

The birth of White Rose

White Rose was created in 2014, when what was then known as Leeds City College Group became sponsor of Leeds City Academy. After the Department for Education divested another MAT, E-ACT, of ten of its schools, two of them – Leeds East and Leeds West – joined White Rose.

In 2019, all three schools were inspected by Ofsted and rated ‘good’, and the trust was allowed to take on another school – Mill Field, renamed Alder Tree Primary.

Following plans in 2021 for savings to be made across the colleges and MAT by sharing central services, a two-year strategy was agreed which Luminate said would have “extended and deepened” the relationship with its trust.

This involved a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) which included the ongoing line management of trust chief executive Andrew Whittaker by Luminate’s chief Colin Booth.

Some members of White Rose’s leadership are understood to have been unhappy with the direction of travel agreed.

Whittaker then made a series of strongly denied allegations over a 15-month period against Luminate to external bodies including Ofsted, Leeds City Council and the ESFA. They resulted in several lengthy investigations.

Luminate said the allegations were “thoroughly investigated by various organisations” and found to be “unsubstantiated”.

They claimed the “long and vexatious complaints made by [Whittaker] have caused significant distress and upset”.

The relationship between Luminate and White Rose was formally suspended by the ESFA in January 2022.

Whittaker was unable to respond to this article for legal reasons.

The ESFA carried out a governance and compliance review into White Rose between March and June 2022 and raised its concerns in a letter.

However, Booth said that the review did not allow Luminate as the sponsor to submit evidence, a complaint that was upheld by the DfE.

Luminate believes therefore that the review is “not complete” and that the letter issued to White Rose “cannot be relied upon at this stage”.

White Rose also launched an investigation into serious concerns about Whittaker’s behaviour, which led to his suspension in September.

White Rose’s trustees and members are understood to be working very closely with the Department for Education, the local authority and Luminate to address issues related to the recent turmoil.

Structural issues

When White Rose was created, the college group chief was made both a member and trustee of the MAT, in line with DfE guidelines at the time.

But in March 2022, Booth stepped down as a director of White Rose – he had been expected to continue until September 2023.

The move followed changes to the academy handbook stating the department’s “strong preference” for “a majority of members to be independent of the board of trustees”, and “for no other employees to serve as trustees”.

Luminate is part of a government-led Pathfinder review into the structural challenges for college groups posed by ESFA rules around MATs.

Luminate – and several other college group leaders involved in the review – take particular issue with handbook rules on transactions with individuals or organisations, including parent college groups, related to trusts.

Luminate claims the rules make close partnership between colleges and schools working “more difficult than it should be” and that the rules are not “an appropriate way to treat two educational charities trying to work together to deliver benefits for students and better value for public money”.

“We think that the rules … have not yet caught up with the much more positive and supportive views of the minister,” the college group said.

“The ESFA rules add unnecessary bureaucracy and cost to what are positive arrangements that provide real and clear benefits for students.”

The proposed takeover

An application to transfer White Rose was submitted to the DfE’s regional director, who this month deferred the decision to allow more information to be gathered.

Wellspring, also a college-led MAT, has 29 schools and plans to grow to include at least four more, on top of White Rose’s.

But while its sponsor, Barnsley College, appointed the original members of the MAT’s board and has the right to appoint directors, the college’s senior leadership team take more of a backseat role.

Luminate said: “It is DfE policy to encourage all single and small MATs to either grow or merge to form larger MATs that then have more and better resources to support their schools and students.

“Both the Luminate Education Group Board and the White Rose Academies Trust Board agree with this policy and are therefore taking action, alongside the DfE, to ensure that the [White Rose] schools are part of a larger and strong MAT for the future. The decision was made collaboratively and not based on a specific recommendation outside of DfE policy.”

MPs and peers call for prison education to be brought into public ownership

Dozens of MPs have called for all prison education to be brought into the public sector.

In a House of Lords debate on Thursday, Labour peer Baroness Blower called for the government to use the opportunity of the launch of the prisoner education service, set for 2025, to renationalise all prison education.

She said this should include “standardised curricula and qualifications – so important when prisoners are moved – and standardised education staff contracts to assist with recruitment and retention”.

Coventry South MP Zarah Sultana put forward a parliamentary motion signed by 32 MPs calling for the same move. The 32 signatures consisted of Labour, Scottish National Party, Plaid Cymru and Democratic Unionist Party MPs, as well as an independent, although no Conservatives had signed the motion.

But Conservative parliamentary under-secretary in the Ministry of Justice, Lord Bellamy, said during Thursday’s debate that the government isn’t planning widespread changes.

He said that core education in prisons is delivered by four providers – three classified as public sector and one private sector provider, while wider prison education beyond core teaching is delivered by a range of providers, including from charitable organisations.

He added: “We are engaging with the market to encourage new providers to work with us to deliver high quality prison education. We do not currently envisage fundamental change to the prison system of outsourcing core delivery to specialist education providers.”

In 2021 Ofsted launched a review of prison education, while an education select committee report published last spring described a “clunky, chaotic, disjointed system which does not value education as the key to rehabilitation”.

The Prisons Strategy White Paper published in December 2021 pledged a new prisoner education service that will “make sure offenders can improve their basic literacy and numeracy, as well as acquire further vocational qualifications, like construction and computing, to make them more employable when they leave prison.”

Contracts for a new service are expected to launch in 2025.

The government finally launched apprenticeships for prisoners in October 2022, with up to 300 prisoners who are eligible for day release and nearing the end of their time in open prison expected to become apprentices by 2025.

College apologises as ‘emergency repairs’ force move to online learning

A Brighton college has apologised to students after “emergency maintenance work” forced its main campus to suddenly close for the remainder of term and switch to online learning instead.

Brighton Metropolitan College closed its Central Brighton (Pelham) campus today, telling students the closure will remain in place until the end of term, Friday next week.

Students due to be taught at the campus have been told their lessons will be delivered remotely. Exams are also set to be disrupted.

According to the college, work is due to start shortly on the second phase of the campus’ development.

“Ahead of this project commencing, we have been required to undertake some emergency maintenance work which is impacting on the site entrance and means the site cannot remain in standard operation until the rectification work is complete,” a statement on its website said.

“We know exams are scheduled during the temporary closure period, and the exams team are working with curriculum staff on rescheduling or relocating any exams due to take place at Pelham during the temporary closure.

“We would like to apologise for the disruption this will cause, and we thank you for your understanding.”

The college confirmed all lessons due to take place at the Pelham campus will be delivered online until the end of the day on Friday March 31, asking staff to move to remote learning “wherever practicable” by Monday next week.

It said that individual curriculum teams may also ”establish specific arrangements at other locations for access to specific facilities,” which will be communicated to students.

The college’s east campus remains open as normal.

The college breaks for Easter at the end of next week, returning on Monday, April 17, where students should be back on campus as normal.

The college merged with Chichester College Group in August last year, and was due to begin the second phase of revamp work this month.

In February, the college said that work is to full re-clad and re-glaze Pelham Tower, funded by the Department for Education, and due to last around 18 months.

Safeguarding and subcontractor oversight issues drag ‘good’ provider down to ‘inadequate’

A Manchester-based engineering and manufacturing training provider will not appeal its ‘inadequate’ Ofsted rating despite hitting ‘good’ grades in most areas.

Salford and Trafford Engineering Group Training Association (STEGTA) was downgraded from ‘good’ to ‘inadequate’ overall in its report published today following an inspection in late January.

That was despite inspectors giving it ‘good’ ratings for quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, and apprenticeships. Personal development was rated ‘requires improvement’ and leadership and management ‘inadequate’, largely because of safeguarding concerns and poor oversight of subcontractors.

But the organisation confirmed it had accepted the findings and opted not to appeal the decision.

Chief executive John Whitby told FE Week: “We had major staffing issues which impacted our administration and leadership and management in the run up to the inspection.

“We are now back to full capacity within our leadership and management team and have restructured and strengthened our safeguarding team and systems, and have full confidence in our action plan going forward.”

Education and Skills Funding Agency rules state that any provider receiving an ‘inadequate’ rating in a full inspection will be removed from the register of apprenticeship training providers.

Whitby said his firm now expects to enter discussions with the ESFA over intervention, but would not be drawn on what contract termination would mean for the future of his company.

STEGTA delivers level 2 to 4 apprenticeships in engineering, manufacturing and construction, and had 318 learners at the time of the visit. It works with 16 subcontractors across its programmes.

The report praised apprentices’ positive attitudes to their learning and the additional learning they received beyond the scope of their apprenticeship.

It continued that trainers and instructors helped learners to develop their character and confidence.

The report said that there was a “clear rationale” for the curriculum and explained that it was taught effectively by “well qualified and experienced” training officers in the construction and engineering sectors.

But inspectors found that safeguarding arrangements were “weak” despite learners saying they felt safe.

Inspectors said that training for staff was “not sufficiently comprehensive” in how to identify and report concerns, adding that “when staff have identified specific potential safeguarding concerns, they do not routinely follow these up with decisive actions to ensure the safety of apprentices”.

Board members felt they did not get sufficient training on safeguarding and ‘prevent’ duties, while leaders did not regularly review the policies for safeguarding.

Apprentices were not always provided sufficient information to understand risks associated with radicalisation and extremism, it added.

While aspects of the curriculum were praised, inspectors also reported that instructors didn’t routinely challenge apprentices to develop their knowledge, skills and behaviours to a higher standard.

It said that apprentices did not have all the information to make informed decisions about career progression, while leaders “do not provide a curriculum that routinely equips all apprentices for life in modern Britain,” such as around healthy relationships or lifestyles.

Leaders’ oversight of education quality was “too reactive” with “disjointed and vague” processes in understanding the strengths and weaknesses of provision, inspectors added.

Ofsted also took aim at STEGTA’s oversight of its 16 subcontractors, most of which are colleges.

Inspectors found that apprentices follow different programmes of learning provided by subcontractors which “do not always relate to their job role”.

Ofsted’s report said: “Leaders are overly reliant on subcontractors’ own processes in evaluating the quality of training that apprentices receive. Leaders do not plan and influence sufficiently the curriculum content that subcontractors teach.

“Too many subcontractors choose the curriculum content without input from employers and the provider.”

Everyone gains from a supported apprenticeship  – not just students with SEND

My first day at Wat Tyler Country Park doing work experience was back in September 2019. I instantly felt freer; I hated being stuck indoors and I loved working within a group, getting tasks done.

Even as a small child I just loved playing with bugs and dirt. I remember getting told off for diving into puddles with my brother, but no scolding ever made me feel less happy about being covered in mud.

So I was hugely grateful when Wat Tyler gave me the opportunity to work for them. A traditional classroom isn’t for everyone, and I learned over time that I struggle to work in enclosed areas. I love the fresh air, the space. Being indoors to me is suffocating.

Working in the education area at the park gave me the chance to be part of a team that made an area safe and user-friendly for local schools. I had the opportunity to cut down the reeds in the ponds, cut back all the overhanging trees and discover creatures every day, knowing I was doing something for the environment, that I was making a difference.

With my apprenticeship, I can learn while doing something I feel passionate about – looking after our planet and being a guardian of the environment. Every week, after working with different volunteer groups, I can look back on our completed work and see tangible progress. I have also been able to plant new trees, and I think about this a lot; it’s crazy to know that through my work, tall trees will be here in years to come. It is a very satisfying feeling.

I knew a ‘traditional’ education pathway wasn’t for me so I was so happy and excited to get an apprenticeship, where I could learn on the job. I get to work with so many great people, experience the woods, meadows and community spaces and maintain these spaces for everyone to enjoy. I even get to talk to the public and educate them on what we are doing.

All my friends could have done what I have achieved

I feel like I’m part of the team, I blend in and it doesn’t feel as if my learning needs are important. I like being different and unique, but I feel normal here because I can just be myself and that is enough.

I feel I am more mature too. The apprenticeship gave me the chance to drive the all-terrain vehicle off-road and now I want to learn to drive, which I didn’t think I would do. This apprenticeship hasn’t just given me an education; it has developed me as a person.

My employers say I am an inspiration, which is a crazy feeling because I think all my friends could have done what I have achieved. They just weren’t as lucky as I have been in getting the opportunity.

That’s why I want more employers to look at supported apprenticeships. Young people with SEND can work hard, we can achieve and we do have bright futures. We might just need some extra help. I tell my work friends the things I find difficult and they help me. I get the job done, and it means I can have the life I always wanted.

I have been able achieve things that I didn’t think I ever would. Winning the nasen award for young person aged 16-25 being one of them. Writing this article for you to read is another.

I have learned so much through my apprenticeship that I hope I can become a fully employed and permanent part of the team one day. I tell the Castledon School students who come here now that I didn’t always want to do work placements, but now I love it. My school, and Basildon Council through my land management apprenticeship, gave me a route into work. I want to see more schools and employers doing the same.

Ministers’ bias towards face-to-face risks throttling online learning at birth

Recently, ChatGPT and I wrote in these pages about the incredible benefits of online learning in driving up efficiency, quality and success in education. We were finally on the cusp of understanding how technology can enhance learning and skills!

My optimism came crashing down just a week later when the DfE increased the requirement for face-to-face teaching to 85 per cent of learning in their latest bootcamp tender.

Online learning helps positively transform lives. I have had the privilege of seeing it over and over again. It is therefore deeply worrying that in the face of a general upturn in embracing technology, the DfE and its regulators seem to be set on returning to ‘old trusted ways of working’, limiting opportunities for many of our communities.

At times, it feels like those making the decisions are doing everything they can to stifle innovation in the delivery of education and skills. I am sure this can’t be their deliberate intention, but if we are not careful the government will inadvertently create a learning agenda where online learning is throttled at birth – making us less competitive in the long run. 

When I was at Cambridge University three decades ago, we had 85 per cent face-to- face learning time: 15 hours of lectures per week with 200+ students and virtually no interaction. Most times, a professor read a chapter from a book they’d written ten years previously – if they bothered to turn up at all! Genuine live interactive learning took place the other 15 per cent of the time, in our tutorials. We can do much better than this through a sensible blend of resources and live interaction. 

So let’s get interactive with a little quiz. Which would you prefer?

A. Being taught by someone who could vary daily from ‘Requires Improvement’ to ‘Outstanding’ depending on the kind of week they’re having or the lottery of what teacher you get.

Or

B. Being taught by the outstanding teacher in the country or a genuine expert in the subject who you’d never find (or afford) in the classroom

A. Having to attend a session at a fixed time with no option to catch up or repeat.

Or

B. Attending a session at a time that is convenient to you, chunking it up, repeating it and revisiting it throughout your course.

A. Someone teaching you online with a PowerPoint and their face in the bottom left corner.

Or

B. World-class resources delivered by world-class teachers every single lesson, developed by education experts who are continually reviewing their relevance and constantly tweaking based on student feedback and performance.

A. Sitting through a lecture and not knowing whether one piece of information has lodged in your brain.

Or

B. Having a carefully crafted set of live formative assessments embedded in your lecture to ensure that you have understood what you are being taught and can apply it.

A. A manually maintained record of your progress and understanding.

Or

B. A live record of your learning, understanding and progress, available to you and those supporting you.

It’s B all the way, of course. Sure, there are difficulties to overcome such as the very real challenge of digital exclusion. But sitting in a classroom or on-screen at a set time every week also excludes millions with complex lives from learning new skills.

It’s time for the DfE to accept that and to change their attitude; online delivery is as good as, if not better than, much face-to-face delivery and they should be encouraging development of online resource development, not reducing it. 

More importantly, the whole FE regulatory system needs to get round a table and set out what good looks like in the online world, so that they can have confidence in commissioning online delivery. 

The DfE claim to care about outcomes, but obsess about inputs. Ofsted care about intent, implement and impact, so let’s allow them to focus on that and nothing else.  The Treasury want more skills and more efficiency, so allow us to offer them solutions that give them that.

The potential is there, and we can’t afford for ministers to keep chickening out of the big calls to make education more effective and inclusive.

Norfolk shows the solutions to national apprenticeship challenges are local

Amid gloomy national news about apprenticeship starts, especially at level 2, Norfolk is bucking the trend. Last year, starts across the county increased by 18 per cent.

Despite a slight decline in the overall number of starts in the first three months of 2022/23 – three interesting stats remain: the increase in our apprenticeship starts for those aged 16 to 18 continued, as did the increase in those starting level 2 apprenticeships, and we’ve seen the best figures in 3 years on newly recruited apprentices (those employed less than 3 months).

Promoting the benefits

This is the result of a lot of hard work. Six local providers hold the ‘top spots’ in the leader board for the numbers of apprentices they’ve started so far this year. And while the most recent Q1 numbers had just 13 fewer apprenticeship starts than the same period in the previous year (2021/22), Norfolk SMEs started almost 80 more apprenticeships than they did in the pre-pandemic Q1 of 2019/20.

Many businesses benefited from the post-pandemic national incentives available last year. However, primary and secondary research conducted by Apprenticeships Norfolk – a hub run by Norfolk County Council providing impartial guidance for businesses and individuals – highlighted the practical and financial support particularly needed to help more SMES and apprentices access programmes.

After securing almost £2m of external funding, Apprenticeships Norfolk have been able to deliver an exciting range of initiatives. An ongoing #MadeInNorfolk TV marketing campaign has helped to inspire SMEs, raising awareness of apprenticeships with unscripted messages from real, local SMEs that had taken on an apprentice about the benefits it had brought them. A dedicated website explains the range of grants, bursaries and support on offer.

The combination of promotional activity and carefully planned interventions (additional financial and practical support) may be the catalyst for growth rates in Norfolk which exceed national figures. Indeed, evaluations indicate that the financial support made a significant difference with local business owners.

Kickstarting the provision

Meanwhile, a pilot scheme to progress Kickstarters onto apprenticeships provided an innovative combination of upfront financial incentive, a 6-month wage contribution (based on NMW at 37 hours a week), up to five hours of individualised wrap-around practical support (including an interactive employer ‘induction’ session) and a £300 training budget for the employers/apprentices to enhance their skills.

Employers developed their mentoring skills and apprentices accessed added-value training designed to support them to engage in the apprenticeship more effectively; with the aim to increase the likelihood of completion and achievement of the apprenticeship.

Evaluation feedback indicated that the 42 participating businesses would have been unable to offer a full-time apprenticeship without the scheme, and that the apprenticeships may not have led to so many job offers.

By the end of the pilot, seven apprentices had withdrawn, three of them citing family moving out of county as the cause. Early indications suggest a retention rate of 83 per cent, far exceeding national figures.

Learning the lessons

We have drawn five key conclusions from our efforts.

First, success is a collective partnership effort across the system. It requires input and commitment from all stakeholders, including providers, employers and individuals with supplementary brokerage of financial and practical support.

Next, it’s crucial to keep raising awareness of apprenticeships so that SMEs really understand the benefits and the impact an apprentice can have on their business. Many simply do not.

But success hinges on a balance of financial and practical support. This combination of approaches was verified by the independent evaluation of our pilot scheme. Its key findings indicate that financial stimulus was critical to supporting the viability of starting the apprenticeship for the businesses, and that individualised, wrap-around support was equally important to see it through to completion.

SMEs are often time-poor and also value free, impartial and timely information, advice and administration prompts. Apprenticeship Hubs are well-placed to deliver this.

Finally, SMEs also benefit from learning how to mentor apprentices and better manage their apprenticeship programmes. Doing so supports retention and offers a higher return on investment for the apprentice, the business and the economy.

The problems with apprenticeships are national, but as Norfolk is showing, some of the most effective solutions can be found locally.

The Staffroom: How teaching can stay ahead of the curve on technology

My career to date has been largely unplanned, hugely fulfilling, and has brought fantastic opportunities I could never have imagined. I’m a dual professional who entered further education as a hospitality lecturer 16 years ago after a career in industry and who remains a passionate advocate for continuous lifelong learning through CPD, expecially when it comes to technology.

From a food and wine pairing app in 2012 (one of the first smartphone apps to be produced in education with over 30,000 downloads) to student analytic dashboards, and from the ‘Listening Project’ student voice conference to a teaching and learning strategy underpinned by digital development, my focus has always been on supporting quality improvement in technical teaching and training.

I now manage the national Blended Learning Consortium of 164 colleges, co-creating contextualised digital learning resources with teachers, trainers and employers to support flexible modes of delivery. I was fortunate to lead the DfE EdTech Demonstrator Programme on behalf of my college during the pandemic, and, though I am now a leader, a member of the BETT UK advisory board and the DfE digital technology and standards working group for the FE sector, I am still very much a teacher with the same focus on classroom practice I had 16 years ago.

So it was a huge honour to have recently been awarded an ETF and Royal Commission Technical Teaching Fellowship for my work in technical teaching. Through it, I aim to keep that focus by supporting teachers and trainers locally, regionally and nationally to raise their awareness of new and emerging technologies that are shaping industry practices, give them confidence to use these technologies and help them to consider how they can be used in their settings.

Challenges ahead

Often, vocational teachers do not have remission to research how technology shapes current working practices, and this Fellowship will enable me to research specific sectors to identify these new technologies, such as wearable tech in health or thermal imaging drones in construction, and how to deploy them in education.

It’s also the case that technological changes often advance more rapidly than curriculum development. It is therefore vital for teachers to be upskilled and utilising the most advanced practices in their industry sector to lead curricular development.

The use of virtual reality in subjects such as science, health and social care and public services is already allowing learners to experience real-life scenarios they wouldn’t normally be exposed to. Such scenario-based learning develops learners’ wider skills and improves knowledge retention. More than that, it prepares them for a rapidly evolving workplace. It is vital that the benefits of relevant technologies are shared with all learners across every sector.

Getting started

My project will include gathering information and consolidating it into material that can be shared widely across FE. Its dissemination will support the inclusion of the most current and emerging technologies, professional standards and practices.

The key to its success will be to get educators excited about how their industry is evolving and ensure that they are well placed to share that excitement with an emerging technical workforce.

But there’s no need to wait. There are great educators already sharing best practice and innovation in using digital tools online. These range from simple ideas like asking learners who struggle with writing to take pictures of what inspires them to more complex solutions like Dan Fitzpatrick’s ‘PREP’ approach to using AI tools. A teacher with Education Partnership North East, Fitzpatrick’s generously shared and innovative model aims to help teachers get the best results when using AI to lessen their workload.

Professional social media networks can also helpful. We got involved in a Bodyswaps pilot which has provided us with Meta Quest VR headsets and a licence to trial scenario-based learning software that builds interview and public speaking skills. Our learners love it.

With so many developments, we must grow our profession’s confidence to experiment with digital tools to enhance teaching and learning. The key to staying ahead of the curve on edtech is to share our challenges as well as our solutions.