Country report for the UK - Norton Radstock College

WP9 Long term potential 

Country report for the UK 

1. Introduction and approach 

1.1. Introduction 

In this report, we consider the potential of the LIFE Train the Trainer Pack to 

continue to evolve and have an impact beyond the project lifetime. We 

assess potential against the background of vocational education and training 

trends in the UK, consider desk and field research with key contacts in the 

sector and recommend the best routes to maximise impact. 

This report also links closely with other work packages in the project: 

Standards (WP2), Needs Analysis (WP3), piloting (WP 5) and dissemination 

and exploitation activities (WP 8). 

1.2. Vocational education and training in the UK 

In the UK, vocational education and training takes place in Further Education 

(FE) Colleges, schools (sixth forms) and the workplace. The National Skills 

Strategy aims to provide a framework and delivery plan for meeting the 

economy's skills needs, including the development of the vocational ladder 

and the qualifications framework. It aims to engage employers across all 

areas of skills development and to make sure there is a coherent approach to 

policy in vocational education and training. Awarding bodies are responsible 

for the design and assessment of vocational education and training 

qualifications. 

National Vocational Qualifications focus on learning and assessment in the 

workplace for employees. They are available in many skills sectors and are 

developed by employer-driven organisations (the Sector Skills Councils) so 

that they are relevant to the job. However, there is sometimes seen to be a 

gap between qualifications and the skills needed in the workplace with some 

qualifications seen to be out of date particularly where technology is 

concerned. Competence, knowledge and understanding are defined as the 

standard. Candidates are then assessed against the standard, using standard 

assessment methodologies and by assessors who have relevant occupational 

expertise. National Vocational Qualifications will be replaced by diplomas from 

September 2010 for 16-19 year old learners. 

Modern Apprenticeships are at Level 2 and 3 for learners between 16 and 24. 

Apprentices spend time in the workplace with experienced employees to gain 

job-specific skills and time with a learning provider, gaining knowledge and 

training which is unavailable in the workplace. At college, the apprentice 

learns about specialist skills such as surveying techniques and legislation and 

key skills that will be useful in the job market – like working in teams, problem- 

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solving, communication and using new technology. In the land based sector, 

many work placements are in small to medium sized enterprises. 

Recent trends include new vocational diplomas which can be studied from the 

age of 14-19 involving practical, hands-on experience as well as classroom 

learning. Diplomas have been designed with employer involvement and must 

include periods in the workplace. 

There have been several initiatives to embed life skills into vocational 

teaching such as Key Skills, Skills for Life and Functional Skills. Functional 

Skills are currently being introduced into vocational qualifications with a 

particular focus on English, Mathematics and Information and Communication 

Technology (ICT). Skills specialists are employed in the sector to support 

learners and teachers. 

1.3. Training for Further Education teachers 

There are two teaching roles in the Further Education sector - full and 

associate. Full teachers undertake the complete range of teaching and 

planning tasks while associate teachers have more limited responsibility. For 

full teaching roles, teachers need to achieve Qualified Teacher Learning and 

Skills (QTLS) status. Teachers in the FE sector do not have to have a 

degree. 

Qualified teachers now have to provide evidence each year of continuing 

professional development. 

1.4 Key contact approach 

Building on the contacts established during our research for Work Package 2 

(Standards – see UK country report), we updated our contacts on the project 

progress using the LIFE newsletter, website and Train the Trainer Pack. We 

also established new contacts to investigate the potential for including the 

Train the Trainer Pack in teacher training programmes in the UK. 

The following organisations were included in our research: 

Bath Spa University (our social partner). The Award Leader for Initial 

Teacher Training in the Lifelong Learning Sector has responsibility for 

implementing the current Teacher Training Standards across a partnership 

of vocational colleges; also involved with the regional Centre for 

Excellence in Teacher Training (CETT), and with the Universities’ Council 

for the Education of Teachers (UCET), which has a national voice with 

government. 

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Learning & Skills Improvement Service (LSIS), set up to develop 

excellent and sustainable provision in vocational colleges and across the 

whole lifelong learning sector. 

The Institute for Learning (IfL) is the professional body for teachers, 

trainers, tutors, student teachers and assessors in the further education 

and skills sector. By listening to and supporting the needs of their 

members, they continue to raise the status of teaching practitioners across 

the sector. 

Centres for Excellence in Teacher Training (CETTs), were appointed 

by the Learning & Skills Improvement Service to advance innovation and 

collaboration amongst a diverse range of organisations involved in initial 

teacher training and continuing professional development. 

Lifelong Learning UK (LLUK) was contacted building on Work Package 

2 (standards) discussions and the expected updating of lifelong learning 

standards. LLUK is in the process of being reorganised and when a 

successor emerges following the new government’s new strategy, we plan 

to work closely with them. 

2. Summary of results 

Prior to the general election, the UK Government published learning priorities 

for 16-19 year olds as the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) handed over 

responsibilities to Local Authorities (see Appendix 1). Priorities included 

raising numeracy and literacy levels and English for speakers of other 

languages (ESOL) to improve employability and social integration. Following 

the change of government in May 2010, we are awaiting announcements 

regarding priorities and funding. There is currently uncertainty in the 

education field due to reorganisations and possible changes in priorities and 

programmes. 

According to employers, there continues to be a need for life skills to improve. 

A recent news article shows that poor levels of literacy are affecting the 

employability of young people (see Appendix 2). 

The initial reaction from contacts to the LIFE Train the Trainer Pack has been 

positive as it meets a key need in the VET sector. The fact that it is freely 

available in the education sector and is easily accessible helped to prompt 

this positive response. The needs analysis research provided useful evidence 

to our contacts that teachers need training in order to build their confidence in 

embedding life skills into their vocational teaching (see Appendix 3). Contacts 

also praised the flexibility of the Pack in terms of its adaptability to different 

vocational areas and guidance on delivery in a variety of methods e.g. 

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distance learning with tasks for teachers, video clips of activities and good 

practice examples. Pilot feedback in WP5 supports this view. 

In the UK, there is a wealth of material available to teachers concerning the 

Skills for Life initiative. Our contact at LSIS helped us to upload details of the 

Train the Trainer Pack on the Excellence Gateway, a national website 

http://www.excellencegateway.org.uk/ for everyone who works in the post-16 

learning and skills sector in England. This website provides resources, 

support and advice and opportunities to participate and share good practice. 

Our contact also suggested that we should try to include the Train the Trainer 

Pack within the ‘embedding’ module which is an optional unit in the initial 

teacher training course. Building on our dissemination activities, we plan to 

continue to gain prominence for the LIFE products through the Excellence 

Gateway and the eleven Centres for Excellence as guidance material for 

embedding life skills. We have been invited to submit a case study on the 

LIFE project on the Excellence Gateway which will be uploaded shortly. 

Our research also showed that it could be difficult to make the Train the 

Trainer Pack stand out as there are so many resources already available on 

initiatives such as Skills for Life. There is also confusion over the labels 

attached to these skills – they can be known as basic skills, core skills, key 

skills and functional skills. We will therefore need to continue to disseminate 

the Train the Trainer Pack with target groups to raise its profile in the UK. 

We are investigating the potential for inclusion of the Train the Trainer Pack 

on other key teacher trainer resource websites such as LSIS Employability 

Skills, Intute, Teacher Training Resource Bank, Brainboxx and Teaching 

Ideas (see References section for web links). 

We have worked closely with our social partner, BSU, through regular 

meetings to identify and make contact with key influencers in the VET sector. 

BSU has also used every opportunity to disseminate the LIFE project at 

meetings and conferences attended and prompt inclusion in teacher training 

programmes. See WP8 UK dissemination report for more detail. 

Our contacts felt that the LIFE products were very relevant to current VET 

policy and could be used as part of teacher training materials and continuing 

professional development (CPD). We will build on our LIFE pilot to include 

the Train the Trainer Pack into initial teacher training and CPD programmes at 

Norton Radstock College for over 100 staff and, through BSU promote the 

Pack to other colleges, trainers and networks. We will also continue to lobby 

for the LIFE standards to be included in any new standards written for 

vocational teachers through our network of contacts. 

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3. Measuring impact 

To date, we have measured the impact of the LIFE product through feedback 

from the target groups in the needs analysis, pilot and dissemination activities. 

We will build upon dissemination activities such as the LIFE project 

presentation at the Regional Support Centre South West JISC conference on 

June 23 rd at Exeter University to develop the long term potential of our 

product. As well as presenting and promoting the LIFE Pack to delegates at 

the event, the presentation was made available to 300 training providers on 

the South West regional database. Feedback from participants at the 

conference was very positive and is included in Appendix 4. Participants 

stated that they would consider using the LIFE activities. 

Our LIFE website, hosted by Norton Radstock College, will continue beyond 

the end of the project and the LIFE Train the Trainer Pack will continue to be 

free to download from the website in the VET sector. We will use the website 

to continue to add new activities to the Pack and involve target groups of 

teachers and trainers. 

Latest statistics show the following results: 

• 138 hits on LIFE discussion forum 

• 60 downloads of Train the Trainer Pack 

• 507 LIFE website page views 

• 253 visits from 37 countries 

• 250 CDs distributed 

• 1000 hits on EfVET website for LIFE project entry 

We will continue to monitor impact using the above statistics and use the 

following measures: 

 

 

 

 

 

Number of links to teacher trainer resource websites 

How the LIFE product is embedded/developed into wider initiatives 

Further feedback from key contacts, target groups and influencers 

Number of extra examples of activities/good practice submitted 

Trainee and experienced teachers – feedback 6 months after pilot 

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4. Recommendations 

Based upon the very positive feedback received so far, we recommend that 

that the LIFE product continues to be exploited in the UK to vocational teacher 

trainers, teachers, skills specialists, managers and key contacts in the sector. 

We will formalise our Intellectual Property Rights agreement with all partners 

at our transnational meeting in September 2010 so that the LIFE products 

continue to be freely available in the education sector after the end of the 

project (October 2010 onwards). 

We also recommend that the product is promoted to other sectors such as 

secondary schools and universities as we have received interest from these 

sectors during our dissemination activities. 

Finally, building on the success of this project and to exploit further, we 

recommend that the LIFE product is transferred to other EU countries through 

a new Transfer of Innovation application. We tested interest at the EfVET 

Conference in 2009 through round table discussion groups. Delegates from 

the Basque Country, Spain; Denmark; Sweden; the Netherlands; Greece; 

Lithuania and Switzerland participated in the session and tried out a LIFE 

activity. Through the EfVET network of 1500 VET institutions across Europe, 

we will identify EU states in which there is most need for the LIFE products 

and develop an application. 

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5. References 

For information on Initial Teacher Training qualifications: 

http://www.itslifejimbutnotasweknowit.org.uk/ 

Learning & Skills Improvement Service (LSIS): 

http://www.lsis.org.uk/ 

Institute for Learning 

http://www.ifl.ac.uk/services/p_wwv_pageid=140 

Centres for Excellence: 

http://www.centreforexcellence.org.uk/ 

Regional body Learning South West 

http://www.learning-southwest.org.uk/web/Page3.aspxPageID=191 

Excellence Gateway 

http://www.excellencegateway.org.uk/ 

Employability resource 

http://www.bdpstaging.co.uk/employability_v2/index.phpi=39 

Educational resource finder http://www.intute.ac.uk/ 

Teacher Training Resource Bank http://www.ttrb.ac.uk/ 

Teacher 'resources' section 

http://www.teachernet.gov.uk/teachingandlearning/resourcematerials 

http://www.brainboxx.co.uk/ 

http://www.teachingideas.co.uk/ 

Regional Support Centre South West – LIFE dissemination presentation 

http://www.rsc-south-west.ac.uk/ 

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Appendix 1 

Extracts from UK Government learning priorities relating to life 

skills 

Improving literacy 

and numeracy 

We will ensure that by 2010/11: 

• 390,000 learners achieve their 

first Entry Level 3 or above 

numeracy qualification 

• 597,000 learners achieve their 

first full Level 1 or above 

literacy qualification. 

To boost numeracy achievement, 

we will be encouraging providers to 

offer numeracy assessments to their 

literacy and language learners. We will 

also be encouraging more embedding 

of literacy and numeracy as part of 

a number of actions supporting the 

refreshed Skills for Life strategy which 

will be set out in DIUS’ forthcoming 

delivery document. 

English for speakers of 

other languages 

Following the public consultation 

on focusing ESOL more effectively 

on community cohesion, we will 

test and roll out a new approach to 

ESOL provision. We will prioritise the 

engagement and progression of those 

people identified at local level as being 

the most vulnerable and at risk of 

exclusion and for whom better English 

skills will improve employability, access 

to services and integration. Provision 

will be shaped to respond to 

these locally identified priorities 

and contribute to improved 

community cohesion. 

http://www.bis.gov.uk/assets/biscore/corporate/migratedD/publications/G/gove 

rnment_investment_strategy_09_10_lsc_letter_priorities 

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Appendix 2 

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Appendix 3 

Extract from WP3 Needs analysis 

Q14. The Future 

Please use this space to write any other thoughts or ideas you have about 

how skills for life could be included in vocational teaching more effectively. 

. More training for staff, and time in which to undertake training 

. A student must see the relevance of learning these skills before they can 

be taught 

. More support/training for staff – particularly those who trained some time 

ago 

. Some well structured CPD on the topic with practical workshops 

. Vocational teachers need far more training on how to embed skills for life 

in their vocational teaching – although it is covered in teacher training, there are 

constrains in terms of time (given the huge number of other things that need to be 

delivered), and when a vocational teacher has low personal skills there is 

insufficient time to help them develop their own skills let alone supporting them to 

embed the skills effectively. I think that all vocational teachers need to develop 

their own skills, gain confidence in using such skills for themselves, through 

training become more aware of what skills their learners will need, and learn 

effective ways of embedding these skills for their learners – all this will need 

training and for some quite a considerable amount of training 

. To continue development of delivering skills for life within vocational 

programmes as appropriate. Continue ensuring links and liaison with skills for 

life/vocational tutors 

. SFL tutors need to work closely with vocational tutors to determine criteria 

on both courses so that there can be effective use of learner’s work, to save 

. duplication of work. This would also improve how learners see SFL as 

relevant in their careers 

. • Through feedback and marked work 

. • Team teaching – skills for life and vocational tutors working together. 

Vocational tutors to gain Level 2 Qualifications in numeracy, literacy and ICT 

. • The importance of developing students self-worth, confidence and ability 

to work independently needs to be encouraged 

. • Teach at a realistic level and look at the students’ problems 

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Appendix 4 

Evaluations from Regional Support Centre Conference 

1. How well did the session help you to think about embedding life skills 

into vocational teaching 

(1 = not at all and 7 = very well) 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 

1 2 3 6 1 

2. What did you find most useful and why 

Stimulating communication between both those close and other 

groups 

Not really applicable to me 

Interaction with others in the group, bringing different 

personalities together 

CD/Leaflet/Starting exercise/ chocolates 

Useful information as way into working with life skills. Also 

demonstrated how frustrating learners can find exercises when 

they don’t go as expected 

Hear about the experience activity – puzzle 

The activities that could be adapted 

Group activity, CD 

Activity 

Awareness of life skills other than ‘usual’ 3 

The drawing activity/ communication/ interpersonal 

Practical activity – brings out team work – communication 

A different activity to try 

3. What did you find least useful and why 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some issues with literacy if for younger students 

No particular preference 

Sitting down – but the group delivery was excellent 

Tendency to expect ‘Right Answer’ so may not work (learners 

expect to receive right or wrong answer) 

Too short to find anything not useful – i.e. just right length 

It was all useful 

4. What improvements could be made 

 

 

 

Brought up in talk – alternate formats/images 

Use picture/photo for some groups 

Room that it was delivered in 

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Would like some Higher Education ideas 

Just one person delivering rather than 2 

A longer session with more ideas 

Longer session 

May be a longer session 

5. Any other comments 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Very engaging! 

I’m not a teacher but this was fun and interesting! 

The session was very interesting and well presented/run it just 

wasn’t applicable to my job role 

Fun and interactive presentation that can be applied to all 

Good session 

Use picture not words if level of literacy has not been assessed 

or is EL2 or below 14 

Good use of practical activity to deliver concepts 

Enjoyable 

A fun session 

Vocational area: 

Academic support 

Higher Education/Libraries 

Project Management 

Customer and connections support 

Health and Social Care 

Early years 

SFL functional skills 

Geography 

ICT 

Business studies/ICT/FE College 

Construction 

Public Services, H/social care, Early years – subject librarian 

Organisation: 

University of Plymouth 

Freelance consultant 

Universities South West 

JANET (UK) 

PCMD 

Devon ACL 

Yeovil College 

University 

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Devon Adult & Community Learning 

BPCFE 

Somerset College 

Exeter College 

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Country report for the UK - Norton Radstock College

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