Wednesday, 17 September 2008
Progression
Although the validation process requires that progression advice is available to students, there is no formal method in place to undertake this. Staff generally have experience of available routes themselves and advise students accordingly.
Thursday, 3 July 2008
Summer 2008 Update
As it is difficult to get Managers, mentors, tutors, to adopt WBLWAY in the face of the numerous ILT/IT software initiatives that the college is lauching (from FrameUp to Covalent to Pro- Achieve to etc etc) I have now promoted WBLWAY to students. After preliminary classroom visits, I have written to all of our FD DATA (Dance and Theatre Arts ) students to personally invite them to trial WBLWAY and respond to a user survey. This should make them feel special and aware of the fact that we are working to provide ever improving services. As I have worked with the tutors, employers, mentors, and sponsors of DATA events (ie Coors) this may improve engagement , as I will be able to undertake some of the spadework on behalf of each role (ie input access permissions to set up screens - as I have sent instructions and permission forms to students).
Actions as a result of our Pursuit of the Training Standard and possible involvement with initiatives to improve such things as course validation may improve our employer responsiveness - particularly that harnessing ILT/ICT initiatives.
Actions as a result of our Pursuit of the Training Standard and possible involvement with initiatives to improve such things as course validation may improve our employer responsiveness - particularly that harnessing ILT/ICT initiatives.
Friday, 6 June 2008
Operations Management Team Response
The paper of 6th June 2008 (posted on WBLWAY Google Groups) was presented today to our Operations Management Group (Deputy/Assistant Principals, Heads of Faculties).
I had the opportunity to brief the group at length about WBLWAY and the activity that Burton college has been involved with so far.
The concensus was that, "The college preferred to promote SURF locally to meet our own objectives". This referred to the building of the new HE centre and the policy of encouraging stay at home student to access HE provision locally. There was an element of competition with other SURF colleges.
One comment mentioned the name of the information point. This was in relation to it not indicating FD HE based WBL . Also the use of Frameup within college was discussed, as this can, and most possibly will soon, be used to allow both employer and student access to course progress etc. Of course, this does not include the communication aspects of WBLWAY.
The OMT are happy to allow the WBLWAY link to remain on the college website and mentioned the possible value of such a service to our larger employers training officers. As a review of our online services is imminent, due to our pursuit of The Training Quality Standard, and giving consideration to our self-promotion concerns they would prefer the pilot to continue with smaller employers.
My response will be to continue the work with students and staff involved in the FD's Early Years,and Performing Arts.
I had the opportunity to brief the group at length about WBLWAY and the activity that Burton college has been involved with so far.
The concensus was that, "The college preferred to promote SURF locally to meet our own objectives". This referred to the building of the new HE centre and the policy of encouraging stay at home student to access HE provision locally. There was an element of competition with other SURF colleges.
One comment mentioned the name of the information point. This was in relation to it not indicating FD HE based WBL . Also the use of Frameup within college was discussed, as this can, and most possibly will soon, be used to allow both employer and student access to course progress etc. Of course, this does not include the communication aspects of WBLWAY.
The OMT are happy to allow the WBLWAY link to remain on the college website and mentioned the possible value of such a service to our larger employers training officers. As a review of our online services is imminent, due to our pursuit of The Training Quality Standard, and giving consideration to our self-promotion concerns they would prefer the pilot to continue with smaller employers.
My response will be to continue the work with students and staff involved in the FD's Early Years,and Performing Arts.
Wednesday, 21 May 2008
Embedding WBLWAY
The process of embedding WBLWAY into college processes is continuing. It features in the ILT Development Plan but not in the consciousness of the key players in employer engagement and HE in FE.
Remedies that I am working on:
Development of a portal from our college web site that places WBLWAY visibly alongside all of the ILT services that I am developing (from Library- to Moodle- to Well at College etc).
Encouraging the take up by students (particularly where my contact employers have an, " I see them everyday anyway", attitude).
Adding a WBLWAY agenda item, to follow up our pursuit of the Training Quality Standard, at the OMT meeting on June 6th 2008. 1. to point out that WBLWAY satisfies some of the requirements for the standard. 2. to restate that our employer engagement team, HE curriculum developers, marketing team, should be helping me with this project.
Remedies that I am working on:
Development of a portal from our college web site that places WBLWAY visibly alongside all of the ILT services that I am developing (from Library- to Moodle- to Well at College etc).
Encouraging the take up by students (particularly where my contact employers have an, " I see them everyday anyway", attitude).
Adding a WBLWAY agenda item, to follow up our pursuit of the Training Quality Standard, at the OMT meeting on June 6th 2008. 1. to point out that WBLWAY satisfies some of the requirements for the standard. 2. to restate that our employer engagement team, HE curriculum developers, marketing team, should be helping me with this project.
Tuesday, 13 May 2008
Stepping up use of WBLWAY
Ruth Gill, Burton Nursery, has now reviewed the changes made to improve the Information Point. All of the FD students that Ruth manages will now be encouraged to use WBLWAY to access course details and communicate using the formums. Once this has happened, the plan is to revisit all of the employers engaged so far and illustrate Ruth's progress.
Tuesday, 6 May 2008
Moving on
As a follow up to Mark Stiles and Fleur Corfield's address to our ILT Strategic Planning Group, I am presenting a WBLWAY update to our Operational Management Team (OMT) on Friday 6th June 2008.
In the meantime the information point is to appear on the new Student ILT page that we are planning to use as a portal to online student services. This will give it a formal profile and help me to "trial it" further.
In the meantime the information point is to appear on the new Student ILT page that we are planning to use as a portal to online student services. This will give it a formal profile and help me to "trial it" further.
Tuesday, 8 April 2008
Choosing and engaging project participants.
I engaged employers who would not be deterred by project setbacks and who would be proactive. I particularly avoided larger prominent employers when planning the pilot phase. As our college had been through a restructuring, whereby employer engagement became a set aim, I targetted curriculum areas with close established links to the college.
When introducing employers to the project I found it useful to meet them alonside one or two learners. This meant that discussions about usefulness had more than one perspective. Often learners stressed that they wished employers to be aware of and involved with their study progress.
As part of our restructuring and new build HE centre plans, staff involved with work based learning at NVQ level and staff newly charged with HE employer engagement have began to work together. Whilst project team visits to senior management teams have led to awareness of the project at that level, the ground level operatives remain unaware or unconvinced of the WBLWAY support points use. This is partly due to the delay in providing information from Hive (repository) that would make the information point a useful marketting tool.
Plans for future engagement:
At present I am waiting for the information point to evolve to a point where I can revisit employers and placate their early fears (largely relating to information available).
The Standards and Development Unit at college now has a dedicated HE Curriculum Development Manager (employed on a temporary project basis). He will be made aware of the Information Point, as the Curriculum Area Leaders have been at formal leadership meetings which were promoted by CEL (Centre for Excellence in Leadership) and Kingston Universties "Managers into Leaders" programme. Involvement in the LSC's Technology Exemplar Network should also provide an opportunity to promote the WBLWAY Information Point.
An immediate opportunity to engage staff teams should be afforded by the training programme we have just initiated to embed FrameUp. FrameUp is now being used to begin to track work based leaners at all levels below HE. It clearly presents the framework that students follow and enables staff to monitor student progress, details and involvement with employers but is only an internal tracking tool ( accessed by college staff only).
Staff are already questioning its usefulness and wether something similar should be applied to HE (particularly FD's) and opened up to employers. Owing to this interest, I have made them aware of WBLWAY. Should WBLWAY ever allow even a simple overview of progress alongside its capacity to provide information that could market FD's, it could become an accepted tool. Our employer engagement team would now be keen to talk to the team about WBLWAY. Pauline Athersmith leads the team, with Evelyne Flynn responsible for employer engagement, and a team of placement officers. They would deal with progression to FD's, whilst Curriculum Area Leaders and Advanced Practitioners have a role developing FD's.
When introducing employers to the project I found it useful to meet them alonside one or two learners. This meant that discussions about usefulness had more than one perspective. Often learners stressed that they wished employers to be aware of and involved with their study progress.
As part of our restructuring and new build HE centre plans, staff involved with work based learning at NVQ level and staff newly charged with HE employer engagement have began to work together. Whilst project team visits to senior management teams have led to awareness of the project at that level, the ground level operatives remain unaware or unconvinced of the WBLWAY support points use. This is partly due to the delay in providing information from Hive (repository) that would make the information point a useful marketting tool.
Plans for future engagement:
At present I am waiting for the information point to evolve to a point where I can revisit employers and placate their early fears (largely relating to information available).
The Standards and Development Unit at college now has a dedicated HE Curriculum Development Manager (employed on a temporary project basis). He will be made aware of the Information Point, as the Curriculum Area Leaders have been at formal leadership meetings which were promoted by CEL (Centre for Excellence in Leadership) and Kingston Universties "Managers into Leaders" programme. Involvement in the LSC's Technology Exemplar Network should also provide an opportunity to promote the WBLWAY Information Point.
An immediate opportunity to engage staff teams should be afforded by the training programme we have just initiated to embed FrameUp. FrameUp is now being used to begin to track work based leaners at all levels below HE. It clearly presents the framework that students follow and enables staff to monitor student progress, details and involvement with employers but is only an internal tracking tool ( accessed by college staff only).
Staff are already questioning its usefulness and wether something similar should be applied to HE (particularly FD's) and opened up to employers. Owing to this interest, I have made them aware of WBLWAY. Should WBLWAY ever allow even a simple overview of progress alongside its capacity to provide information that could market FD's, it could become an accepted tool. Our employer engagement team would now be keen to talk to the team about WBLWAY. Pauline Athersmith leads the team, with Evelyne Flynn responsible for employer engagement, and a team of placement officers. They would deal with progression to FD's, whilst Curriculum Area Leaders and Advanced Practitioners have a role developing FD's.
Tuesday, 4 March 2008
Project Promotion
I am being encouraged to increase our involvement with ILT Development Projects. Recently I joined the QIA/CEL (Quality Improvement Agency/ Centre for Excellence in Leadership) eXplorer programme. A number of the participants introduced Change Management Plans that involved promoting Work Based Learning. I took the opportunity to introduce both of our WBL projects. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that some colleges (ie North Devon) were already aware of the project outputs.
Our planned involvement with the LSC's Technology Exemplar Network may generate even more interest.
Our planned involvement with the LSC's Technology Exemplar Network may generate even more interest.
Wednesday, 16 January 2008
WBLWAY - Importance to FD Development
East Staffordshire Childrens' centre registered for WBLWAY Infomation Point services today. Hayley Johnson (training Officer) will be the point of contact. Staff and students relayed their appreciation of WBLWAY aims (the report posted in Google Groups details their response). One outcome from todays meeting is the role that the project is playing in the development of FD's, particularly in respect of administration and delivery.
Ian Watts and Dan Robinson's document (Google Groups 2007) covers "Responsibilities" of parties involved with Staffordshire Universities FD's. Perhaps this could do with some prescriptive elaboration, particularly around the role of tutors delivering the courses and expectations regarding use of ILT and Information Services. It would be helpful to both the project and immediate classroom delivery to FD students at Burton if expectations were restated or even made mandatory.
Ian Watts and Dan Robinson's document (Google Groups 2007) covers "Responsibilities" of parties involved with Staffordshire Universities FD's. Perhaps this could do with some prescriptive elaboration, particularly around the role of tutors delivering the courses and expectations regarding use of ILT and Information Services. It would be helpful to both the project and immediate classroom delivery to FD students at Burton if expectations were restated or even made mandatory.
Employer Registers and college upgrades IT software for WBL.
Rachel Huyton from Burton Arts Centre registered on 10th Jan 2008. A report has been filed in Google Groups, detailing Rachels first impresssions. The Aim Higher Survey on local employer attitudes towards the service proved useful during the process of introducing Rachel to the information point. Hayley Johnson, Training Officer East Staffs Childrens' Centre is sheduled to be introduced to the service, alongside Sue Cornes and Sally Whitbread the centres management team, on Thursday 17th Jan 08.
The IT infrastructure at Burton continues to be developed. The updated list of MIS developments presented via Google Groups in July 2007 has been supplemented by Trax, Covalent, and Frame-up. As staff have to routinely use course management packages such as Pro Achieve etc, the software training consequences for the college are difficult to counter. Add to this Moodle, its ancillary software, and Well at College and staff are understandably "IT overloaded".
I would welcome the team's opinions on Frame-Up (www.wblresources.co.uk) and its implications for the project.
The IT infrastructure at Burton continues to be developed. The updated list of MIS developments presented via Google Groups in July 2007 has been supplemented by Trax, Covalent, and Frame-up. As staff have to routinely use course management packages such as Pro Achieve etc, the software training consequences for the college are difficult to counter. Add to this Moodle, its ancillary software, and Well at College and staff are understandably "IT overloaded".
I would welcome the team's opinions on Frame-Up (www.wblresources.co.uk) and its implications for the project.
Tuesday, 8 January 2008
Scheduled meetings with employers
Having piloted the information point with Ruth Gill at Burton College, meetings with other employers have been scheduled. The Burton Arts Centre manager is to review WBLWAY on Thursday 10th January 2008 followed by the training manager for East Staffordshire Childrens' Centre on Thursday 17th January 2008.
Monday, 3 December 2007
Information Point not working 23rd Nov to 3rd December 2007
Met up with Max from Stoke on Trent and Dave from Shrewsbury at Burton College on 23rd Nov 07 to restart the pilot with our "friendly employer" Ruth Gill. The information point fell over everytime we tried it. Reports made to Sam Rowley during appointment with Ruth. We did get to screens of employer and employee but "work based learner details not available" appeared when we attempted to go further and provided Ruth with a link to her learners details.
Wednesday, 21 November 2007
November 07 Update
SMT welcomed visits from WBLWAY Team to college groups. Comment, "as project has invested £Xxx in college there is an expectation that updates occur".
Staff most responsive to Harvest Road Hive developments. Some are eager to access FD materials formerly in Blackboard in our own VLE.
ILT curriculum development bids which have been accepted include the kind of employer engagement that WBLWAY promotes. I have been charged with "keeping developers informed of WBLWAY". Gerrard Larkin (computing and Electronics) looking also at integrating FD with PTime HNC. Students to either opt out after 2 yrs and gain HNC or take final yr to gain FD.
Staff most responsive to Harvest Road Hive developments. Some are eager to access FD materials formerly in Blackboard in our own VLE.
ILT curriculum development bids which have been accepted include the kind of employer engagement that WBLWAY promotes. I have been charged with "keeping developers informed of WBLWAY". Gerrard Larkin (computing and Electronics) looking also at integrating FD with PTime HNC. Students to either opt out after 2 yrs and gain HNC or take final yr to gain FD.
Tuesday, 30 October 2007
Marketing WBLWAY within college to Senior Staff
SMT (Senior Management Team)
Along with Assistant Principal Garry Phillips and following Mark and Fleur's presentation to our ILT Group, I included WBLWAY in my 1st October update to the SMT on my activities to drive ILT before our anticipated inspection. "The Future is further away than you may think" and " "The future is already here" were my two themes, as I put a realistic slant on where Burton College stands and where our SMT wants me to quickly go (all by myself it appears ).
College Work Based Learning Team.
As a result of SMT meeting I was asked to perform again on Wednesday October 24th for the WBL team. (Note at this stage: That I have informed a recent college governors initiative aimed at questioning the new college structure that cross college organistion of WBL stops at a level below FD's.)
People who should but aren't involved in WBLWAY attended the meeting (ie Marketing) were introduced to all of my initiatives (mostly VLE, ILT training, and WBLWAY). All that I can say is that I raised awareness without really establishing any future level of co-operation.
However with Mark and Fleur's performance at our ILT group, and these two meetings, I can say that all of our senior managers would have a problem claiming they don't know about WBLWAY or the future that I hope we are heading towards.
Along with Assistant Principal Garry Phillips and following Mark and Fleur's presentation to our ILT Group, I included WBLWAY in my 1st October update to the SMT on my activities to drive ILT before our anticipated inspection. "The Future is further away than you may think" and " "The future is already here" were my two themes, as I put a realistic slant on where Burton College stands and where our SMT wants me to quickly go (all by myself it appears ).
College Work Based Learning Team.
As a result of SMT meeting I was asked to perform again on Wednesday October 24th for the WBL team. (Note at this stage: That I have informed a recent college governors initiative aimed at questioning the new college structure that cross college organistion of WBL stops at a level below FD's.)
People who should but aren't involved in WBLWAY attended the meeting (ie Marketing) were introduced to all of my initiatives (mostly VLE, ILT training, and WBLWAY). All that I can say is that I raised awareness without really establishing any future level of co-operation.
However with Mark and Fleur's performance at our ILT group, and these two meetings, I can say that all of our senior managers would have a problem claiming they don't know about WBLWAY or the future that I hope we are heading towards.
Tuesday, 16 October 2007
Burton Pre - trial trial
Richard Booth and Dave Shearan from Shrewsbury College met up with Myself (Mike Parker) today to run through the support portal and run a pre-trial trial with friendly employer Ruth Gill and one of her FD students Kim Padmore. As the support portal is not due to be launched for trial until next Monday (22nd October 07) we expected disappointments...and we were not disappointed. A bug report was sent to Fleur today....plus a repeated request for a "clean system" to be available when the trial starts in earnest. (Clean = all user data cleared for Mon 22nd Oct 07 - except for student info access via staffs logins.) Ruth was impressed with the potential of the support point but not the registration process. Kim was baffled by the process - "couldn't the reason for the access password to enable employer to view student data be explained?"
Tuesday, 2 October 2007
Software developments at Burton College
As a consequence of Mark and Fleurs visit to the Burton College ILT Strategic Planning Group, some further explanation of the developments planned for our IT infrastructure is needed. The statement about our IT infrastructure issued on Google Groups WBLWAY gives a succinct description of our plans - noting that we do not have the data to support WBLWAY at the present time.
Tribal Group runs our IT/ILT development and daily operations. Mark and Fleur will have noted that the agenda of the ILT Startegic Planning Group meeting continued after they left the meeting and included the tabling of the College ILT Strategic Plan AND Tribals ILT Operational Plan (which is now to be added as an appendix to the college plan - and details the business agreements and software implementation that Tribal is contracted to deliver).
In respect of our incapability to provide data for the project:
The college runs EBS and is working towards using all available modules.
Click to view http://www.tribalgroup.co.uk/index.php?ob=1&id=115
We are about to launch MAYTAS
http://www.tribalgroup.co.uk/?ob=1&id=118
For all HR functions with our own staff we are going to use "World Service"
http://www.hrsystems.net/distributed.php
Tribal Group runs our IT/ILT development and daily operations. Mark and Fleur will have noted that the agenda of the ILT Startegic Planning Group meeting continued after they left the meeting and included the tabling of the College ILT Strategic Plan AND Tribals ILT Operational Plan (which is now to be added as an appendix to the college plan - and details the business agreements and software implementation that Tribal is contracted to deliver).
In respect of our incapability to provide data for the project:
The college runs EBS and is working towards using all available modules.
Click to view http://www.tribalgroup.co.uk/index.php?ob=1&id=115
We are about to launch MAYTAS
http://www.tribalgroup.co.uk/?ob=1&id=118
For all HR functions with our own staff we are going to use "World Service"
http://www.hrsystems.net/distributed.php
Tuesday, 25 September 2007
September update
Mark Stiles and Fleur Phillips (Corfield) attended the College ILT Strategic Planning Group chaired by our Deputy Principal, Jon Vincent, and several senior post holders. Mark and Fleur presented the project aims to the group and introduced the possibilities surrounding the repository developments (Harvest Road's HIVE) that will impact the project delivery.
The projects developments interested the senior managers present as they could be considered alongside the IT infrastructure developments planned by Ian Ross, the Assistant Principal contracted to Burton College from Tribal. Ian's IT plans are documented on the project Google Groups Pages, as the depth of useful data on college management systems is affecting the project. This is apparent at all project partner colleges.
Recent attendance at ALT C 2007 has proved productive in regards to development of college ILT training. Interesting ideas are being cascaded into teacher training programmes.
The projects developments interested the senior managers present as they could be considered alongside the IT infrastructure developments planned by Ian Ross, the Assistant Principal contracted to Burton College from Tribal. Ian's IT plans are documented on the project Google Groups Pages, as the depth of useful data on college management systems is affecting the project. This is apparent at all project partner colleges.
Recent attendance at ALT C 2007 has proved productive in regards to development of college ILT training. Interesting ideas are being cascaded into teacher training programmes.
Thursday, 23 August 2007
Ready to begin promotion of WBLWAY
Damian Brant, our newly appointed Quality Manager, has began to get involved with the promotion of our ILT services and has included WBLWAY in this. Internally, Damian will ensure that Curriculum Area Leaders, and their Advanced Practitioners responsible for employer engagement, are aware of WBLWAY. Damian is aware of the selected participants (tutors to employers) who we have enlisted for the trial.
I'm beginning to think about how I'm going to introduce WBLWAY (particularly to employers) - and awaiting the leaflets.
On a wider ILT front, I await the roll-out of Hive. Hopefully, all of our ILT efforts will begin to converge....to ensure that end-users avoid confusion.
I'm beginning to think about how I'm going to introduce WBLWAY (particularly to employers) - and awaiting the leaflets.
On a wider ILT front, I await the roll-out of Hive. Hopefully, all of our ILT efforts will begin to converge....to ensure that end-users avoid confusion.
Thursday, 26 July 2007
New Employer for trial added.
Details of Burton's three employers who will participate in the WBLWAY trial have been put onto the WBL-WAY Google groups.
The final addition is The Burton Brewhouse. This Arts Centre, fairly recently opened by the Queen, has began to work with the college on a range of initiatives. Amanda Skevington (Curriculum Area Leader for Performing Arts) has recently launched the Foundation Degree in Dance and Theatre Arts (DATA). Amanda works closely with Rachel Walker (Brewhouse Principal Arts Manager) who has agreed to help us with the WBL-WAY pilot phase. http://www.brewhouse.co.uk/brewhouse/index.htm
Rachel joins Sue Cormes (East Midlands Children's Centre) and Ruth Gill (Burton College Nursery) as our "trialists".
With the devolvement of WBL responsibility down to Curriculum Area Leader level at Burton College, we have a range of new FD initiatives (including Hair and Beauty).
When choosing "trialists" I have found it difficult to tap into long term employer contacts (ie. Engineering, Construction) as staff a worried about harming relations (with some employers still looking back to HND's etc). Our chosen "trialists" include a new initiative and two options with students at all levels.
The final addition is The Burton Brewhouse. This Arts Centre, fairly recently opened by the Queen, has began to work with the college on a range of initiatives. Amanda Skevington (Curriculum Area Leader for Performing Arts) has recently launched the Foundation Degree in Dance and Theatre Arts (DATA). Amanda works closely with Rachel Walker (Brewhouse Principal Arts Manager) who has agreed to help us with the WBL-WAY pilot phase. http://www.brewhouse.co.uk/brewhouse/index.htm
Rachel joins Sue Cormes (East Midlands Children's Centre) and Ruth Gill (Burton College Nursery) as our "trialists".
With the devolvement of WBL responsibility down to Curriculum Area Leader level at Burton College, we have a range of new FD initiatives (including Hair and Beauty).
When choosing "trialists" I have found it difficult to tap into long term employer contacts (ie. Engineering, Construction) as staff a worried about harming relations (with some employers still looking back to HND's etc). Our chosen "trialists" include a new initiative and two options with students at all levels.
Checking on Data held
After meeting with Ian Ross (Assistant Principal MIS and IT Services), Muhalb Alsaffar (Network Manager), and Tim Davies (IT Database Support), our statement on information held electronically has been updated and added to Google groups.
Ian and Garry Phillips (Assistant Principal Standards and Development) have concerns about allowing access to information. Having said that, based on discussions with Howard Brierley (Assistant Principal Collaboration and Learner Services), it is apparent that information of use to the project is limited at the moment. The new college structure (with key posts only recently appointed and roles and responsibilities still "bedding in") has devolved responsibility for employer engagement down to Curriculum Area Leader level, with each Faculty having an Advanced Practitioner with some responsibility for Employer Engagement. Devolvement results in local expertise being used but also a little confused administration - particularly on the systems front.
Ian and Garry Phillips (Assistant Principal Standards and Development) have concerns about allowing access to information. Having said that, based on discussions with Howard Brierley (Assistant Principal Collaboration and Learner Services), it is apparent that information of use to the project is limited at the moment. The new college structure (with key posts only recently appointed and roles and responsibilities still "bedding in") has devolved responsibility for employer engagement down to Curriculum Area Leader level, with each Faculty having an Advanced Practitioner with some responsibility for Employer Engagement. Devolvement results in local expertise being used but also a little confused administration - particularly on the systems front.
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