Mike Burdett TeamUK training manager

Mike Burdett is a TeamUK training manager and WorldSkills expert for bricklaying.

Mike's career began, like so many lecturers in further education, as a craftsman working in industry as a bricklayer; a craft he enjoyed and took great pride in. He moved into teaching as a part-time lecturer at York College where he had trained as a bricklayer and 11 years ago took a full-time post there. He draws an interesting comparison between the satisfactions of being a highly skilled bricklayer and those derived from teaching young people.

“When you work in industry you are building things and leaving things, products for people to see; whereas working with young people isn’t a quick fix, it’s more of a time process, seeing how they develop and change both academically and socially as well. That’s what I’ve enjoyed.

"When you make a product you are the one responsible for the finished article but with teaching there’s a lot of different elements that go together to help the young person become the person they do, so they can go out and create the products of their vocation.

"For me teaching is more rewarding even than building things. I was always very proud of my vocation and craft, seeing the clients happy with what I’ve done. But this is very different. You do leave a legacy but it’s a different type, a personal reward. Probably it’s only the students you work with, and maybe their families, who can see the changes and what you’ve done. It’s the interaction between yourself and the individual that gives the reward.”

Reflecting on the benefits of entering competition, Mike describes not just what it does for the individual but how it affects the other young people and your own teaching. He is totally convinced of its merits. For the individuals who compete, “they get the best out of themselves; striving for excellence, stretching themselves, getting confident in so many ways, not just in their craft.”

Mike describes the way this impacts on the rest of the groups and the college, “whenever the others see them producing work to that standard, it inspires them to try and attain better standards and sometimes to have a go at competing themselves. It has a collective push and a pull throughout the college, teachers as well as students”.

He has brought TeamUK teachers and students into the college and seen how everyone has been inspired, seeing what they could be aiming for and achieving. “Competition is a great way of celebrating the talent that‘s out there. There’s a lot of it, all the vocational skills. When I see what they can do, I take my hat off to every one of them; doing what they do in a goldfish bowl environment with everyone looking in, everyone an expert and they put themselves up for that. It’s superb.”

Does competition have any negative effects, perhaps setting up certain students as much better in a way that damages the others’ confidence? Certainly Mike has never seen this. He is adamant that it’s not just about the individual, they are representing the standard of the college and all in it. He observes, too, that it’s not only always the best student technically who is the best competitor; it’s about drive, confidence, desire to win.

Mike describes how he has used thetechniques he’s learned as a WorldSkills trainer into his own FE classroom. What he speaks about is not practical bricklaying skills but about skills and techniques for motivating every single learner. A coaching course has helped him see how to get individuals to buy in to their own development, to identify their own strengths and weaknesses and develop their own motivation.

“Keeping them involved in their own learning journey, whether they are a TeamUK competitor or a first year apprentice; identifying their own goals and objectives, pushing themselves means they are much more likely to succeed than if it’s just me trying to enthuse them.”

He’s developed better feedback skills too, “Keep things quite simple and quite visual.” Mike has been able to use all these skills in his college work whatever skills level he is teaching and thinks he can see real benefits.

Mike would like to encourage other FE lecturers to try competition. He doesn’t minimise the challenges; it takes extra time and some colleges can’t make that time available. “It’s above and beyond, but its value added for the benefits it gives- improving standards and quality.”

Mike speculates that some lecturers might be hesitant because they feel unsure of what standards are expected, or how to get started. His advice to them is: there are competition websites; look for dates of competitions and information about what they are about; speak within their own guilds or to tutors who are working in the locality - Mike’s experience is they always want to drive up standards and will help others to get into competition. Maybe best of all, take a group of students to see a local competition.

He hopes that tutors will do their best to take students to the WorldSkills 2011 in London in early October. They’ll see highly skilled individuals competing on a world stage. “It’s a world skills Olympics and it’s here in the UK; a once in a lifetime opportunity; the intensity of competition; the pride, the drive the motivation of all the competitors; the excitement, the tension, the buzz. It’s absolutely superb. A fantastic opportunity to see the best of the best.”

For Mike, the greatest satisfaction of the job lies in seeing the transformation and personal development of students and knowing you’ve been a part in helping them, one of the many guides to supports.

The greatest challenge? “Every day is a challenge and a different one every day!” His advice to tutors about getting into competition is, “Just do it, not just for individual students but because it raises the standards for the whole vocational area.”