Learners benefit from employability skills tutor's CPD

Tui Palmer is an employability skills tutor at Working Links, a public, private and voluntary organisation that works in some of the most deprived areas of Great Britain to address the challenges faced by long-term unemployed people, helping change their lives by supporting them into sustainable employment. Here she writes about her continuing professional development (CPD) and its impact on her learners and colleagues.

I have been teaching Skills for Life for 10 years, and my first role as a numeracy tutor involved working with adults in community centres, schools, prisons, Entry to Employment (e2e) schemes, family learning and the Probation Service. After that, I worked in a pupil referral unit and vocational centre, teaching basic skills to 11 to 16-year-olds.

I joined Working Links 18 months ago, and teach literacy, numeracy and employability skills to unemployed adults. I really enjoy the job, because it’s very varied, and no two days are the same. Although I mainly teach literacy and numeracy, I particularly enjoy supporting learners into work through confidence-boosting and motivational activities, and helping them write covering letters, conduct job searches on the internet, send emails and complete online application forms.

Employability skills

Employability skills can defined as a set of achievements, understandings and personal attributes that make individuals more likely to gain employment and to be successful in their chosen occupation. Employability skills include, for example, written and verbal communication; teamwork; leadership; planning and organising; computing skills; numeracy, developing professionalism; investigating, analysing and problem-solving; flexibility; and persuading. They are sometimes referred to as transferable skills, personal skills or, in the context of career planning and development, career management skills.

My CPD

Working Links provides plenty of opportunities for CPD, and over the last year or so I have completed a range of online and classroom-based courses, including:

• City & Guilds online testing training for adult literacy levels 1 and 2 and adult numeracy entry 3 and levels 1 and 2, which enabled me to carry out the tests and show others how to administer them.
• E-learning induction, which provided me with an overview of the e-learning courses available through the intranet system, so that I can book courses locally or nationally.
•  E-learning health and safety induction, which covered health and safety in my current workplace, details of who is responsible for specific areas, and completing the online accident report form.
• Introduction to functional skills, a series of four sessions that gave me an excellent overview of all three functional skills in maths, English and information and communication technology (ICT).
• ASDAN employability skills training to deliver entry 3 and level 1 qualifications.
• Diversity awareness course, which gave me the opportunity to meet other staff from across the country. I really enjoyed this course and adapted some of the activities and I was inspired to deliver others for our week-long RESPECT week about dignity and diversity awareness with our learners.
• Target skills training through an amazing online bank of resources that are individualised towards learners’ needs following an initial assessment. The tutor can monitor what the learners are using, the time spent on each resource and the results, as well as being able to add relevant resources so the learner can practice in their weak areas.
• Data protection e-learning, which gave me an overview of the law surrounding data protection and specific information about company policy.

I am a member of the National Centre for Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics (NCTEM) and attend meetings whenever I can. I also use the website quite often for resources and to keep up-to-date.

This year I will complete a graduate diploma in maths education with the Open University. The final module is researching mathematics learning, and I am researching how learners communicate mathematically.

Challenges, impact and outcomes

While I have had plenty of support at work to complete my courses and studies, it has taken careful planning and prioritisation, coupled with plenty of determination, to get through it all. Having access to computers has occasionally been a problem, and like most people, I have experienced the frustration of a computer crashing right in the middle of an online course.

My colleagues are very supportive and we all help each other through any difficulties, especially ICT-related issues. We regularly make time as a team to discuss the training that we have completed and the availability of new resources, and to share good practice.

I like online courses, because I can do them in my own time, at a pace that suits me. They have boosted my confidence in teaching IT, which is of course an important part of basic skills.

I have spent time reflecting on how I should communicate with my learners, planning the open questions that will help them think for themselves and will coax fuller answers from them, so that I can assess whether they have understood what they have learnt.

My CPD has improved my teaching and learning, and I have more confidence in my abilities. Continuing to study keeps my thinking and teaching current, and helps me empathise better with my learners.

I have supported other teachers who were less confident in maths to deliver the subject. As well as supporting them in their teaching and learning, I have given them suggestions about what they can do and directed them to websites, for examples. The feedback from my peers suggests that they have benefited from my support and found the resources useful. Conversations with my learners indicate that they too think they have benefited from my commitment to CPD.

What’s next?

My next CPD project will involve completing a level 4 qualification in IAG (information, advice and guidance) with my colleagues.