IfL chief executive visits Cornwall College for work-shadowing experience

Tuesday 1 September 2009

Toni Fazaeli, chief executive of the Institute for Learning (IfL), visited Cornwall College on Friday 21 August 2009 as part of a work-shadowing exercise. During her visit, she took part in a Preparing to Teach in the Lifelong Learning Sector (PTLLS) programme session, led by Bex Ferriday, who is lead teacher for the school of education and training and one of the first 105 FE teachers ever in the country awarded full professional status through Qualified Teacher Learning and Skills (QTLS).

Describing her visit, Ms Fazaeli said, “A key part of my own continuing professional development involves keeping in touch with IfL members and their experiences as teachers, trainers and assessors. At Cornwall College, I felt privileged to see a team of enthusiastic, thoughtful and determined professionals working hard to be the best teachers they could.

"I enjoyed meeting teachers and trainee teachers at the college, and having the chance to experience the intensive PTLLS course as a participant. I was impressed with the skills demonstrated by the trainee teachers and their thoughtful approach to planning lessons in order to meet learners' diverse needs. Combining group and online learning, the PTLLS programme at Cornwall College makes good use of new technologies. We all learned a great deal during the three-hour session.

"The group I joined included trainee teachers of engineering, business administration, leisure and tourism, sports coaching, literacy and numeracy and employability skills. Their experiences ranged from being in Brazil, Antarctica, Alaska, working as a fireman and at senior levels in industry. Many of them had mixed with a diverse range of well-known figures, including politicians and national media celebrities, as well as the hundreds of local people they teach. For me, this exemplified the rich skills and diversity offered by trainee teachers in FE.

"The session had been planned brilliantly, and involved us all fully in activities and reflection on lesson planning; differentiating teaching to meet the different needs of learners; observing a 30-minute micro teaching session to help us model from good practice; practising teaching methods and using new technologies such as the interactive whiteboard and YouTube clips. There were also many follow-up activities through Moodle, designed for us to do at home – for example, integrating the teaching of functional skills in our teaching and training.

"I had to tear myself away, but left the college knowing with absolute confidence that any learners – young or old, beginner or more advanced – would flourish in the care of these dedicated and talented trainee teachers.

"Between 10,000 and 15,000 new teachers join the sector each year and what an astonishing ocean of talent our FE sector attracts. These trainee teachers are helping build their local economies and boost the chances for those already on track to success and the many individuals scarred by long-term unemployment and repeated redundancies. I pay tribute to them."

Dave Linnell OBE, principal of Cornwall College, said, "We were delighted to have Toni visit us. Last year we had excellent retention and success rates for our teaching training courses, which truly demonstrates the hard work of our staff and the quality of our provision.

"IfL strives for excellence in teaching and learning and this is something that we at Cornwall College fully advocate. We believe in supporting individual teachers' and trainers' learning so that they can maintain their high professional status, and this year four of our teachers, including Bex, were the first to get their QTLS professional status. This is something that we as a college are extremely proud of."

Bex Ferriday said, "It was great that Toni came to the college to shadow me and experience first hand how we help and support our teachers in training. She threw herself right in and joined in all the activities.

"I think it was a good opportunity for Toni to return to the classroom environment and think it would be nice if more people had the same attitude to 'go back to the shop floor' as such, and meet those currently working there to see how their organisation's strategic aims are being met, and also to share good practice."