IfL welcomes proposed review of vocational education

Monday 13 September 2010

The Institute for Learning (IfL) has welcomed the proposed review of vocational education for 14 to 19-year-olds, announced by the secretary of state for education, Michael Gove MP, at an Edge Foundation lecture on 9 September 2010.

IfL’s chief executive, Toni Fazaeli, said, “We strongly applaud the government’s focus on high-quality vocational education to provide us with the next generations of technical and practical specialists, including chefs and childcare workers, beauticians and care assistants, landscape gardeners and fashion photographers, as well as technicians and industrial innovators.

“Brilliant vocational teaching is vital if we are to help young people prepare for and make good education and career choices: careers most likely to give great employment prospects, as well as real potential to create their own successful enterprises, in an increasingly globalised and competitive economy. Teaching more people to develop the rich cognitive skills associated with practical and technical learning at the highest level is essential to our economic recovery and our ability to compete as world-class manufacturers, designers and innovators.

“We welcome the fact that Mr Gove acknowledged the importance of effective teacher training for vocational education, and that Professor Wolf has been asked to look at how to get more teachers with technical aptitude into the system. IfL, as the independent professional body for teachers and trainers throughout the further education and skills sector, is keen to work with Professor Wolf in developing an approach to vocational pedagogy that draws on our members’ brilliant teaching and training across practical and technical areas.

“It is absolutely fitting that the government should be impressed with teachers’ and trainers’ commitment to learning and continuing professional development (CPD). The highly skilled teachers and trainers in the further education and skills sector are dual professionals: experts in their subject or vocational area and also in teaching and training methods. Teachers and trainers in our sector are committed to at least 30 hours of continuing professional development a year, to ensure they stay up to date in the latest industrial practice in their field and, crucially, in the latest teaching methods that are proven to work.

“IfL believes that further education teachers who hold the professional status of Qualified Teacher Learning and Skills (QTLS) should be able to teach in school settings on a par with schoolteachers holding Qualified Teacher Status (QTS). This is even more vital as the importance of vocational education grows for young people.”

Tracey Richardson, an IfL member who worked for 22 years as a technician in the RAF before training and working as a further education teacher of plumbing, said, “Being a member of IfL helps me keep up to date with developments in teaching and it promotes professional standards and a mentoring system. My specialism in teaching students with learning difficulties also enables me to identify and help students who struggle with the written word.”

Many thousands of IfL members already make a huge contribution to vocational education for 14 to 19-year-olds, bringing their rich experience of working in industry to inspire young people to learn the practical and technical skills most likely to be in demand.