Jenny Williams Director of Vocational Education and Training

Two Way Street: The Vision Background • The Education and Training Foundation • The Commission on Adult Vocational Teaching

and Learning Two-Way Street • Starting points • Support • Ambitions…

The Education and Training Foundation: Enhancing professionalism • Professional standards and

workforce development • Leadership, management and

governance • Vocational education and training

The Vocational Education and Training challenge

• Comparatively low numbers of higher level vocational qualifications in the labour force (OECD)

• £2.6 bn pa invested by employers in

workforce development, but not in the education and training “sector” (UKCES)

• Vocational teachers and trainers need both teaching skills and up-to-date industry expertise (CAVTL and OECD)

VET Priorities • Supporting the further development of

excellent vocational teaching and learning at the heart of a strong VET system.

• Contributing to the creation of a strong VET

system with employers at the heart.

It’s about work… Commission on Adult Vocational Teaching and Learning (2013)

www.excellencegateway.org.uk/cavtl

Excellent adult vocational teaching and learning: 4 characteristics

1. a clear line of sight to work on all vocational programmes; 2. ‘dual professional’ teachers and trainers who combine occupational and

pedagogical expertise;

3. access to industry-standard facilities and equipment, reflecting the ways in which technology is transforming work;

4. clear escalators to higher level vocational learning, developing and

combining deep knowledge and skills.

“The key enabling factor is the VET system working as a two-way street, not further education and skills operating as a separate ‘sector’. The two-way street is about genuine collaboration between colleges and training providers, and employers. In the best examples the Commission has seen, employers are not just customers of vocational teaching and learning, but are engaged at every level in helping to create and deliver excellent vocational programmes. Collaboration is based on the recognition that there is added value in working together. Providers and employers make distinctive contributions for mutual benefit.”

Enabling factors:

Two Way Street

1. Genuine, dynamic collaboration between employers and colleges/training providers: a VET system;

2. Based on leadership with an external disposition; 3. Employers involved at every level in co-designing and co-delivering

vocational programmes; 4. An opportunity to move away from central policy initiatives and empower

VET leaders and professionals to collaborate directly;

5. About raising standards and ambition in business and industry as well as in education and training;

CAVTL One Year On… We very deliberately introduced the phrase a two-way street in recognition of the need to move on from past models of engagement between employers and providers. Historically the further education and training sector has tried to engage employers on its terms, or employers have tried to engage the sector on their terms, both looking at the problem from different ends of a one-way street. But the old supply and demand paradigm is not fit for the 21st century. We need a genuinely collaborative approach which is based on a shared understanding of the problems to be solved, the potential solutions and the business benefits of working together, for both employers and colleges or training providers. This approach focuses on how both ends of the street – working within a robust and well organised VET system – can help individuals and organisations to grow and succeed.”

Teach Too

People from industry teaching their work

Local leadership exchanges Between education and industry leaders

Starting points… • Workforce development is central to

business development • Importance of leaders understanding

vocational learning • An external disposition is key • Strong collaborative arrangements are

already in place, supporting the best vocational provision

Support: Local leadership exchanges

• Targeted at developing and demonstrating effective relationships between employers and providers

• Rooted in the two-way street concept in all their elements

• Focused on business growth and understanding the local economy

• Actively involving employer and provider leaders

Two-Way Street ambitions

A VET system, developing: • deep knowledge and skill in vocational

education and training; • industry-based problem solving, and

research and innovation; • collaboration on higher level VET; • raising status and esteem of VET and

work.