T Level Professional Development programme underway

The Department for Education announced in November 2018 that the Education and Training Foundation (ETF) had been chosen to create and implement the first phase of a substantial national T Level Professional Development (TLPD) offer.

TLPD offers support for FE teachers and leaders as they prepare to deliver T Levels. The programme provides opportunities for teachers to further develop their teaching skills, subject knowledge and industry expertise. TLPD has been designed around the needs of providers and their workforce to ensure positive outcomes for students.

The TLPD offer consists of five strands of support:

• Ongoing Professional Development Needs Analysis
• Understanding T Levels
• Teacher Development Programme
• Regional Knowledge Hub Networks, Teacher Regional Improvement Projects (TRIPs) and Industry Insight Activity
• Organisational Readiness.

Sam Dilliway-Davies, Head of T Level Professional Development, ETF, explains how the TLPD programme is progressing:
We are already well underway in delivering a large number of products to support Professional Development across the strands including; self-assessment tools so providers can assess their readiness, nine online modules for Understanding T Levels in relation to roles across an organisation, and Top Tips guides focused on recent innovations in teaching practice.

Regional Knowledge Hub Networks, TRIPs, and Industry Insight activity
In partnership with the regional Knowledge Hub networks, the first 31 TRIPs – collaborative research projects between providers - were agreed in June. These will focus on topics including soft skills development for students on industry placements, subject-specific pedagogy, and employer engagement in curriculum co-design and delivery.

Launch events for providers interested in learning more about TRIPs ahead of the second wave of applications will be held in Nottingham on 30 August and London on 6 September, with regional webinars also in the pipeline.

We received a lot of positive feedback from initial launch events in May with attendees particularly heralding the importance of meeting participants from other organisations and committing to pursuing the cooperative work initiated at the events.

The Industry Insight activity will engage both current and new industry contacts and is designed to give teachers access up-to-date industry insight, reinforcing a clear line of sight to work for their students. The 175 available placements will take the form either of work shadowing (of either a half or one-day’s duration) or placements (one or two days in duration). The activity will also facilitate more immersive staff placements in industry of three, five or 10 days in length.

Future focus
Looking forward, we are working hard to implement CPD and mentoring for Organisational Readiness to support the development of management and leadership skills. These will take the form of face-to-face events, online modules, webinars and mentoring opportunities for middle managers, governors and governance professionals.

To find out more about TLPD activities please visit the website, sign up to the fortnightly bulletin, or download the brochure.

Gatsby and TLPD