Confusing the Diploma

For those of us who have been involved with the Diploma from the outset, the comments in the Daily Mail about how the Diploma is positioned in the minds of the students is no surprise.

in brief it says that students start the Diploma and then find out it's different to what was expected.  Many institutions are not promoting it all that well (Newcastle College don't even mention it in their prospectus sent to Y11) and parents don't know whether it's academic or vocational.

A plea to those leading the marketing - get off the fence and say who the diploma is aimed at please.  If it is vocational say so but please don't presented it's something it isn't!

Lots of Press about Skills for Life

Now, we know that  Functional Skills will be Incorporated into the Foundation Learning tier which is expected to replace existing basic Skills/Skills for Life provision.  precise details are not yet published but I thought it was very interesting that there was masses of coverage about the progress that Skills for Life had made in 5 years.

Some good, some bad.  

I may have a very slightly wary attitude of political announcements, but I get the feeling that the press coverage yesterday is the forerunner of the FLT changes.

You heard it here first!

Diploma now uber trendy

How do I know that?  Well, my daughters are teenagers and as such they know their TV programmes.  Hollyoaks around tea time, Lost when it returns but above all Skins which is definitely post watershed viewing.

And the new series returned last night and guess what - the characters are preparing to start the Hair and Beauty Diploma at College - so there you go - the diploma has made cutting edge TV drama!

Just thought you'd like to know - I suspect this mention will be more important than all the DCSF Youtube videos they could ever possibly put up!

jonathan

Final BETT blog

I just got a chance to look at the winners of the awards.  One stood out like a sore thumb and I don't really agree with it.

LSIS won the award for FE Management Systems.  Now if BESA (which stands for the British Educational Suppliers Assoication) who organsie the awards and are a big part of BETT really want a thriving commercial industry, giving awards to publicly funded bodies who don't live in the same commercial world as we do is a very strange thing to do.

How can I (as a 6 person company) compete with the unlimited budgets and no need to make any commercial decisions of LSIS - it's just wrong.

If publicy funded bodies want to take part in this type of award then they should have a seperate category.

 

Manic Friday and Data

It's amazing how things always seem to work.  I can understand why tesco places such importance on its clubcard becuase yesterday morning we predicted how many people would stop to see us on Friday based on Wed and Thurs numbers.

(I can't say what those numbers were becuase I know that I have readers from company's who would love to know this.)

And guess what - we forecast the number to within 3% - not bad eh and so a very pleasing day all round for us with interest levels well above what we hoped for.  We even got enough orders on the stand to pay for most of the show which is a big bonus!

So now let me consider the show in general.  RM stand is very quiet - mainly becuase they have the whole of Olympia 2 now so lots of people stay there.  Personally this is really bad news for us small companies as some people come to BETT to see RM (indeed many do) and they end spending their time outside drinkiing the free T&C provided by RM.  Good marketing for them - bad for the industry though and this selfishness is really disappointing.

You can see the credit crunch even in Education.  Lots of empty stands, where people paid the deposit in March then didn't pay the second installment in October.  Lots of space where stands used to be as well.  No real significant changes in big stand design so most companies are using their stand assets for longer - it used to be two years between designs, now I'd guess it's at least a year longer.

Breakthrough technologies?  Lots of tablet mini books, internet security and esafety, home/school communication links, mobile learning, assessment and progress tracking.  So nice technology based "toys" but I don't see them as eartth shattering.  Education City are doing well in the primary sector, good software nicely produced and well done to them as every year they have moved forward.

The whiteboard companies invest a lot in software and they certainly blast away with their big stands and amazing "transforming learning" messages, but in reality it's just a bit better than last year.  No BBC, No Apple and so on the technology front, no real significant innovations that I could see.  

Haven't has a chance to get down to policy in Practice where DCSF, Teachers TV, Becta et al are - so missed any announcements about things.

Dafest stand - someone upstairs on the gallery has about 30 sq meter stand (approx cost £12000 just for the space) and on it they have some big dance mats and loud music.  Result - annoyed neighbours I expect and an empty stand as every visitor walks past wondering why they want to learn how to dance like Girls Aloud and even if they did want to learn, why they'd do it at an exhibition with all their colleagues watching. 

Diplomas and Functional Skills stuff - no movement  since the first day that I've been able to see.

NWGL have promised level 2 ICT "for the summer" on CD.  Level 2 Maths for 2010 on CD but no level 1, no entry level, no English so personally delighted.  BKSB previously mentioned, books and re-used paper based materils from Nelson Thorners and some other publishers, same with exam boards.  

That's it foe now, I hope my reader enjoyed the review!

Thursday at BETT

Two days down and it's getting better.

As always, I expect Thursday to be a busier day than wednesday and so it proved.  Judging by how busy the stands were, I'm feeling very confident that Functional Skills are very much a "now thing" - much more recognition of what they are by regular school teachers, much higher levels of understanding and it gives me confidence for the next curriculum year in general.

What is still disapointing though is the conversation when a teacher wants to know preciselty what to teach and what the exam looks like.  They don't believe that it isn't designed, nor possible to "teach to the test" and then try to shoot the messenger (me) becuase i don't have all the past papers so they can see what to teach.

This will change though - I even had two customers argueing with each other over the implications for teaching and learning!

I noticed today that the BBC are not here.  They have had a big popular stand in the past.  Is this a consequence of BBC Jam or a cost cutting exercise - who knows?

Still haven't seen anything more about Functional Skills and Diplomas - I continiue to look.  

Functional Skills at BETT

Really enjoyed our first day at BETT - we had lots of interest and a lot of people had us "must see" lists - we even had someone turn up at 8.55, 1 hour before the show started!

Other things that I've spotted so far.......

Different Class offering a "My Diploma" software solution that tracks students progress in the Dilpoma.

BKSB are here again with a very big stand that must cost 10's of thousands to buy and build but their brochures haven't changed and Functional Skills is still mentioned after key Skills and Basic Skills.  I wouldn't be a welcome visitor on their stand so I don't know if the Functional Skills materials are new or just re-purposed.

The North West Learning Grid have a seperate stand and are promoting free functional skills resources - I do know the chaps at NWGL so I will find out more and report back here tomorrow.

U Xplore are here with their work related experience software for the Diplomas.  The Creative and Media one is very good reflecting their background in media.

That's it so far - for such an important new qualification, a bit thin but then again, I haven't explored as much as I would like to yet!

Jonathan

BETT start and set-up

Rather unbelievably, this is my 21st consecutive year at BETT - not all with the same company of course.

It still raises the same emotions, still has a high degree of anticipation, I still look forward to it as a highlight of the year, the perfect start to a new year!

We have two stands at BETT, it is the first year for Guroo at the show.  A small stand N50 in the gallery of the main hall where I hope most activity will be based and an even smaller stand in the software village which has just enough space for a couple of machines and a person.  I hope that by having two stands, we see more people - I know that visitors rarely get round the whole show!

It's Wednesday morning now and everything is set-up and raring to go.  

Once I've had a little chance to walk round the show I'll report on which stands and what developments I can see that have something to do with Functional Skills.

Jonathan

Postive and Negative Diploma Press

Good and Bad News today.

Locally, I read a really positive story about Diplomas in the Sunderland Echo.  It was focused on Sunderland LA where all 17 schools and colleges are involved.  Very positive comments all round, especially from the students involved.  A full page article in the Sunderland Echo on January 5th. 

On the next day I was sent a really negative story from CYP Now magazine which said that only 40% of students had even heard about Diplomas, laying the blame for this squarely with the Education Profession for not publicising it and suggesting the "sales job" needs to be focused not on young people but on leaders in schools and local authorities.  

Couldn't agree more - it's something we experience every day in our dealings with schools and DCSF needs to address this.  

I also have a daughter in year 11 and she was sent details of the course options offered by Newcastle College (the largest FE college in the country I think).  Not one mention of a Diploma anywhere although the materials from the Sunderland Colleges all mentioned Diplomas - confirming the story above.  

The next 6 months will be interesting - especially for Diplomas.

 

Vocational qual numbers

Now we know that 11500 students are following diploma quals this year.

Did you know that DCSF have recorded:

255,000 male students  and 322,000 female students on NVQ courses.

So that means just 2% of the vocational student population are doing diplomas!

A bit of an imbalance for a qualification that is intended to become the gold standard in this area.