• Welcome and overview

    Welcome to the course: 'Preparing for the Apprenticeship Standards'!

    This is a course to help you develop new skills in teaching and training. In the world of Apprenticeship Standards and End Point Assessment, assessor roles are changing . Providers who have understood this are preparing their staff to undertake new roles. Individual assessors are seeking new skills.

    So, the Education and Training Foundation (ETF), a national body supporting the FE and Skills sector, has developed this course to support them.

    How you use this course is up to you: you can complete the whole course if you are new to apprenticeships or want to revisit some of the basics.

    Or it's possible that you are already confident in some of the key areas.

    Just look at the main menu and decide which parts you want to know more about. This could include:

    • The basic expectations of teachers, trainers and assessors
    • How to plan for teaching on apprenticeships
    • Key teaching techniques
    • Assessment
    • Understanding your learners and their needs

    But many of you will want to understand more: what's happening with apprenticeships and why? How can I improve my teaching further? What are inspectors interested in when they come to see apprenticeship training?

    We have further materials to help you in these areas.

    Whatever your needs are, welcome to the course!

    Hello from us!

    We would like to hear more about you, and everybody else doing the course would like to get to know you too!

    On an online course, it's easy to feel on your own but in fact you are studying alongside many other apprenticeship practitioners.

    Go along to the online forum below and just say a few words about who you are and what your role is in the world of apprenticeships.

    • Welcome forum

      This forum is for you to say hello to other candidates on the course and practitioners.

      Just click on the link above to say a few words about yourself and what you do. A picture would be nice, so that people recognise you.

      We think it's really important for people on an online course to get to know each other this way.

      It's also important for some of the assessment on the course too: we'll be asking you to upload your reflections, or other work, to this area too. So, what better way to get used to this than by saying hello to your peers?

    • Learning Log

      Here's the next thing to help you: you can use this log to record your key learning points as these arise during the course.

      You can come back to this area over and again to add to your reflections on your learning, and refer back to earlier points.

      Please make full use of this important resource for your learning: it may seem an extra burden but you'll come back to it over and again as you plot your own learning journey.



    • Action Plan

      As you move through the course, and later, you should identify definite action points for your practice. These can then provide a guide to what you need to do to develop your work as a practitioner. Can you identify three or four key areas that think right now that you need to learn about during this course and afterwards? 

      You should create a simple chart for your action plan, beginning with areas for development you have already identified. Have a row for each area and a column for the answers to the following questions. You won't always have an answer in every column but including all these areas gives you the chance to think about them:

      Objectives: What specifically do you intend to do to improve the experience of your apprentices and their learning during the course? 

      Learning targets: What do you need to learn in order to do this well? 

      Time: When will you do this learning? When will you put it into practice? 

      Success factors: How will you know when you have achieved your aim?

      Resources and support: What do you need to help with this? Who can help?

      Achieved: Note when and how you achieved your aims

      You can build on your original plans as you go through the course, and afterwards too. Which ones have you achieved? What new ones have come to light as you move through the course activities?


    • Apprenticeship standards URL

      The course is about delivering the apprenticeship standards. So, an important starting point is to locate and read the apprenticeship standards relevant to your specialist area and print/save, ready to use in the next session.

      If you don't have these already, look for them among the apprenticeship standards on the government site here.

    • Announcements Forum
      Here's another forum, for general news and announcements from us


      .

    • Introduction to Apprenticeship Standards URL

      So, what are the new standards all about and what are training companies doing about it? Here's a short film from 3aaa, setting out the basics of what the standards mean and how one ITP approached these. Later on we will look in more detail at the trainers role and the skills that trainers need. However, this introduction explains the backgrounds to the standards and provides some idea of what's expected of them by training providers and colleges.

      Are there any useful ideas here that have helped you to think about what you will have to do on standards-based apprenticeships? If so, now's the time to make notes in your learning log and add to your action plan.

  • 2. From Asssessor to Trainer

    The first question to deal with is what you expect from this course. Most people start most courses with a little doubt. Is this the right course for me? What am I aiming to achieve?

    So, what are you going to have to do under the standards and how well are you prepared for a role that includes teaching or training. What knowledge and skills will you need? Are the skills you already have enough?

    Nearly every assessor already carries out some kind of 'training'. It's what you do when your learners haven't reached the point that you expect: you point them in the direction they need to go.

    This is a start but it is far from the whole of what will be expected of you in the future.

    So, what is it that you need to do as an apprenticeship practitioner in the new world of apprenticeship standards?
    Your main responsibility is still to support learners in the workplace.
    But this no longer revolves around continuous assessment: your role is to get apprentices to the 'gateway' where they are ready for end-point assessment. This effectively changes your role into a teaching or training role. Many providers are changing job titles to reflect this.
    This means you have to be aware of far wider responsibilities towards the learner, which we address in this section.
    Let's begin with a simple list. Look at the Word document below. Do you recognise these responsibilities? What would you add?

    • What do you think of the list? These are short and sharp answers produced by assessors who took this course earlier. Of course, they are open to interpretation and have to be applied in different contexts. But this is a starting point.

      Now compare these to the 'assessor-coach' standard. This standard captures some activities that workplace trainers carry out and some that you may get involved in. Which ones are relevant to you?

    • From assessor to trainer - webinar URL

      Here's an interesting discussion - a wide-ranging one - on how apprenticeship roles are changing and what this means. It's a recording of a webinar led by Beej Kaczmarczyk on the changing role of apprenticeship practitioners. 

      The language used in the discussion reflects a time when roles were beginning to change and many assessors were beginning to take on training roles but also continuing to act as assessors: this is moving on and you too may have both roles or you may be looking to act purely in a training role. The webinar not only addresses the challenges for individual trainers but how this is expected to impact on apprenticeships more broadly. 

      We suggest that you listen to the webinar from the beginning and note down key points that are relevant to your own practice. Then draw up a list of action points about what you can do to improve your practice based on the discussion. You can add your reflective thoughts to your overall learning journal and add action points to your general action plan.

      Btw, the presenters do say at the end that listeners can ask them further questions but this relates to the original webinar participants!

    • The Assessor/Coach Standards

    • Assessor-coach Standard File

      This is one standard that everyone needs to be familiar with. What are the expectations of this role? How will your work in supporting apprentices change with the apprenticeship standards?

    • Legal and regulatory responsibilities

      As a trainer you carry a greater responsibility for the environment and the safety of learners within it.

      Within the workplace, the employer has the main responsibility in such areas as health and safety.

      But there are other requirements of key legislation that governs educational activity. We give some examples below. Will they apply to you?

      And there can also be legislation related to the industry where you are working. Can you identify this legislation and the relevant regulations?

    • Legislation examples

      It is important to understand that apprenticeship practitioners cannot work in a bubble.

      Constraints are placed upon the roles through legislation.

      The main legislation to consider includes:

      •Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 (including pre-vets and risk assessment)
      •Data Protection Act 1998
      •Equality Act 2010
      •Children Act 2004 (including safeguarding responsibilities)
      •Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015 (including the requirement to promote fundamental British values)
      More details on these can be found in the links below:
    • HSE Website URL

      The Health and Safety Executive runs an outstanding website which you can navigate according to your own industry. On the front page you can select 'I work in...' and find discussion and resources relevant to your own apprenticeships.

    • HASAWA Summary File

      The Health and Safety at Work Act was a landmark in safety legislation and its impacts are still with us today. This resource provides a brief guide and explains how legislation is changing.

    • Prevent and British Values summary File

      Summary of legislation which requires all educators to promote 'British values' and to conform to the 'Prevent' duty

    • LEGISLATION ACTIVITY Assignment

      On the basis of your study of key legislation, complete the table below about how this applies to you.

    • Testing your understanding of roles and responsibilities

      Now it's time to test what you have understood so far. You already know how important this is in any learning process!

      The best way to complete this is to work with another assessor, or perhaps a colleague at work if you are on your own in this role.

      Working in pairs, you will complete a professional discussion about your role and responsibilities in supporting the learning of apprentices. What is expected of you? What legal and other obligations do you have?

      The discussion is to be recorded using a personal device, e.g. mobile phone. It is important that the discussion is NO MORE THAN 15 MINUTES LONG, so that you can send or save the file to another device easily.

      Check the resources here and then listen back to the recording. Have you missed anything?

  • 3. Learners, Craft and Mindset

    The focus of the trainer's work remains, as it did for assessors, helping our learners navigate a path into a specific role or industry.

    Everyone in education understands that learners have their similarities and differences: they have different prior experiences, educational and otherwise; they come from different backgrounds. Some are more motivated already, others need motivation. They respond to learning experiences in different ways.

    As an assessor, even though your focus was on competences that all had to attain, you took these differences into account, perhaps choosing different assessment methods for different learners.

    In training roles, there is also a need to take into account not only where learners are going to but where they come from. You need to plan what they need to learn but also how they will best get there.

    In this section, we use two concepts to think about how to reach our objectives: the craft they aim to become part of and the mindset that will get them there.

    First of all, however, think about your own learners: what do you think we have to teach them? Draw up a list, not too detailed, with some general categories. Hang on to this, because you will come back to it later.

    'Craft' is partly about the set of skills that they need to learn, specifically for your industry. But most apprenticeship practitioners know that learning in the workplace is not just about practical skills, or even the broader theoretical knowledge that helps us to apply it appropriately. Employers often talk about 'attitude' and we have used professionalism to describe some of the behaviours and approaches that are expected in particular industries.

    Firstly we need to re-visit the term apprentice is it just a set of formal arrangements for vocational education and training?

    According to Lorna Unwin and Alison Fuller, the term `apprenticeship' has been used to describe the journey a person takes from novice to expert in a specific occupational field or craft. The term is used by surgeons, carpenters, chefs, actors, musicians and teachers/trainers.

    Therefore, is the 'craft' what is learned as an apprentice?

    Lucas and Spencer certainly believe so through the research undertaken through their Centre for Real-World Learning (CRL). They argue that 'craftsmanship' is about much more than simply the practical skills apprentices learn.

    Do you agree? What else is involved? Make a few notes before you read their article below, which you can revisit afterwards.

    Of course, you can skip these ideas or come back to them later. But we do hope you'll take the trouble to look at these more challenging ideas because that's exactly what we're trying to do with our learners: challenge them to become more thoughtful and conscientious as workers, and as men and women.

    • Craft Mind-Map and Reflective Activity

      So, we start with a mind-mapping activity. This breaks the business of what learners need to know into smaller categories. Open the attachment below - you might need to zoom in to read it more easily - and see how the categories relate to your own industry.

      Pick out what seems most important but do consider whether other areas may be important.

      Finally, use the attached journal, or your learning log if you started this earlier, to reflect on how this relates to your own thoughts and views of your craft, and the notes you made earlier.

    • Lucas and Spencer on Craftmanship

    • Lucas and Spencer on Craftsmanship URL

      This mind-map is based on the work of Bill Lucas and colleagues. Did you find it helpful? If so, you might want to take a look at this attachment. It should certainly give you something to think about in relation to what we're trying to do on apprenticeships and how this might change.

      You may or may not think that this pamphlet has all of the answers. But it asks important questions and we think you should take a look.

    • Learning Mindsets for Apprenticeships

      Closely related to some of these ideas, a different approach emphasises the 'mind-set' learners have. This work goes on to argue that we can grow our brain's capacity to learn and to solve problems.

      In this talk, Carol Dweck, who has popularised 'Mindset' as a key question for learning, describes two ways to think about a problem that’s slightly too hard for you to solve:

      • Are you not smart enough to solve it?
      • Or have you just not solved it yet?

      Many learners on apprenticeships have plenty of self-doubt about their ability to do well: is this a useful way to help them?

    • Carol Dweck on Growth Mindset URL

      Carol Dweck's work on 'growth mindset' has attracted much attention from educators interested in motivating learners. In this interesting video, Carol begins by talking about students who have 'not yet' achieved... a familiar phrase to apprenticeship staff.

    • What about your 'learning environment'?

      The biggest challenge for apprenticeship practitioners is creating a space that supports and promotes learning. This isn't just about the place where we're doing the training, such as the workplace, its canteen, or some kind of training room. It means the whole environment for the apprenticeship.

      In this course we refer to ideas developed by Alison Fuller and Lorna Unwin about learning environments. They compare 'restrictive' to 'expansive' environments.

      A restrictive environment would mean that the apprentice is thought of as employee, where an expansive environment would mean that they are a learner as well as an employee. Expansive means they learn from a wider range of people and may be able to access a broader range of qualifications. Restrictive means virtually all learning takes place on the job, with limited opportunities for reflection: hopefully the 20% is creating opportunities for more expansion. Restrictive means apprentices have limited and restricted access to the range of skills and knowledge of their workplace, expansive that they have full access to their workplace’s knowledge and values.

      As an outsider, you will not be able to determine at first what the learning environment looks like: this is the employer's decision. But you can explain what would be best for the apprentice and seek opportunities to expand their opportunities.

    • Fuller and Unwin on 'Expansive Apprenticeships' URL

      In this publication, Alison Fuller and Lorna Unwin provide examples of their well-known ideas about 'expansive' apprenticeships. Over the last 15 years they have written extensively about the merits of apprentices being able to learn more, and more effectively, in workplaces organised in ways that promote learning.

      Some things for you to reflect on in the journal below:

      • Do these ideas have relevance to your apprentices' experiences?
      • How can their employers make their environment more 'expansive'?
      • How can you help?

  • 4. Planning for teaching

    So far we have talked in general terms about what is expected of trainers and of learners on apprenticeships.

    But how do we move to the business of training or teaching?

    At the centre of teaching is the business of making plans for teaching or training. Starting from the standards, we have to move towards the creation of specific plans for our training programme.

    Planning for Training and Assessment

    We already have the top level of planning for an apprenticeship: the apprenticeship standards that you identified right at the start of the course.

    But from this we need to break things down further: first to the separate strands of what the standard includes: if the standard includes a taught course, these will usually appear as 'units', or at higher levels they might be called 'modules'. You may have to support learners through several of these but they will usually be taught separately.

    Within each unit, you will normally have several sessions, possibly dozens, through which you develop the learner's expertise. These will need to be put together in a learning plan for the unit.

    Below this, you need to plan for separate lessons, or taught sessions.

    Planning the learning cycle

    So, before you plan individual lessons, you need to think about the whole process of training, learning and assessment. This is sometimes represented as a 'training cycle'. This includes all of the activities below.

    • Training Aims

      You will need to consider what the aims of your training are.
      Aims are broad statements that describe what the teacher or trainer hopes to achieve during a course or session, for example (in the case of this part of our course) 'to improve students’ ability to plan sessions.
      So, we use descriptive verbs that can explain what our aims are: introduce, develop knowledge/skills of, review and practise.
      Some of these aims can be drawn directly from the standards. They allow you to plan what will be achieved during the whole of your unit or course.

    • The Training Cycle

      It is argued that all training can be viewed as a series of cycles, each building on previous learning. In planning out the teaching for your unit, follow the steps illustrated below, which are expressed as a cycle:

      From the outset of planning the training you need to consider the ways in which people learn and their preferences and individual needs: we discuss these further below.

      Make sure to consider the time and other resources that you have available for the training and the legislation that you and the apprentice will have to work within.

    • Step 1: Training Needs Assessment

      We begin with the identification of learners' training needs. This may also be referred to as training need analysis. What do your learners need to know in this unit or course?

      You need to consider what the apprentices need to be able to do at the end of the training. But you also need to build on what they know already. You may need to develop training which can be delivered over time as the learner gains experience with the skills.

      The outcome of Step 1 is often a set of learning objectives for the training that specify what the outcome should be. Learning outcomes are more specific than aims: we discuss these further below.

    • Step 2: Design the training

      When you design your training you will need to consider how you are going to achieve the aims and objectives that you have set in Step 1.

      This may include both practical and theory sessions where the concepts relating to the craft can be fully understood.

      When designing the training you need to consider the way in which people learn and their preferences and individual needs.

      Make sure to consider the time and other resources that you have available for the training and the legislation that you and the apprentice will have to work within.

    • Step 3 - Implementation

      This is the point of delivery: specific teaching or training sessions. Your role now moves to facilitation of the training.

      Here the trainer's role consists in turning the plans into reality.

      But before we talk about what happens within each session, we need to examine in a little more detail how to plan for each session.

    • Step 4: Evaluation

      Finally, did the training achieve what was intended? Has the learner reached the desired outcomes? If not, what can we do differently in the future.

      Now on to the next cycle!

    • Learning Outcomes

      Now that we have an overview of the training cycle, it's time for you to think about formulating learning outcomes or objectives for each session.

      Learning outcomes are what the learner should be capable of doing by the end of the session. These can be defined in terms of:
      • Knowledge (what learners know)
      • Skills (what learners can do)
      • Attitude (their approach to work)
      Therefore, outcomes break down the aim into sequential steps. We talk about what learners will be able to do by the end of the session.
      We can think about these skills in three ways:

      Outcomes should always start with the phrase: `at the end of the lesson, the learner (you) will be able to' ...

      Verbs need to be specific: `At the end of the session, you will be able to: identify... , list.... , describe... , analyse..., apply... , evaluate...' and so on.

      The key point here is that these outcomes should be posed in terms of what the LEARNER will be able to do when the lesson or activity is over. It isn't about what the teacher is going to do, or the task we are setting the learner during the session. Sometimes we call these objectives 'ability outcomes' which captures exactly where we are aiming: what the learner will be able to do.

      It's often said that verbs that should never be used to express objectives are know, learn and understand, because it's hard to demonstrate these things in a visible way. Or is it possible? What do you think?

    • Bloom's Taxonomy

      A long-established tool to help think about learning objectives is Bloom's Taxonomy: this organises the verbs with the simplest outcomes or objectives as the starting point and higher-level outcomes at the top.

      At the beginning, you will start with the more basic terms: identify, list, describe. Over time, your learners will learn to do the more complex ones: analyse, apply, evaluate.

      .

    • What do they look like? Examples of Learning and Lesson Plans

      Please find templates and completed examples of both full course and session plans in the links below. The first examples are substantial learning plans for a series of sessions. You could use this for a whole unit of an apprenticeship course, or an identifiable component within a standard that you have been asked to lead. It's less likely that you would have a single learning plan for a whole apprenticeship.

    • Lesson Planning

      Then we have a proforma for a lesson plan. Lesson planning takes many forms and here we use one of the simplest and most practical, although there are still plenty of details to master. We've borrowed this one from @teachertoolkit, a Twitter account full of ideas for teachers. You can adapt this or invent your own but several of its features are worth discussion.

      'The Big Picture' is about aims: what's the over-arching purpose of your session?

      Outcomes: see above: what your learners are going to be able to do (not the task!) by the end.

      Engagement: how are you going to involve them in the session?

      Stickability: how are you going to make it a memorable learning experience so that they will be able to recall what they have learnt?

      AfL (Assessment for Learning): how are you going to check what they are learning as they go along? (This is different from assessment at the end of their programme, or even session. You need to be checking throughout what progress they are making.)

      Words: what technical terms will you introduce, explain or clarify, for them to grasp during your session?

      Differentiation: what are the differences among your learners? Will some have had different experiences or backgrounds from others in the group? Do they have different abilities that you need to take into account in planning your session?

      Learning episodes: finally, what is the sequence of activities through which you will build up their knowledge.

      So, this may seem a long five minutes the first time you do this. But it sets out fairly clearly a sequence of issues that you have to address for every session you organise for your learners. And, as time goes on, all this will seem easier.

    • What else goes in Lesson Plans?

      Some of the things you will need to think about and include will be straightforward organisational tasks, and your organisation may specify particular details that they want to capture. Others are specialist aspects that may be relevant to your own learners. Think about:

      • Tutor, date, time, room
      • Identified content
      • Aims and Outcomes of session
      • Tutor activities and estimated timing
      • Learner activities and estimated timing
      • Resources and how they will be used (if not obvious)
      • Assessment activities (checks on learning)
      • Differentiation strategies
      • English and/or Maths development
      • Equality and Diversity

      Some of these fit easily onto the proforma we have given you; others may be supported by local planning mechanisms. Or you may have to improvise something that suits your personal needs: this is an important part of teacher development.

    • 5-minute lesson plan - webinar URL

      There's a good description of how the 5-minute lesson planner can be used in this webinar by Ross McGill. It's a long clip, and he talks about some of the challenges of staying on top of the plan in larger classes. Of course, your experience in apprentice training is likely to be different in some respects: you probably won't have the pressures of managing a class with many students but you may have the pressure of working in spaces where the demands of the workplace intrude into the learning environment in various ways. The need to have a simple but definite plan, that provides you with a clear idea of what you want to happen and that can be defended against competing demands or adapted to meet circumstances, is just as important.

      So, what does this mean for your training activities? Watch as much of the webinar as you find helpful to get you thinking about how you can plan better for your apprentices. Then make notes about how you will use planning in your own work. You can add your reflective thoughts to your overall learning journal and add action points to your general action plan.

    • Planning Review Activity

      Now it's time to put everything you have learnt about planning together, to develop single sessions and longer sequences of learning activities for your training.

      Whatever the level, you need to plan the outcomes but also what activities will help your learners achieve them. You will always need to explain the purpose of the session and the activities; you may also provide practical demonstrations. But what will the learners be doing during the session? What activities will help them to build their knowledge, skills and attributes they need to learn?

      This will vary in different industries or jobs, just as we have talked about 'crafts'. But for this activity you can work from the apprenticeship standards and any course or unit outcomes.

  • 5. Assessment and Feedback

    'Now that we are trainers, we can forget about assessing, can't we?'

    The fact that apprenticeships are now formally assessed at the end of the programme does not mean that you can forget all about assessment! You have to get every apprentice to the 'gateway' where they are ready to complete the EPA. But in teaching and training, assessment goes on all of the time. You need to continually assess whether your learners are making the necessary progress against their learning plan.

    In this section we explore assessment and how you can check on where the craft standards have been reached, for each apprentice. For most apprenticeship practitioners this is a familiar area, since this has always been the main work of apprenticeship staff.

    We often describe what learners do at the end as 'summative' assessment and what happens all the way through as 'formative' assessment.

    But the kind of assessment you use may be similar.

    In this section, we explore a range of assessment issues and work towards one of the key assessment methods for this course, the professional discussion.

    We also address the essential complement to assessment: providing developmental feedback.

    • Assessment Methods

      There are many assessment methods and using a wide range is key for an enjoyable, motivating and stimulating programme that meets all learners’ and employer needs.

      How many of these assessment methods will now be used for EPA?

      Take a moment to list as many as you can think of before you click the box for some suggestions.

    • Activity

      Read the case study ‘The Presentation Day’

      Then make notes about your response: if you have chance to discuss them with a colleague, so much the better.

      •How would you handle this situation?
      •What are the options?
      •How might a flexible assessment approach work in this situation?

    • Professional Discussion

      A method that has grown in popularity on apprenticeships is professional discussion. As an end-point assessment method, (or formerly for continuous assessment) it provides the opportunity to capture a wide and varied range of evidence.

      But it also provides a useful means of formative assessment that can be used under the standards to decide whether learners have absorbed knowledge that cannot be demonstrated easily through practice alone. So, we suggest that you use this when it is likely to be helpful: you have already had an opportunity to practice relevant skills when we completed the paired exercise on roles and responsibilities.

      It required careful planning. We suggest:

      1.Plan in advance - prepare your questions, test equipment
      2.Prepare your learner
      3.Ensure the environment is suitable
      4.Maximise the opportunity
      5.Let the learner talk….don’t finish their sentences
      6.Ask probing questions…how? and? so? what led you to do that?
      7.Manage the time well – short but rich discussion
      8.Make the learner feel at ease
      9.Resist the temptation to fill an awkward silence whilst the learner is thinking

    • Formative Assessment

      Assessment isn't just about capturing the evidence for final, or 'summative' assessment. Teaching and training activities also involve formative assessment, the regular checking of learner progress. Now that summative assessment is going to be covered by EPA, this kind of checking is all the more important.

      In a sense, the whole process of learning, assessment and feedback is really a continuous cycle. In the graphic below (a one-slide powerpoint on assessment for learning), prior knowledge is shown as a starting point: assessment does not have to be the end if it is accompanied by formative feedback opportunities.

    • Question and answer

      The process of assessing learning and providing feedback to the learner is in many ways the essence of teaching, or facilitating learning. It isn't about one or the other but about how each builds on the other. This sometimes gets forgotten, because there are times when we need to think carefully about how we put ideas and methods across, and other times when we need to think carefully about what the learners should be doing. But the best learning experiences tend to be interactive ones, where both teacher and learner are fully engaged and are exchanging ideas as they deepen their understanding of what the other knows: the first person to write about this was probably Plato.

      The resources below have some useful ideas about how to improve in these areas. You probably have your own ideas too and you can use these in training activities and in professional discussion.

    • Assessment for Learning - the movie Page

      In training roles, we still have assessment but it plays a very different role. We're not assessing to show that the candidate has passed, but as part of the learning process. We sometimes talk about the 'learner journey', as these films do: the process by which an apprentice, in this case, moves from the beginning to the completion of their apprenticeship, acquiring knowledge and skills along the way. Even at the beginning of this journey, the apprentice already has ideas that they bring from their previous experiences: assessment for learning and feedback on the results are important ways to build on, and where necessary correct, what they already know or think about their work. 

      Go to the link and watch a series of 5 videos produced by the ETF about Assessment for Learning. Then, make notes for your learning log about what you have learnt from the films. Think about how you could fit this kind of assessment into your own apprentices' learning programmes. Do you have any points to add to your action plan?

  • 6. Teaching and Learning

    In this session we explore more complex ideas behind teaching and learning, how these work in practice in vocational education and some of the pitfalls of generalising how people learn.

    Some ideas on how we learn

    How do we learn? This argument has raged for decades. Do we have one `general' intelligence and learn in just the one way, or what Gardner describes as multiple intelligences. Do people learn in particular ways or in many different ways?

    There have been plenty of theories developed over the years: Behaviourism, a theory of animal and human learning that only focuses on objectively observable behaviours and discounts mental activities (see Skinner, Pavlov, Thorndike and Watson); Cognitivism, a theory that focuses on how human brains process and store information in the process of learning (see Piaget, Gagne); Constructivism focuses on how learners construct their own meaning by asking questions, developing answers and interacting and interpreting the environment (Dewey, Bruner, Laurillard, Vygotsky).

    Each of these schools of thought have had a direct impact on the methods used to teach during the decades.

    Are these relevant to apprenticeship learning in practice?

    Traditional apprenticeship approach

    Pratt and Johnson (1998) identify a traditional apprenticeship experience, based on developing a motor or manual skill, involves learning a procedure and gradually developing mastery, during which the master and learner go through several stages:

    • observation of both the master and other learners performing the same procedure: this helps provide a conceptual model for the apprentice to follow and an ‘advanced organizer for their initial attempts at performing skills’
    • modelling: explicit demonstration by the master of what to do, followed by the learner copying/practising the task
    • scaffolding: the support and feedback provided to the learner by the master as the learner works on a task
    • coaching: an overall approach of the master in choosing appropriate tasks, evaluating work and diagnosing problems.

    Cognitive theory for apprenticeships?

    Pratt and Johnson also identify a second form of learning that is less easily observable than learning motor or manual skills. They argue that in this context, master and learner must say what they are thinking during applications of knowledge and skills, and must make explicit the context in which the knowledge is being developed, because context is so critical to the way knowledge is developed and applied.

    The question here is: can this be applied to Higher Apprenticeships?

    Teaching apprentices

    Modelling for teachers and apprenticeships can be looked at in 4 forms:

    • Showing but not explaining (implicit)
    • Showing and explaining (explicit)
    • Showing, explaining and asking an apprentice how they translate it to their own work
    • Showing, explaining and discussing the `why' of doing it?

    Apprenticeships: learning by doing?

    Leading on from the discussion of cognitive theory, apprenticeships can be argued to be a particular way of enabling students to learn by doing. It is often associated with vocational training but it should be pointed out that apprenticeship is the most common method used to train post-secondary education instructors in teaching (at least implicitly), so there is a wide range of applications for an apprenticeship approach to teaching.

    A key feature of apprenticeship is that it operates in what Schon described as ‘situations of practice that…are frequently ill-defined and problematic, and characterized by vagueness, uncertainty and disorder‘.

    Learning in an apprenticeship then, is not just about learning to do through active learning but it also requires an understanding of the contexts in which the learning will be applied. In addition there is a social and cultural element to the learning, understanding and embedding the accepted practices, customs and values of experts in the field.

    Finally...

    Some simple hints and tips:

    Speak clearly and make sure that all apprentices are able to understand what you are saying.

    Ensure that the apprentices' expectations are addressed early on in the training.

    Explain the structure of the training at the beginning.

    Review regularly to ensure that the material covered has been understood.

    Deal with questions as they arise but if you don’t know the answer, don’t be afraid to say you will get back to the apprentice later.

    Give useful and constructive feedback to apprentices.

    Check your timing and have a contingency plan in case some parts of the training take longer than you expected.

    Deliver the training consistently so that all apprentices receive the same training.

    These are simple hints and tips: we are building a library of demonstrations of teaching practice on apprenticeships.

    • A little more theory on learning to train or teach

      Learning to train starts with `learning to look': with observing what is happening and what progress learners are making. This is also called the `student as teacher and learner lense' (Brookfield 1995, Taylor, 2008).

      Learning to teach includes developing your own personal expertise and 'practical wisdom'. But you will also find it helpful to explore relevant theories on learning to teach. The introduction of a viewing frame that supports your noticing and looking skills is useful (Taylor, 2008): it encourages trainees to look again at the class (Berger, 2016) and to see into their practice (Loughran, 2007)

      Observation in education is inherent according to Lortie in what is called the `apprenticeship of observation, where it is suggested that the average student teacher/trainer has spent 13,000 hours observing other teachers by the time they leave school at 18 (1975, p.61).

      Munby and Russell also concluded that:

      "the…students observed and found observing interesting most of the time, but they did not know how to record notes, questions, or even what they were observing...[it]...remind[s] us how very different it is for someone just beginning a teaching career to observe. Student...[teacher/trainers]...need specific training for observation and significant periods of time to adjust to the new perspective on what happens in classrooms” (1994, p89).

      Therefore, as stated in the first section, to reflect on your practice is paramount and you should ask yourself the following questions:

      What have I just done? How can I/can I apply this to my own teaching?
      (Petty, 2009b, p298).
      Therefore, learning to teach/train is argued to be a complex journey. Indeed, Boyd (2014) claims that learning to teach is part of a complex pedagogy.
      Furthermore, Taylor (2008) identifies 4 aspects to this:
      • Cascading expertise
      • Enabling individual growth as trainees
      • Developing student teaching
      • Student as teacher and learner

  • 7. Apprenticeships: What's new?

    In this session we provide more background about why the course is happening. What's happening to apprenticeships? What's different about the standards?

    It's important to understand why change is happening so that we can work most effectively for the best outcomes for apprentices and focus on what is important in our work.

    Apprenticeships, in various forms, have been around since the Middle Ages. Unsurprisingly, they don't look quite the same as they did then. And apprenticeships are different across industries too.

    In this section, we provide some useful reading material to help you think about the big picture into which your own role fits. At the end of this activity, we would like you to post to the forum about your observations.

    Richard Review

    The inquiry that gave rise to the apprenticeship standards was the Richard Review of apprenticeships, which came out over five years ago in November 2012. Its proposals were far-reaching and these proposals, perhaps inevitably, are a little different from the changes to apprentices that have come about since. However, the report is certainly worth reading, at least in part. Doug Richards expresses himself simply and directly.

    • Apprenticeships: What's new? Forum

      In addition to the national changes following the Richard Review, there have been substantial changes in each industry, with new standards and different approaches to their content, as well as different forms of end-point assessment. What's been happening in your own field?

      Additionally, providers have responded in different ways. Some have already moved to give their practitioners new roles and responsibilities.

      Use the forum to discuss the latest changes and how these affect you.

  • 8. Training Quality

    In education and training we hear all the time about 'quality'. What does it mean? What are the expectations of the organisations that are responsible for ensuring quality in the sector?

    As basic answers to these questions, we use materials from the inspection body, Ofsted.

    First of all, Ofsted reports provide interesting examples of vocational teaching and we include more of these here.

    Secondly, Ofsted provide very clear guidance about the expectations of their inspections. Well-organised training providers also tend to have quality systems that are built around what Ofsted expect, so it's useful to hear this from the horses' mouth.

  • 9. What's next?

    So, where do you go from here?
    Are you going to continue an apprenticeship practitioner? We hope so: the purpose of the course is to help develop better practitioners in this important field.
    But we also want you to think of yourself differently: as a trainer, rather than an assessor, but also as an educator with a broader responsibility for an apprentice's development.
    This is one of the things that distinguishes teachers from workplace trainers: trainers are there to enable new employees to do the job the firm needs; teachers have a broader role in developing the whole person - child, post-compulsory learner or adult.
    If you look at the Education and Training Foundation's standards for teachers, you will see that these are much broader in the way they think of teaching than the way that many trainers think of their work. So in this section, we ask you to think about what lies beyond the narrowest views of training practice.
    The first section here is all about the standards.
    Beyond this, we then ask you to think about where you are going next, whatever your ambitions are. We want you not to see this course as an end but a beginning.
    So, the final part of this section is about developing an action plan for the future.

    • So, how did you do?

      These are not standards we expect you to achieve all, even after completing the course.

      But they do provide a coherent set of aims for teachers in the FE and Skills Sector and as such a set of aspirations for the workplace trainer.

    • Professional Development Plan

      So, now that you have had time to reflect on your performance against the ETF's standards, what do think are your key areas for development?

      What we'd like you to do now is to identify three areas in which you would like to improve. Don't think just yet about how you'll go about this: just about what you would like to do. For example, you might have as an aim to become better at planning for apprenticeship training. Write these aims down in chart form, with the three areas for improvement as the left-hand column.

      Then you can add a second column about what you're going to do to reach your goals. (For example, practice how you might plan out the units of your apprenticeship standards.) Then a third about when you will do it (a target date). You can add others about who can help with this, or what the barriers are if that seems more important (though if so a column about how to overcome them would help).

      There is no one fixed way to do this but you do need to put together a plan that shows what your aims are and how you will reach them.

      And finally, you do need a column where you can add in a record of the progress you make!

    • A former apprentice on moving on... URL

      If you want ideas about how to move on from your assessor role, what about this? In this clip, a former apprentice talks about how to move on from apprenticeship to develop her career in education. You probably know plenty of stories like this of your own. What do they tell you about how you might move forwards from this course?

  • Further reading

    Further resources to help you think in greater depth about apprenticeship and practice