Ptlls Assignment 1.2

Assignment 1.2 PTLLS
June 2011
Summarise the current legislative requirements and recent reforms that have taken place in teacher training. Look at Lifelong Learning (LLUK), Institute for Learning (IfL), awarding bodies and anything which may affect your own specialist area.
In order to raise and improve standards in teaching and react effectively to national and local employer and workforce needs, a standardisation of teaching practices was introduced in September 2007. This crucial review and subsequent introduction of standards was both due to concerns raised regarding the poor quality of some teaching provision and that staff were not properly professionally qualified to deliver, and, in part, designed to clarify the professional characteristics a teacher should be expected to maintain and to build on their professional expertise and to provide essential skills for successful teaching and learning.

It is official that we in the UK have a national skills shortage with specific weaknesses in intermediate technical skills. Creating clear routes to higher level training both for learners and standardisation for those that educate lies at the heart of Government plans to meet our economic needs. (John Hayes, Minister for Further Education Skills and Lifelong Learning, June 2011). The lifelong learning sector is seen as important in raising the overall level of skills, generating a more flexible system of vocational skills and ensuring that the UK remains competitive in the world economy.

These new core standards will require teachers, trainers, and tutors in colleges or publicly funded organisations to hold an appropriate teaching qualification.

In the schools sector this means: • Professional status introduced QTLS framework (Qualified Teacher Learning and Skills) and ATLS (Associate Teacher Learning and Skills). This will mean that it is now far easier to differentiate between those who are fully qualified teachers and teach the curriculum with specialist knowledge (QTLS) and those who have less teaching responsibility and do not require the in depth knowledge and understanding of curriculum development (ATLS)

The Training and Development Agency for Schools, in their 2007 document “Professional Standards for Teachers” stated,

“All teachers should have a professional responsibility to be engaged in effective, sustained and relevant professional development throughout their careers and all teachers should have a contractual entitlement to effective, sustained and relevant professional development throughout their careers.”

The impact for myself, in the workplace, and others employed as educators in the FE and lifelong learning sector is: • Introduction of a new set of qualifications; part of the QTLS framework of which PTLLS (Preparing to Teach in the Lifelong Learning Sector) is the basic minimum qualification requirement. This qualification forms the “threshold licence to teach” for all new teachers in the FE sector and can be stand alone or is often built into most CTLLS (Certificate in Teaching in the Lifelong Learning Sector) and DTLLS (Diploma in Teaching in the Lifelong Learning Sector) courses.

Other key generic legislative requirements to consider which may affect both school sectors and the lifelong learning sectors may be:
Equal opportunities act
Data Protection 2007
Health & Safety at work act 1974
Special Educational needs and disabilities act 2001
RIDDOR Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 1995
Every Child Matters
COSHH (Control of Substances Harmful to Health) 2002

Bibliography

The Framework of Professional Standards for Teachers. TDA (2007)

Institute for Learning (IfL) Policy and Parliamentary updates. http://www.ifl.ac.uk/policy-and-campaigns/policy-and-parliamentary-updates/june-2011 Francis, M and Gould, J. Achieving your PTLLS award. A Practical Guide to Successful Teaching in the Lifelong Learning Sector. Sage Publications

Bibliography: The Framework of Professional Standards for Teachers. TDA (2007) Institute for Learning (IfL) Policy and Parliamentary updates. http://www.ifl.ac.uk/policy-and-campaigns/policy-and-parliamentary-updates/june-2011 Francis, M and Gould, J. Achieving your PTLLS award. A Practical Guide to Successful Teaching in the Lifelong Learning Sector. Sage Publications