Tracey Bedford is Head of Quality and a member of the governing board at WS Training Ltd, an Independent Training Provider (ITP) in the East of England. The company provides apprenticeships alongside commercial training and supported learning. A passionate advocate of continuing professional development (CPD), Tracey has invested her own and her staff’s time in the ETF’s Apprenticeship Workforce Development programme to help improve their apprenticeships offer. 

What has been your professional journey? 
I started working in FE and Skills around 20 years ago, initially as an assessor, and at that point I qualified as both an internal and external assessor. I was then a Head of Curriculum for Health & Social Care and Functional Skills for about 15 years, gained my Level 5 Diploma in Education and Training (DET), then my Qualified Teacher Learning and Skills (QTLS) status.

I was participating in the ETF’s practitioner research programme with Sunderland University just before Covid struck, looking at advancing pedagogy in post-compulsory education and training. So, as you can tell, I’ve always taken professional development very seriously. I really champion CPD and I do what I ask other people to do. 

What courses have you and your staff undertaken on the AWD programme?  
We’ve undertaken a wide variety of AWD courses. The main ones have been: 

  • AWD Assessor to Teacher 
  • AWD Apprenticeship Leadership – Effective Use of Resources 
  • ADW Apprenticeship Leadership – Developing Your Team 
  • AWD Planning and Maintaining High Quality and Effective Teaching and Training 

I’ve also taken part in the AWD focus group for ITPs. 

Has there been a stand-out course? 
The Assessor to Teacher course was vital, especially for some of our longstanding assessors, even though they all have teaching qualifications. We’ve used that course across the whole apprenticeships team. I did the course first, then cascaded it out to the team and followed it up with face-to-face training. This approach worked really well for helping our assessors to understand the practical difference in their roles. 

Why did you choose these courses? 
The AWD courses are all relevant to the needs of the business I work for because we are striving to make continual improvements to the quality of education for our apprentices and to maintain currency. I mentioned how valuable we found the Assessor to Teacher course, but the Leadership courses were also vital for looking at how we mentor and coach the staff team.  

It’s also great that we can access the AWD programme at a time that suits us because of the online offer. 

What do you think you’ve got out of the training? How has it benefited you and your organisation in practice? 
A big benefit has been keeping up to date with key trends and expectations in the sector, finding out what’s new and maintaining that currency.  

The networking during live sessions has been great. Exploring the challenges faced by other providers and how they’ve handled them has been hugely beneficial, especially when looking at drop off rates and how to engage employers in 12-week reviews. 

I’ve found that I’m applying elements that I’ve learned on the AWD programme to other areas of our offer as well.  So, for example, improving how we measure impact and do progress reviews. 

Can you give any specific examples of the impact of what you’ve learnt? 
Using the knowledge we’ve gained to shape the internal CPD offer we have at WS Training is working well. We’ve got to the stage where we’re planning our own CPD events a whole year in advance, bringing together a far richer experience and a blend of all different things, including some of the AWD courses.    

Do you think apprenticeships are making a difference to businesses and apprentices? 
They absolutely address the skills gaps required by employers and they allow apprentices to develop their emotional intelligence and gain the skills that employers are looking for. We’ve had some huge success stories and there have been some powerful life-changing moments for our apprentices. We’ve got great stats from our survey of apprentices which confirm these successes. For example, 82% of apprentices surveyed tell us they remain with the same employer and 76% tell us their wage has increased, of which 70% tell us the increase is above £1000 per year. In addition, 29% of our apprentices surveyed tell us they have been promoted following their apprenticeship. So, we know that our apprenticeships are working and helping people to make real progress in their lives. 

To find out more about AWD courses, visit the ETF’s learning platform at: https://learning.etfoundation.co.uk/