As industries – and the skills needed to support them – evolve more and more rapidly, it has never been more important for educators and lecturers to stay up to date with the latest industry developments in their field. The further education (FE) and skills sector is at the forefront of developing a talent pipeline for the future workforce, drawing on local and national industry partnerships and expertise to strengthen our national skills framework and address significant skills gaps. In this context, learners continue to place their trust in FE and skills providers to secure their career paths.
The 2013 Commission on Adult Vocational Technical Teaching and Learning (CAVTL) report outlined that “the best vocational teaching and learning is a sophisticated process; it demands ‘dual professionals’ – teachers and trainers with occupational expertise and experience, who can combine this with excellent teaching and learning practice.” With industries evolving rapidly as they adopt new technologies and increase their focus on sustainability, FE and skills providers are exploring innovative ways to enhance the industry knowledge and skills within their teams, ensuring practitioners can maintain and develop their dual professionalism. Research supports the importance of maintaining current industry knowledge. The development of dual professionalism leads to improved learner outcomes, heightened employer engagement, and a more relevant and engaging curriculum.
In essence, the continuous pursuit of dual professionalism underpins high-quality teaching and learning, ensuring the best experiences and outcomes for learners. One approach to enable practitioners to refresh their industry knowledge and skills is through industry placements. Majd Khador, a Construction Teacher at Derby College who took part in an Industry Insights placement as part of the T Level Professional Development (TLPD) programme delivered by the Education Training Foundation (ETF), shared how it had improved his practice: “This experience has had a very positive impact on me personally as it allowed me to network with some of the most successful professionals in the [construction engineering] industry and exchange practical knowledge and experience with them. We use problem-based learning (PBL) pedagogy in our department at Derby College Group, and this knowledge could be utilised in preparing more realistic scenarios for our PBL lessons and assessments.”
Read the full blog on Edge Foundation’s website.
The ETF – here to support you all the way
The ETF has been supporting the delivery of T Levels since 2019 through their T Level Professional Development (TLPD) offer which is fully funded by the Department for Education.
You can find out more about the full T Level Professional Development (TLPD) offer on the ETF website. To access the programme, you will need to open an ETF account.