qaaet conference -continuous improvement - david sherlock

Sunday, February 13, 2011 Quality Education & Training:

Towards a Better Future 1

Continuous

Improvement: Mission Impossible?

• Effective and efficient systems

• High investment in up-to-date resources

• Relevant, rigorous, consistent and transportable

qualifications

• Instructor qualification and continuous professional updating

• Motivation and guidance to improve the delivery and

management of programmes

Quality Education & Training:

Towards a Better Future

• Systems: government and employers

• Investment: government and providers

• Qualifications: employers and government

• Instructor

Effectiveness: providers and government

• Motivation: providers and government

• Government – the common factor and the

eternal optimist



Today

Future

Self-Sustaining High Trust

High Investment High Control

Today

Future

A common government aspiration

A more probable reality at the provider level



• 11 per cent of teaching sessions observed were

outstanding

• 49 per cent of work-based VET providers were

good or outstanding compared with 42 per cent

in 2008-09

• 56 per cent of colleges were good or

outstanding but, half had improved and half

declined in performance

• Of nine colleges previously considered

outstanding, six were not so now



Traditional inspection:

• Deploys experienced educators as inspectors

• Inspects at random intervals, prioritising poor

providers

• Uses professional judgement without a clear

framework for consistency

• Emphasises consensus-building with providers and an

advisory function

• Agrees reports with providers and maintains

confidentiality

• Concentrates on teacher performance



Reformed inspection:

• Deploys occupational specialists to evaluate their own professional areas

• Inspects on a fixed cycle, good and bad alike

• Uses a common framework to achieve consistent judgements

• Summarises judgements in numerical grades which can be tracked for trends

• Comprises dialogue between regular self-assessment and periodic independent review

• Publishes reports to inform market forces

• Concentrates on the effectiveness of learning and management

• Sets objective targets for improvement



• Occupational specialists in VET seldom available as

public servants

• A fixed cycle of annual self-assessment and four-yearly

inspection is demanding and expensive

• Grading is a crude expression of professional judgement

• Observation of teaching and learning and publication of

inspection reports imply lack of trust in professionals

• A market-driven system implies some failure among

providers

• Inspectors do not have sufficient control over provision to

be held responsible for improvement



• Remit for England

• All adult VET including colleges (over 18), work-

based learning, adult community learning, welfare-

to-work, national e-learning, armed services,

criminal justice system

• Developed the Reformed Inspection model

• 5 million learners; 2,000 providers; 150 inspectors;

500 associate inspectors; 100 management and

support staff; single national office with advanced

national ICT; average cost £15 million a year





0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

2001-02 2002-03 2003-04 2004-05 2005-06

% Adequate providers

NVQ Success Rate

Excellent Providers

• 2001-02: 24 providers of 480 inspected good or

outstanding (grades 1 and 2); 80 providers

inadequate (grade 4) in all respects

• Best providers in 2001-02: military training

establishments, engineering specialists, employers

training their own staff

• Learner achievement in 2001-02: engineering

apprentices best at 59%, catering worst at 16%

• 2005-06: 151 good or outstanding providers and 24

inadequate

• 250 providers out of business or merged



• A flexible mass VET system is vulnerable to

poor performance

• To achieve radical improvement all the quality

drivers have to be effective; governments have

a key role in investment, co-ordination and

creation of a sense of shared national

enterprise

• Employers must be centrally involved in

standards-setting and as providers

• The main driver of outstanding VET is

work-based learning and apprenticeship



• The main connection between government and

providers

• Honest reporting of what they find – and

influence over government policy and

allocation of funding

• Independence: earned trust

• A focus on helping providers, employers and

learners to succeed – not criticising and walking

away



The Transformational Diamond

Aspiration

Assessment Accumulation

Assistance

© Sherlock and Perry. Quality Improvement in Adult Vocational Education & Training, 2008



• Start with any facet

• Transparency of Assessment with self-

assessment and inspection developing mutually

agreed evidence and judgements

• No adverse judgement without subsequent

support and re-assessment

• Shared good practice so that improvement is

cumulative

• Constant celebration of providers’ and learners’

success



www.beyondstandards.co.uk

[email protected]

Sunday, February 13, 2011 Quality Education & Training:

Towards a Better Future 17

http://www.beyondstandards.co.uk/

mailto:[email protected]

qaaet conference -continuous improvement - david sherlock

Documents

better future systems

better future remit

government government

providers inspectors

providers qualifications

poor providers

based vet providers

government motivation