Achieving your Award in Education and Training: The Comprehensive Course Companion

How to use this textbook

This textbook covers all three units of the Award in Education and Training. It is therefore divided into three parts, each part covering a unit of the qualification. Each unit is divided into awarding organisation learning outcomes and assessment criteria, with similar headings.

When you are completing your assessments, make sure that you look at the relevant headings in this textbook that align to the assessment criteria in your assignment tasks or worksheets. You should also be clear about the meaning of each command verb used by the unit assessment criteria. This book contains suggested meanings of command verbs for each of the units.

There is a glossary of terms at the end of this textbook, which you should find useful when reading through the textbook.

UNDERSTANDING ROLES, RESPONSIBILITIES AND RELATIONSHIPS IN EDUCATION AND TRAINING

Introduction

Understanding Roles, Responsibilities and Relationships in Education and Training is a mandatory unit of the Award in Education and Training.

Definition of roles for the purposes of this textbook:

The teaching role and responsibilities in education and training

1. The teaching role and responsibilities in education and training

(a) Lecturer

Lecturers normally work in Further Education colleges, higher education institutions and private colleges. The extent of the role can be very prescriptive or very wide ranging, with additional responsibilities, depending on the size, type or ethos of the organisation. That aside, there are some common elements. These can include planning, preparing and delivering part of a course or the entire course, contributing towards quality assurance, adhering to organisation policies and procedures and awarding organisation requirements (e.g. Pearson, AQA, OCR, City and Guilds, etc).

Planning can include preparing and/or delivering to schemes of work. These outline the unit content of a course to be delivered per week or per session, the assessment objectives being applied, assessment methods and resources to be used and differentiation strategies for each session. Lecturers may also complete lesson plans, which provide more detailed information about the lesson aim(s), lesson objectives, how lesson objectives are going to be assessed, the content to be covered and the teaching, learning and differentiation strategies to be applied.

Where internally assessed courses are being delivered, lecturers may also be expected to design assignment briefs / assessment instruments and internally verify each other’s assignment briefs before they are issued. Assignment briefs normally include a set of tasks that learners are required to complete to pass part of or the entire unit. Internal verification includes a set of checks that a colleague lecturer (who may or may not be a qualified internal verifier) undertakes to make sure that the assignment brief or assessment instrument is fit for purpose (i.e. it is capable of generating valid, reliable and timely evidence and outcomes). 

Lecturers are expected to be familiar with key organisation policies and procedures, especially those relevant to their role. These can include policies and procedures relating to health and safety, equality and diversity, safeguarding, assessment and internal verification, examinations, invigilation, teaching and learning, assessment malpractice and maladministration, conflict of interest, learner discipline and gifts and bribes. Lecturers normally disseminate information through lectures, presentations, discussions, facilitation of group work and leading on external visits.

(b) Trainer

Depending on the context, the role of a trainer tends to be more versatile than that of a lecturer, often focusing on skills building, presenting complex information in a short timeframe, actively / frequently facilitating team and group working, having a more practical dimension to sessions (e.g. demonstrating techniques) and being more vocationally focused. Trainers often deliver on work-based learning courses, to professional audiences and in workshop contexts. They can also act as coaches and mentors as part of or an extension of the training delivery. They can be engaged on short-term, long-term or one-off sessions and may be responsible for designing, developing and/or delivering bespoke accredited and unaccredited courses.

Trainers may be highly specialised or expert in their area, with professional competency often being more important than academic qualifications. However, in order to be effective, even trainers need to know some basic teaching, learning and assessment techniques and strategies, including structured planning and delivery of training. Where trainers are delivering sessions on clients’ premises they are expected to abide by both their organisation’s policies and procedures and observe those of the host client. Management training and highly technical training may be delivered by trainers who are also freelance consultants, providing expert advice and training as part of a portfolio of professional services. Sometimes trainers specialise in delivering training only.

(c) Tutor

Tutors can take the form of group tutor or personal tutor. Group tutors tend to occupy more of a pastoral role, providing guidance and support to a group of learners (often a class) and monitoring and reviewing their progress on the course and setting achievement and improvement targets for learners. This will normally take place as part of tutorial sessions, scheduled on a weekly basis outside of lectures and training. Group tutors may outline some course content, but they do not normally provide lectures or training during tutorials.

Tutorials, like lectures and training, require some form of scheme of work and lesson plans, but these can be more flexible and adapt to meet the evolving needs of different groups of learners while they are completing their main course. For instance, a group may be experiencing particular difficulties in completing an assignment. The group tutor may liaise with the lecturer and provide dedicated support and guidance in tutorials or as part of additional workshops. Personal tutors occupy a similar role, but liaise and support learners on a more individual basis. They may also have a similar subject background to the learner and so can provide more subject specific assistance, whereas group tutors may have a different subject background to their group and so are likely to be less able to provide subject specific assistance.

(d) Assessor

An assessor may also be a lecturer or trainer. However, a lecturer or trainer might not also be an assessor. An assessor is someone who formally assesses or marks / grades a learner’s work. They may also design or share the design of assignment briefs / assessment instruments. They may possess assessor qualifications (these include: A1, A2, D32, D33, Level 3 Award in Understanding the Principles and Practices of Assessment, Level 3 Award in Assessing Competence in the Work Environment, Level 3 Award in Assessing Vocationally Related Achievement, Level 3 Certificate in Assessing Vocational Achievement).

They would normally be expected to design or contribute towards the design of assignment briefs based on unit assessment criteria and assess work in line with unit assessment criteria. Each course includes modules or units. Each unit contains learning outcomes (these are a ‘headline’ of what a learner should be able to demonstrate in the evidence they produce as observed or written work). Each learning outcome will include assessment criteria, which are more specific about what the learner must demonstrate.

For example, the first learning outcome for the unit Understanding Roles, Responsibilities and Relationships in Education and Training could be to Understand the teaching role and responsibilities in education and training. One of the assessment criteria under this learning outcome may be that learners must be able to Explain the teaching role and responsibilities in education and training. Assessors would be expected to ensure that assignment briefs or tasks are correctly aligned to the assessment criteria, especially the command verb (in this case ‘explain’) and that completed work has generated the evidence expected from this assessment criteria.

An assessor would use awarding organisation qualification specifications and unit guides to ensure they are assessing accurately to the assessment criteria. Once assessments have taken place, assessors would normally be expected to standardise their assessments with colleagues. In other words, hold standardisation meetings to make sure that each other is assessing at the right level and accurately and that they agree with the grades they are awarding. They may complete a standardisation form to record the outcomes of the meeting and the grades that have been agreed. Assessors may then internally verify another assessor’s work, providing that assessor with feedback on the quality of their assessment and feedback to the learner. In some cases, the assessor would need to hold internal verifier qualifications in order to internally verify assessed work. This will depend on the awarding organisation concerned.

2. Key aspects of legislation and regulatory requirements relevant to the teaching role

Lecturers, trainers, tutors and assessors will be expected to understand, outline and apply legislative, regulatory requirements and organisational codes of practice that are relevant to their role. There may be some requirements that are purely their responsibility, some that they share with others and some that are purely the responsibility of others. For example, in relation to health and safety, it is the lecturer’s responsibility to make sure that the walkways in the classroom remain unobstructed by chairs or other items during their session, whereas if a chair is broken, the responsibility is shared between the lecturer and their line manager/premises manager to make sure the chair is no longer being used and it is reported to management accordingly, who would be expected to get it repaired or replaced. There are some responsibilities that rest with management alone, such as providing operational computers, lighting, heating and safe fixtures and fittings.

(a) Key legislation

Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974

Main purpose: to create a safe working environment for everyone. A copy of the Act can be found at: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1974/37

Essential reading:

Health and safety made simple—The basics for your business (HSE)

First aid at work-Your questions answered (HSE)

Workplace requirements and expectations:

1. Health and Safety policy, procedure and statement.

2. Risk assessments:

(a) Fire risk assessment

(b) Work station assessment

(c)  Office risk assessment

(d) Classroom checklist

(e) Risk assessments for work placements and visits.   

3. Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (COSHH) (if relevant)

4.  Reporting of accidents and near misses:

(a) the Reporting of injuries, Diseases and Dangerous

      Occurrences Regulations 1995 (RIDDOR)

(b) accident log book.

5. First Aid policy and procedure.

6. First aid training and first aid kit.

7. Appropriate Health and Safety, First Aid, Fire Safety signage on the premises.

8. Preventative measures:

(a) Monthly fire drills and recording of fire drills carried out

(b) Health and Safety, First Aid, Fire Safety induction

provided to staff and, at a more basic level, to learners.

9. Relevant insurances: e.g. Employers Liability Insurance, Public Liability Insurance.

Who is interested in Health and Safety?:

1. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE), who can fine and prosecute for breaches of Health and Safety.

2. Accreditation bodies: e.g. BAC, ASIC, British Council.

3. Inspection bodies: Ofsted, ISI.

4. Review bodies: QAA.

5. Awarding organisations: e.g. AQA, OCR, Edexcel, City & Guilds.

6. Other stakeholders, e.g. parents and carers of learners, employers of learners. 

Data Protection Act 1998

Main purpose: to regulate the processing of and access to personal data.

A copy of the Act can be found at: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1998/29/contents

Data protection principles (in brief):

1. Personal data shall be processed fairly and lawfully.

2. Personal data shall be obtained only for one or more specified and lawful purposes.

3. Personal data shall be adequate, relevant and not excessive in relation to the purpose or purposes for which they are processed.

4. Personal data shall be accurate and, where necessary, kept up to date.

5. Personal data processed for any purpose shall not be kept for longer than is necessary for that purpose.

6. Personal data shall be processed in accordance with the rights of data subjects under this Act.

7. Appropriate technical and organisational measures shall be taken against unauthorised or unlawful processing of personal data and against accidental loss or destruction of, or damage to, personal data.

8. Personal data shall not be transferred to a country or territory outside the European Economic Area unless that country or territory has an adequate level of protection for the rights and freedoms of data subjects in relation to the processing of personal data.

See further: http://www.ico.org.uk/for_organisations/data_protection/~/media/documents/library/Data_Protection/Practical_application/the_guide_to_data_protection.pdf

https://www.youtube.com/user/etclondon1/

Requirements and expectations:

1. Organisations processing personal data and their employees or those it engages will comply with the Data Protection Act 1998 and the data protection principles.

2. Organisations processing personal data must register with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO)

3. ICO can fine organisations that breach data protection requirements.

See further: ICO You Tube channel

Copyright Design and Patents Act 1988

Main purpose: It gives the creators of literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works the right to control the ways in which their material may be used.

A copy of the Act can be found at: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1988/48/contents

For further information see: http://www.copyrightservice.co.uk/ukcs/docs/edupack.pdf

See also: Copyright Licensing Agency

Protection of Children Act 1999 & Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006

Main purpose of the Acts: to identify persons considered to be unsuitable to work with children or vulnerable adults. Teachers or others who work regularly with children or vulnerable adults are required to undergo an enhanced DBS (Disclosure and Barring Service) check. (These were formerly known as CRB checks.)

A copy of the Acts can be found at:

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1999/14/contents

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2006/47/contents

For further information see: Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) website and information leaflet.

Children Act 2004

Main purpose of the Act: to make sure safeguarding of children is a paramount consideration. The Act gives effect to the Government’s Green Paper Every Child Matters and Every Child Matters: Next Steps. These focus on 5 outcomes for children:

1. Be healthy

2. Stay safe

3. Enjoy and achieve

4. Make a positive contribution

5. Achieve economic well-being

The Act can be found at: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2004/31/contents

Education and Skills Act 2008

Main purpose of the Act: this raises the minimum age to 18 for a person wishing to leave education or training (even when employed, individuals under 18 should undergo training or education). This is phased in. In 2013 the leaving age was raised to 17. From 2015, the leaving age was raised to 18.

The Act can be found at: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2008/25/contents

Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Act 2009

Main purposes of the Act:

1. It provides a statutory framework for apprenticeships. It creates a right to an apprenticeship for suitably qualified 16-18 year olds.

2. It introduces a right for employees to request time away from their duties to undertake training and places a corresponding duty on employers to consider such requests seriously.

3. It dissolved the Learning and Skills Council and transferred the responsibility for funding education and training for 16-18 year-olds to local authorities.

4. It has led to the creation of the Education and Funding Agency (EFA), the Skills and Funding Agency (SFA), a new regulatory body for qualifications (Ofqual).

The Act can be found at: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2009/22/contents

Education Act 2011

Main purposes of the Act: to provide some degree of deregulation and freedom for Further Education (FE) colleges and sixth form colleges.

The Act can be found at: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2011/21/contents/enacted

Equality Act 2010

This is considered in section 3.

(b) Regulatory requirements

Awarding organisations and accreditation, inspection and review bodies all have some minimum requirements and expectations of the learning providers they are associated with. These normally include checking that learning providers have fully implemented policies and procedures in dealing with health and safety, data protection, child protection, safeguarding, equality and diversity, assessment, quality assurance, teaching and learning, assessment malpractice and maladministration, academic appeals, complaints, admissions, staff recruitment and selection, conflict of interest, staff development, refunds and reasonable adjustments and special consideration.

In addition, awarding organisations expect their centres / learning providers to abide by their requirements. This can include periodic visits to check the effectiveness of their resources, teaching, learning, assessment and quality assurance processes. Where internal assessments take place, associated processes are of particular interest. These include assignment briefs, internal verification (i.e. checking the fitness for purpose, reliability, validity and timeliness of assignment briefs and assessments), standardisation (i.e. assessors comparing and agreeing assessments, marks or grades to ensure consistency and reliability of assessments) and authenticity of learner work (i.e. checking that any assessment malpractice, such as plagiarism or cheating, has been sufficiently addressed and measures taken to minimise it and that it is the learner’s own work, with learners signing authenticity statements).

Accreditation, inspection and review