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As many of us have worked from our homes for several weeks, the core skills of leadership at all levels of an organisation have become increasingly important over time to sustain a vision, transform digitally and stay connected to our teams. Equally important though are the essential workplace skills of flexibility, teamwork and technical problem solving that are needed to adapt operationally to meet the challenges that Covid-19 has brought us, while still keeping teams positive.
With this in mind City & Guilds and ILM have been supporting the newly launched Skills Builder Universal Framework which calls for a shared focus on essential skills.
The Framework provides the basis for a consistent and measurable set of essential skills’ definitions which can be embedded into learning and development programmes.
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Strengthening workplace skills
We know that employers want learners and apprentices to develop a broader range of soft skills to be work ready, so we have pulled together key skills and behaviours from the City & Guilds Workplace Skills platform, and moved them into SmartScreen. Some of you have already taken advantage of this resource, but I wanted to highlight that we have made this available for free for a limited period of time as part of our emergency learner support.
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Sector level mitigations for assessments – to estimate, adapt or delay
Last week I highlighted that we will be making sector level guidance available.
17 sector guides are now live on the Covid-19 pages of our website outlining the mitigation approaches for our qualifications. Another six sector guides will be available by the end of this week. We have been committed to developing a process that, as far as possible, will be practical and manageable for centres, and also support the validity and reliability of candidate results to ensure we maintain the standards that City & Guilds is known for.
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Making objective judgements on assessment grades
Ofqual has now published guidance on objectivity in grading and ranking. The guidance encourages dialogue between heads of departments, teachers and the Head of Centre to support the reviews.
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Keeping apprenticeships going during lockdown
Education often lags behind when it comes to digital adoption, yet these past few months have shown us that necessity can drive innovation. While classroom-based tests supported by e-assessment have been the norm for years, we’ve had to revolutionise our approach, to create assessments for apprenticeships robust enough for learners to carry out tests alone in their own homes while being invigilated online.
17 apprenticeship standards have been approved so far for remote invigilation and we have piloted more than 70 end-point assessment knowledge tests, and expect test numbers to be in the thousands by the end of the summer.
Read my article in TES for more around remote invigilation for apprenticeships in England.
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No extension for SASE frameworks
The ESFA and Minister for Education released a communication confirming that all learners need to be on apprenticeships standards from August 1 2020. With SASE Frameworks closing if you need to look at your strategy or review your plans to understand more about what programmes or apprenticeship standards are available to replace that provision contact your business manager to talk this through.
The popular Business Admin Level 2 on the SASE Framework will not become an apprenticeship standard, so we have been working with providers and employers to bring together some options that could replace this.
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Functional Skills - support, calculated results and end-point assessment
Last week we published our guidance for Functional Skills, along with a recorded presentation on the steps you need to take for calculated grades. You can also download a letter that you can share with your learners that provides an overview of the calculated grading approach, results and next steps. Further support information including FAQs will be added to the website shortly.
There is also welcome news from IfATE around a new flexibility that will enable apprentices to take end-point assessment ahead of receiving their calculated functional skills qualifications later in the summer.
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ESOL – guidance available
Further to the recent decision that all ESOL learners due to complete their ESOL Skills for Life qualification this summer will receive a calculated result, City & Guilds has now produced detailed guidance on the process for determining centre assessment grades. This is supported by a simple 6-step guide which can be accessed on our website.
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Registering candidates for Functional Skills and ESOL – deadline 5 June
The window for submitting centre assessment grades opens on 1 June. Candidates need to be registered with us before a centre assessment grade can be submitted. If you haven’t already registered learners, please can you complete any outstanding registrations for learners not yet registered as soon as possible and no later than 5 June. Please note you will not be able to submit a centre assessment grade for any learner who is not registered.
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Healthcare standards Level 2, 3 and 5 – webinar on dispensations
We are pleased to share new dispensations for our Healthcare standards at levels 2, 3 and 5.
Join our webinar on this tomorrow at 11.00am.
Details of this dispensation are on our end-point assessment FAQ page.
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These are not easy times for the education sector and it’s been a busy week, but it brings us closer together as we look still further at ways we can support you and your teams to get your learners in the best place they can be.
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Kind regards,
David Phillips
Managing Director – City & Guilds and ILM
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