Hugh Baird College’s staff CPD day – a T Level model to replicate

On 29 January, @HughBaird College in Merseyside held a whole staff training day to raise awareness and understanding of #TLevels.  

The college, which will start delivering T Levels from September 2021, worked with the Education and Training Foundation (ETF) to create a model allowing staff to carry out continuing professional development (CPD) in a convenient and time-effective way, which can be replicated by other providers.

The ETF supported the college to design a bespoke training package which covered the breadth of the T Level Professional Development (TLPD) offer. The training day catered for a wide range of roles – including English, maths, pastoral and employer engagement staff – to develop their knowledge and skills based on their respective areas of responsibility.

Included in the timetable was:

• a three-hour bespoke TLPD Understanding T Levels session
• a session on Designing the T Level Curriculum – Putting Theory into Practice, part of the TLPD offer’s Operational Middle Leaders and Managers course
• an employer engagement workshop led by the ETF, including input from neighbouring college, Cheshire College South and West and one of their employer partners, who gave hints and tips
• a presentation from awarding body, NCFE, which raised awareness of the technical qualification specifications and curriculum requirements
• a talk from the ETF’s North-based Regional Specialist Leads about contextualising maths and English for vocational qualifications.  

The ETF’s North West Regional Facilitator who led on the design and development of this day, Punam Khosla, said: “The CPD day was a great success and can be used by other providers as a model to replicate. It wasn’t about recreating professional development or training, but instead tapping into the existing TLPD offer to give staff a differentiated programme based on their specific needs and skill sets.

“With the current pressures facing staff in education settings, and the limited amount of time to commit to professional development, this is a great way to involve and motivate staff to commit to their professional development.”

Jim Hankin, Assistant Director of Hugh Baird College, said: 

“The CPD day gave us an opportunity to design a package of training to support all aspects of our organisation.

“We were able to engage the ETF to provide a bespoke session on Understanding T Levels specifically for our staff due to be delivering upcoming T Levels in September 2022 and beyond. We were able to arrange curriculum specific sessions with the awarding organisations for those T Levels starting in September 2021, as well as bespoke sessions around employer engagement and contextualising English and maths.   

“Delivering the programme across a single day meant so many staff were able to attend who would not have ordinarily been able to. I would definitely recommend this model to other providers.”

T Level providers can run their own bespoke session by contacting the ETF’s team of Regional Facilitators.

The ETF, the expert body for professional development and standards in Further Education and Training in England, has been supporting the delivery of T Levels since 2019. In February 2020, the ETF was awarded a four-year contract by the Department for Education to continue to support providers, leaders and practitioners to deliver the new courses.