Wider Professional Practice Analysis Essay Example

6th are not functional literate. This is worse than our principle comparator nations. ” To achieve what Leitch refers to as ‘Target World Leader Status’, Leitch proposed the following targets: a 10 – 15% increase in achievement of level 1 numeracy & literacy levels, an additional 320,000 adults achieving a minimum level 2 qualification, doubling the amount of apprenticeships on offer and having more than 40% of adults achieving a level 4 qualification.

Implementation of the above recommendations according to Leitch is a combination of 3 key players: The government, the employer and the individual. The government needs to reduce its levels of duplication and bureaucracy, examine the qualification structure and address the funding needed. Employers need to be more responsive to government initiatives and individual needs to take steps to enhance their own skills. The Tomlinson report was published in October 2004.

This report was produced as a result of: * Too much disengagement among students leading to bad behaviour * Numeracy, Literacy & ICT levels not sufficient to warrant employment * Too many people not continuing in education past the compulsory age limit * Too many assessments & specification with the qualifications The report recommends the introduction of a new diploma awarded at four different levels: 1. Entry 2. Foundation 3. Intermediate 4. Advanced. It was proposed that the new diploma would replace: GCSE’s, AS Levels, AVCE’s and BTECS.

The structure of the new diploma was split into two main elements: the core and the main. The core covered the subject areas such as; numeracy, literacy, ICT, communication etc, whilst the main revolved around learning in the specialism topic. Working with NEET learners on E2E and

now on FL, as I have done for the last 6 years, emphasis has moved away from the Tomlinson’s vision of progress at own speed’ (in my experience highly necessary for this cohort) to funding being clawed back for qualifications uncompleted by year and dates.

Minimum level performance, whilst a guideline, should not be a ‘be all and end all’ for difficult to reach students, where actual attendance and personal development (soft skills) are often major achievements. The Moser Report [Improving Literacy and Numeracy – A Fresh Start] 1999 ‘We have found that people are staggered when one confronts them with the basic facts about literacy and numeracy, and rightly so. It is staggering that over the years millions of children have been leaving school hardly able to read and write, and that today millions of adults have the same problems. ’ [Moser]

One of the most influential education reports to be published during Labour's 13 years in government was Claus Moser's, A Fresh Start: improving literacy and numeracy. Published in February 1999, it revealed the stark fact that roughly one in five adults – perhaps as many as seven million people – were functionally illiterate or innumerate. For many years there had been limited funding and limited availability of basic skills training for the 16+ area of the lifelong sector; training and skill enhancement had been mostly office based

The Moser Report identifies the home and family situation as one of the root cause for gaining low numeracy and literacy levels; again this relates to the explanations from our FL learners for their low levels. Moser recommends entitlement and better opportunity for learning. Given this report was

written a few years ago the same problem is still very much evident today.

Over the decades and in more recent years the face of education has changed. The world of education has been swept up in a whirlwind of policies and procedures stating how teachers should teach and how institutions should be operating. One problem with this is the varying degrees of institutions offering very different types of educational facilities. None of the above policies are a complete match to Redwood for improving learner’s performance. Almost all can relate in some form or another but not one specifically matches.

All similarity across all the policies is the identified need to increase the UK’s basic skills level. All policies mention either a complete change (diplomas) or amending the current curriculum in place (GCSE/A levels). I became a tutor to work with, support and hopefully offer opportunity to young people, but I find constant educational change is at least disruptive and more so detrimental to my ability and motivation. I did not enter the teaching profession for an easy life but the whole process of learning should be about understanding in the simplest way possible – something governments should take on board.