Employment Based Routes to ITTWhen we took over this work from a previous contractor in 2002, it was clear from the outset that quality improvements were urgently needed…The Teacher Training Agency (now renamed TDA) awarded Cambridge Education the national contract to administer the Employment Based Routes from September 2002, choosing us in preference to its existing contractor. The transition period was challenging, requiring us to maintain continuity of service whilst at the same time implementing radical changes necessary to bring about immediate quality improvements. The Employment Based Routes comprise three programmes: - Graduate Teacher (GTP)
- Registered Teacher (RTP)
- Overseas Trained Teacher (OTTP).
Relatively new at the time (though now well established) these pathways are designed to appeal particularly to mature entrants. They have made a valuable contribution for several years to the successful drive by TTA (now renamed TDA) to recruit sufficient high-quality entrants to the teaching profession. Cambridge Education’s two principal roles were: - to process and evaluate applications for places on the schemes;
to assess trainee teachers, in their schools, against the national standards for Qualified Teacher Status.
At entry stage, our expert team of professional advisers scrutinised applications for all three programmes, checking the eligibility and suitability of both the candidate and the employing school. Alongside rolling applications, we managed three competitive bidding rounds per year for salary-funded GTP places, in which large cohorts of applications were processed to very tight deadlines. Cambridge Education assisted TTA in setting grade boundaries for salary and training grants, providing management information to inform the judgements and allowing the Agency to maximise the benefit of the available funding. For trainees coming to the end of their programmes, we deployed and managed a team of some 300 external assessors to provide a national EBR assessment service. This involved recruiting and training the assessors, providing them with regular updates and guidance, and monitoring their performance carefully to maintain the required rigour and consistency. Our QA process comprised both moderation of assessment records and face-to-face monitoring, delivering continuous improvement through clear accountability linked to timely developmental feedback. We also provided a professional advice helpdesk, giving support and guidance to external assessors, schools, Recommending Bodies and trainees. To keep TTA fully informed of progress, we self-assessed our performance monthly against the full range of agreed service standards, and produced ‘traffic light’ reports to form a basis for the contract management meetings. Accurate and verifiable self-assessment was made possible by our in-house process database. As well as being a vital tool for efficient and responsive operations, this provided ready access to management information to enable both regular reporting and response to ad-hoc data and analysis needs. Cambridge Education’s EBR work continued successfully until 2005, when the programmes were finally devolved fully to local Designated Recommending Bodies (DRBs). We assisted the TTA with that devolution, transferring skills, knowledge and management information to ensure that the improvements we had made were embedded, not lost. Central to our success was our commitment to building and maintaining a close partnership with the TTA, as the following feedback sums up: “CE has been extremely effective in the management of the Admin Unit and the working relationships we have couldn't have been better.”
(Matthew Mitchell, TTA Professional Officer: January 2005) |