LFE Apprentices use ForSkills diagnostic assessment

In 2004, League Football Education is a partnership between The Football League and the Professional Footballers' Association (PFA). Its primary goal is to promote and enhance educational and vocational training for 16-18 year old apprentice footballers.

All apprentices are put through a two-year Sporting Excellence (ASE) Programme which provides them with a qualification and a route to an alternative career path, should they need it. With only 30 to 40% of trainees offered a professional contract, the ASE qualification can be used by the apprentices to pursue an alternative career within a sports-related field, such as football coaching, or away from football altogether.

The challenge for LFE was to develop a strategy which would enable it to move away from its existing paper-based assessment processes and to utilise technology so it could be more effective and efficient in meeting the needs of the ASE programme. With over 1000 learners on the programme at any one time, LFE recognised the need to create a uniform programme that could be consistently applied by Regional Officers, at all of the 74 participating Football League clubs located around the country.

OBJECTIVES AND CHALLENGES

The main objective was to introduce a quality online solution that could assess, track and record their learners’ journey. It needed to incorporate a rugged and reliable initial and diagnostic assessment tool and be capable of supporting every part of the process to track and manage their learners’ qualifications online.

There was also a requirement for an online portfolio management tool, so that a portfolio of evidence for the apprentices could be built. It was also crucial that the tools were accessible from anywhere. This assisted the learner, who could login at home, and also facilitate the Regional Officers, when they undertook their reviews onsite with the apprentices.

Another key challenge was to remove the need to collect huge volumes of paper-based documentation. The old system relied on collecting a mountain of papers used to track the progress of each apprentice. This placed an enormous burden on Regional Officers, who had to use at least five paper documents for each apprentice review.

SOLUTION

1. Introduction of online assessments to assess English and maths

LFE converted from paper-based assessments to the ForSkills suite of highly interactive online assessments and learning resources. The assessments are employed at the start of the programme to assess a learner’s English and maths ability and signpost apprentices to appropriate learning resources to fill the knowledge gaps. The results of the assessments are used to create the learner’s Individual Learning Plan which is stored online. The Regional Officers also have access to a range of useful management reports which can be used to obtain an overall picture of an individual or group’s progress.

2. Tracking apprentices through their qualification

To track learners’ progress, Regional Officers visit the clubs every twelve weeks to undertake formal apprentice reviews. SkillsTrack is now being used as the primary tool to undertake the reviews and has completely replaced the paper-based system.

LFE use it to set and sign-off learner targets, enrol apprentices to qualifications, track qualifications by criteria, record evidence of achievement, and store and update the Individual Learning Plan. Because it is fully accessible over the internet, Regional Officers can undertake reviews anywhere and are assured that all of the learners’ data will be available when they need it.

ADDED VALUE AND BENEFITS

    * Learners can accelerate progress by accessing work from anywhere with an internet linked computer.
    * Annual cost savings from printing and postage of circa £15,000, and as more materials are added to the online system, printing and resource costs are continually diminishing
    * New courses to enhance the programme and meet Every Child Matters requirements, can be added quickly and simply.

“The systems we use today to track and manage our apprenticeship programme have been transformational for LFE. We can now access apprentices data, wherever they are, and paper-based documentation has almost been eliminated.”
Paul Bartlett, Project Manager and Regional Officer East and North, League Football Education

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Saks Education use SkillsBuilder to develop individual learning plans

Acknowledged as one of the UK’s best work-based training providers, Saks Education delivers NVQ apprenticeship training to over 250 learners throughout its network of hair and beauty salons. In 2006, the Adult Learning Inspectorate (ALI) ranked Saks as Grade 1, for providing outstanding training, and they were awarded Beacon status in 2007.

At the start of an NVQ programme, all Saks learners are put through an initial and diagnostic assessment to identify the learning gaps and to help educators develop an individual skills plan.

OBJECTIVES AND CHALLENGES

With its ongoing commitment to best practice and excellence in training, Saks identified a need to get rid of its paper-based assessments which relied on manual marking, and to introduce a new online system which would transform the process for both learner and educator and dramatically improve how learners are tracked and managed. The new system needed to deliver a number of key benefits, namely:

    * Better tracking of learners
    * Integration of learner data
    * Improvements in the quality of the assessment process
    * Reduction in teaching time
    * Cost savings to eliminate the distribution of large workbooks
    * A mechanism for employers to review and track their learners’ progress online

SOLUTION

Recognising that something out of a box would not work for them, Saks were looking for an organisation who could not only deliver industry-leading assessments online, but were also prepared to customise a solution that provided a complete qualification framework ILP, performed learner reviews, set targets and built an online portfolio of evidence.

An existing client recommended ForSkills, who worked closely with the Saks Team to introduce a range of solutions designed to meet their objectives.

The solutions which were implemented by Saks included:

1. Conversion to Online Assessments

Saks converted from paper-based assessments to the ForSkills suite of online assessments and resources. Written to the new functional skills standards, the assessments deliver significant improvements over the old assessment method. The assessments are self-marking, adapt for each learner and draw from banks of questions.

2. Integration of SkillsTrack & SkillsPortfolio Tools

ForSkills worked with Saks to customise the SkillsTrack product which is now used to track all of their learners through their NVQ. It is used to set targets, enrol learners to qualifications and carry out performance reviews.

Decreasing the administrative burden and reducing the need to collect huge volumes of paper-based evidence was a key objective for Saks. This was solved by utilising the online SkillsPortfolio product. Designed to capture and build the learner’s library of evidence, SkillsPortfolio can be mapped against any qualification and criteria and flags up candidates’ work ready for review. It can also run management reports and notifies the educator when new work is ready to be assessed, as well as providing feedback on the progress a learner is making.

3. Training

Initial training was provided to ten Saks educators, who then created a simple User Guide for their other educators.

ADDED VALUE AND BENEFITS

    * Learners are tracked and managed online
    * Employers have full access to the system
    * Educators can access learner data, wherever they are
    * All of the learners' data is totally integrated and stored
    * Educators can spend more time focusing on learners
    * The sign-up process is dramatically reduced
    * Can be used to support Ofsted inspections
    * Learners enjoy using an online, interactive system

Today, Saks are achieving total integration of their learners’ data, with very low set-up costs.