All posts by Kerry Boffey

July Insights 2024

Feedback during the Big Listen highlighted inspectors’ lack of curriculum knowledge. They often reported on common themes and missed high-level skills developed. The EIF is an education framework, and inspectors must evaluate broader education beyond skills. Fin promotes having a specific personal development curriculum covering broader skills all learners need to progress in work and […]

June Insights 2024

Many providers rightly lament that inspectors often have little or no understanding of the subject matter they are evaluating. The impact is evident in reading some reports where the skills developed and complexities of training are ignored, but aspects such as healthy lifestyles, English and mathematics, Prevent duty, etc., become the main focus. It’s also […]

Upskilling The FE Workforce to Meet Changing Needs

In the dynamic landscape of post-16 education, the significance of research cannot be overstated. It serves as the compass guiding institutions to accurately meet the evolving needs of developing a future-ready workforce. Earlier this year the Adult Learning Improvement Network (ALIN) and AMFE started a comprehensive, qualitative and quantitative national research project across all types […]

May Insights 2024

To be successful, providers must rely on management data to monitor performance trends. Most recent MI software systems are extremely good at producing consistent reports, mainly where reports were previously created on spreadsheets or less detailed software systems, resulting in versions telling a different story. As we have previously said, introducing new systems, strategies, or […]

What Ofsted will hear when it listens to training providers

Results of our own survey show training providers are crying out for inspections that reflect the strengths of their sector. The breadth of experiences relating to Ofsted inspections are vast. No two providers share the same experience other than the passion! For some, the passion relates to extreme elation and delight about every aspect and for others […]

April Insights 2024

As reported last month, the focus remains on staff teaching skills and CPD. Learning strategies such as Bloom’s taxonomy to scaffold learning may be fifty years old, but the principles and process of knowledge and understanding before being able to develop and create still apply. Is there a danger that we chase the latest sparkling […]

Rethinking “Early Leavers” as “Partial Achievers”

Kerry advocates adopting a new lens for assessing achievement. Rather than tarnishing all early leavers with the same brush, we should recognise and report on the accomplishments of partial achievers. In the world of further education, the term “early leavers” often carries a negative connotation. It implies that those who don’t complete their programmes have […]

March Insights 2024

After twelve months of monitoring published inspection reports, CPD has now overtaken careers advice as the most frequent AFI. We’re requesting all members to complete our workforce development survey, follow this link to the survey and join our complimentary session on 27th March to discuss planning for CPD. FIN Members – To read the full […]

Mastering employability, building resilience

Resilience among staff is increasingly important for employers. Kerry discusses teaching and measuring it as a means of improving workforce productivity while cultivating a culture of continuous learning. Developing employability skills is recognised as a critical component in education and training in improving people’s lives, enabling them to feel valued and contribute to society. The […]

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