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West London College is centered in the heart of London, covering Ealing, Hammersmith and Southall. We are keen on ensuring our learners develop the skills needed for aspirational progression into employment / higher education. We do this by working closely with employers around our curriculum planning, work experience opportunities and Career advice and guidance. Skills Builder is used as our baseline mechanism underpinning the skills required for our learners to master. We have worked very hard over this last year to review our schemes of learning, assessments and teaching styles to review the skills development of our learners, measuring them against reasonable targets. 98% of our learners stated that they understand the importance of their classes in developing the skills needed for employment, higher education or apprenticeships. We have conducted thorough quality assaurance checks termly for the schemes of learning and assessement plans, linking teaching, learning and assessement to skills builder components and linking activties / resources to industry skills development. On April 16th, the college celebrated Skills Builder with a college staff CPD, with over 30 employers providing currciulum planning advice and support and how to target the essential skills from Skills Builder. The turnout and feedback has been a huge success and we are now planning a Curriculum Commmittee for Summer, with relevant industries reviewing the embedding of core skills development. This will ensure all learners recieve exceptional teaching and learning with skills developed for successful progression.
Overall impact
Our student feedback and survey responses have been really positive and all staff are passionately engaged in CPD for skills development. Furthermore, Skills Builder is also part of our annual observation policy, where lesson observation feedback is linked to Skills Builder.
Keep it simple
We have created a new student portal which links to the Skills Builder website, displaying the essenail skill icons across the 3 campuses and across the planning documents. We are also referring to the skills in teaching and they are identified in learning observations. Learners who have made significant progress in a practical skill gets nominated by their tutor for a £5 lunch voucher. Furthermore, every classroom has a visualisation of the core skills across the campuses for reinforcement and ease of access.
Start early, keep going
We have the portal accessible in tutorials and on our learner website so it can be accessed by the whole college. The portal has a translation feature as 60% of our learners come from a Non -English speaking background, therefore the trasnlation features allow the skills to be accessible to all. Furthermore, parents can access the portal too, as well as employers. so all our resources are reaching a wide audience,
Measure it
We have our termly student survey feedback where 90% + learners have said that they understand the importance of skills development for their future progression. Benchmark has been used to assess learners' skills. Furthermore, lesson observations now have a section commening on skills development in the classroom.
Focus tightly
All resources are on Google Drive, and are used in tutorials / classes with extra skills-development resources built in and available to staff and students. All resources are informed by the Universal Framework and teach learners skill steps, which are clearly outlined in planning documentation. The link to the Skills Builder resources on Launchpad is also accessible via the student portal.
Keep practising
All eight essential skills are embedded into the schemes of learning. Curriculum assessments include at least one skill and employers who work with the curriculum have quality-assured this. We have the skills developed in enrichment activties and college-wide activities, such as work experience and career events, are meticulously planned to include Skills Builder.
Bring it to life
We work with employers to create a real life assessment brief and embed the essential skills into the assesment. Furthemore, our high-needs learner are developing the skills working with SHAW TRUST through enrichment activties and event planning across the college. Some learners participated in Heathrow / Skills Builder masterclasses this year too.
What's next
We are looking into the skills development and gaps between different groups as well as holding an employer scruitiny board for our curriculum planning for academic year 2024-25
