City College Birmingham
About Us
City College, Birmingham, is a large inner-city general further education college, with fifteen sites of its own, employing about 800 staff and in any one year enrolling approximately 25,000 students. We have a strong community mission, and our work with community partners, the voluntary sector, schools, religious organisations and businesses means that courses are delivered on 200-odd further sites across the city.
For several years the college has offered the City and Guilds 7407 Certificate in Further Education, (Stages 1, 2 and 3) as the main vehicle for initial teacher training. Students take Stages 1 and 2 in their first year of part-time study and complete Stage 3 in their second year. In recent years about 120 students have enrolled on this course every year, mostly City College staff, but also including trainees from other colleges, private training companies, community organisations and the public sector.
At City College Birmingham we were involved in two projects: mentoring and individual learning plans (ILPs).
Mentoring
"The purpose of this project was to explore how to improve links between:
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the taught parts of the course and practical teaching experience
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the trainee teacher and their curriculum/vocational team’s practice
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the training function and the college’s development of its individual personnel"
Resources
Evaluation report - PDF format
Case study
Case study - printable version - Word format
Job description for mentor - Word format
Handbook for mentors - Word format
Training pack for mentors - Word format
ILPs
"The aim of this project was to implement a paper-based ILP scheme, related to the City and Guilds 7407, for all teacher trainee students and at all three stages. More specifically we hoped to:
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assess to what extent an ILP approach might be of value as part of the delivery mechanism for the 7407
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explore ways of planning and recording more-individualised learning programmes for students, including the use of distance learning using web-based technology
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assess the contribution that an ILP might make to overall rates of progress and final success"
Resources
Evaluation report - PDF format
Case study - printable version - Word format
Initial assessment pack - Word format
7407 APEL Student Handbook - Word format
Individual learning plan (ILP) Year One - Word format
Individual learning plan (ILP) Year Two - Word format