LLUK and NRDC - Skills for Life teacher education: creative routes to qualified statust

The focus of this project was to develop an innovative and flexible approach to subject specialist (Literacy/Numeracy/ESOL) provision and to promote a collaborative partnership of Learning and Skills Sector stakeholders and providers of initial teacher training (ITT) in the geographical area of the Thames Valley.

The main partners being Thames Valley PDN, Thames Valley University and Oxford and Cherwell College.

The inclusion of universities, colleges and professional development networks, facilitated flexible approaches to the provision of the new framework of qualifications, leading to QTLS.  It aimed to enable smaller, non-traditional providers to access relevant, research informed and inclusive provision. These networks’ close involvement of learning & skills sector providers right across the target region aimed to enable the prompt identification of key current development needs (including, for example, the Numeracy/literacy, and Language ‘embedding’ agenda) and facilitated flexible and responsive action to meet these. The funding also provided the opportunity for action research based pedagogic innovation and a dissemination and support network to stakeholders, to effect quality improvement, in line with the reform agenda expressed in Equipping our Teachers for the Future (DfES 2003).