New strategy for people development
The school workforce development board (SWDB) has published a three-year strategy, Developing People to Support Learning: a Skills Strategy for the Wider School Workforce 2006-09.
The strategy sets out the way in which the SWDB partners will work together over the next three years to create a coherent training and development ‘offer’ to schools. It recognises the rapid growth in the number and type of support staff working in schools, and the pivotal role they play in many aspects of workforce reform and raising standards.
The SWDB is the sector-wide body that is concerned with training and developing the wider workforce. Chaired by the TDA, the board was established in autumn 2004 to guide the TDA’s work on training and development. It comprises representatives from all the national bodies that are most closely involved in funding, promoting learning and skills, and providing training.
Visit www.tda.gov.uk/swdb to download or view the strategy.
Standards review planned for teaching/classroom assistants The TDA has issued an invitation to tender for a wide-ranging review of the national occupational standards for teaching/classroom assistants. The current standards were written in 2001 and the review will ensure that they remain relevant in a rapidly changing environment.
The standards describe what a teaching/classroom assistant needs to do, know and understand. They cover the key activities undertaken by teaching/classroom assistants under all the circumstances the jobholder is likely to encounter. The TDA will be working with partner organisations in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales to ensure that the revised standards are fit for purpose across all four countries. Qualifications based on the revised standards, such as national vocational qualifications, will be available from February 2008.
For further information contact Anita Davis at: anita.davis@tda.gov.uk.