281
The New Technician Education Council Programmes of Study-Sector B
S.
JENNINGS, C.C.I.A., F.I.P.H.E., M.R.S.H. Head o f Department o f Technician Studies - Vauxhall College o f Building and Further Education
HE Technician Education Council
set
(T.E.C.)
was
up in 1973 as an Independent Organization -~- with terms of reference which are summarized in the Policy Document issued in June 1974 as follows: &dquo;The Council will be concerned in the development of policies for schemes of technician education for persons at all levels of technician occupations in industry and elsewhere. To this end it will, as proposed in the Haslegrave Report, plan, administer and keep under review the development of a unified national system of courses for such people and will devise or approve suitable courses, establish and assess standards of performance, and award certificates anddiplomas as
appropriate.&dquo; The Policy
Document also includes the
following essentially to saving valuabl
statment: &dquo;T.E.C.’s functions will be
rationalize
existing provision thus keep the system which it introduces under review and to innovate or provide for innovation.&dquo; To understand why the Education Councils for Business Education and Technician Education (in particular T.E.C.) were established, it is necessary to look at the systems of part time study which have operated since resources
-
the end of the second world war. In 1946 there was a firmly established National Certi!cate System run by Joint Committees under the direction of the Ministry of Education: Certificates were at Ordinary and Higher Level. The ordinary certificate was a three-year part-time day course with little requirement for entry. Students with Final Craft certificates of the City and Guilds, R.S.A. or other qualifications could be given exemption from the first year. The higher certificate was a two-year course and entry was in general limited to holders of ordinary national certificates. The system did not seem to invoke much criticism until the Crowther Report in 1959 showed that of the initial student in-take into ONC courses only 11 per cent completed and achieved a H.N.C., the remainder failing or leaving the course at various stages. The reason for acceptance of this situation was that the majority of students dropping out of courses were nevertheless finding employment in industry and filling posts of varying degrees of responsibility usually in keeping with the partial s ccess achieved in their studies. Those obtaining the H.N.C. usually achieved
professional
status.
The concern, however, from the educational provision viewpoint, was that the system was extravagant of resources owing to low numbers in final years of courses. Also it was considered wrong for the majority of people employed in a very important section of the industry to be there virtually by failure along the road to a higher plane. The system thus became tagged with the expression ’Training by failure’. The outcome of the Crowther report was a division of Technician Studies into ONC/HNC and City and Guilds Technician Certificates. The ONC was reduced to a two-year course with an entry requirement of 4 GCE passes at ’0’ level which had to include Maths and English and for some courses a Science subject. The curriculum was still a theoretical approach although the idea that ONC/HNC courses were intended for technicians and not professional or chartered grades in institutions was given voice in these schemes. The City and Guilds Technician courses are considered in the main to provide a Technician Education for those who do not possess the necessary ’0’ levels for entry to an ONC course. The curriculum is less demanding in Science and Maths with more emphasis on the ’Technologh’ and ’Design Detail’ aspects of a technicans work. Most City & Guilds Technician courses are in two parts, each of two years, others have a part Three consisting of a further year and perhaps even further subsidiary studies. The standard on Part III of these courses is approximately HNC level. In the more recent years the City & Guilds Technician Courses have been seen to provide a type of technician education which is needed and often industry has asked for students to follow City & Guilds courses in preference to the ONC HNC route particularly in the case of Structural and Highway Engineering Technicians. The main criticisms of these near parallel courses have been: 1) The rigidity of the course structures 2) The waste of resources. The latter particularly in regard to small colleges where it is not possible to run courses with viable numbers in both routes. A further criticism comes from students who possess some, but not all four G.C.E. ’0’ level passes required to get into an ONC course. Because of the system in which the courses are run it is not possible to credit such a student with any of his previous studies and some-
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282
times he would have to plod through Maths or Science at a lower level than that for which he already had a
qualification.
This has resulted in wasted time for the student, a authority and a very difficult session for the lecturer tutoring such a student. With this as background Dr Haslegrave was asked in the late 1960s to chair a committee to look into these areas of education and make recommendation for a complete restructuring. The committee produced a report which recommended the setting up of two Education Councils, one for Business Education Studies and one for Technician Education Studies. Both had similar concepts, but we are dealing specifically with the Technician Field and for this it recommended that City & Guilds and ONC/HNC Technician courses should be merged into one flexible scheme which could take account of a students previous studies and give a more detailed consideration of what was required by the student for him to be trained in areas of work of which he had particular need. The report was accepted by the Government and the T.E.C. was set up with a brief which to say the least, was formidable. Many people said it was an impossible task and that the education systems could only submerge into the pitfalls which experience had shown lurked along all paths. The object in this paper cannot be to pass judgement as we have not reached a stage where that would be feasible or just. At this stage it must be to look at the steps which have been taken along the prescribed path hopefully avoiding the pitfalls. waste of money for the education
THE T.E.C. FUNCTIONING THE TECHNICIAN Education Council has representatives from both Education and Industry. At the end of 1973 it produced a discussion document which was circulated to industrial, professional and educational institutions. Following the period for comment T.E.C. issued in June 1974 its Policy Document and since then has, at regular intervals, produced circulars and notes for guidance explaining and developing the items in the text. The demand for so much information arises from the fundamental changes which must take place if the aims outlined in the terms of reference are to be met. These aims may be summarized as follows: 1) To provide for Technician education at all levels of technician occupations in industry and elsewhere. 2) To rationalize and unify the education to give greater industrial and teacher participation with
little
or no extra cost.
give recognition for the students previous study and at the same time not rigidly fix entry qualifications. a system whereby a student, whether 4) To
3)
To
5)
he be a school leaver or a craftsman, can in his own time work his way up the Technicians’ ladders and finish with a degree. To give technicians a status of which they can be
provide
proud. Perhaps the
.
obvious need for change in the structure of Technician Education arising from these aims was the traditional course pattern, of a prescribed number of years, with specific studies in each year. In future students would have to be admitted to areas of study according to a) Their ability
Their vocational requirement Their long term aspirations. As a solution to the problem T.E.C. has adopted a system of Units of study. A unit being the equivalent of 60 to 75 hours of study for the average student taking that unit. Units would be in levels: A Level One Unit would be that which a student could enter without previous study of the subject given an acceptable standard of numeracy and literacy on
b) c)
entry. A Level Two Unit would be a study that required a and understanding gained in passing a level ONE unit in that subject or supporting subject. Unit Levels range from 1-3 for Certificate/Diploma. A Higher Certificate/Diploma will contain units at levels 4 and 5. Freestanding Units -some units cannot be given levels as they do not have pre-requisite study of other units and do not form pre-requisites for other units, such units are called Free-
knowledge
standing. Programmes of Study The course of Study then
becomes known as a PROGRAMME. A programme will consist of an approved combination of units of study which if successfully completed will lead to a Council Award. The Council has decided on the following awards: A Certificate Approx. 900 hours of study of between 12 and 15 units according to size of unit. A Higher Certificate - Approx. 600 hours of study after the Certificate Award, of between 8-10 units. A Diploma Approx. 1800-2000 hours of study of between 18 and 25 units. A Higher Diploma - Approx. 1200-1500 hours of study and may be entered on completion of a certificate or diploma programme. For the purpose of administration the range of the work of TEC is divided into three Sectors, A, B and C. Each Sector deals with a range of industries and professions and each has a series of Programme Committees to deal with specific types of Technician Occupation in that Sector. Sector A is for General Engineering (Electrical, -
.
,
’
’
Mechanical, Aero, Marine) B for Construction C for Sciences. Our special concern is Sector B which has six programme committees. B1 - a General Programme Committee dealing with co-ordination of Programmes within the sector and the common units in Certificate and Diploma programmes. B2 - for Architecture, Building and Quantity Sur-
veying. Building Engineering Services including Heating & Ventilating, Plumbing, Refrigeration, Electrical Installation, and Gas Supply. - Civil, Structural & Highway Engineering, Water Supply and Construction Plant. - Land Use - Surveying Cartography, Planning, Estate Management, and Valuation. - The Extractive Industries mining and quarrying.
B3 B4
most
B5
B6
-
-
These various programme committees consist of members representing industrial, professional and edu-
Downloaded from rsh.sagepub.com at University College London on June 4, 2016
283 cational aspects of the programmes of study. The programme committees will also be responsible for the validation of the Programmes of study to be operated in Colleges. The validation will include examination of: a) The Programme Title and the Technician occupation for which the programme is intended. (Committee will also require evidence of consultation with the industry). b) The content and levels of units. c) The combination of units which comprise the programme together with the list of those units which are essential and those of which a specific number shall be taken according to the students or employers need or preference. d) The teaching methods to be employed. e) The units to be externally moderated. The skills to be assessed in each unit and the method of assessment.
f) g)
The grading of pass and pass with merit for individual units. The method to be adopted for dealing with students who fail to achieve success in units or in programmes.
COLLEGE INVOLVEMENT IN T.E.C. PROGRAMMES IN THE majority of cases at the present time Colleges offering T.E.C. Programmes will be those colleges who have been running ONC/HNC schemes or City and Guilds Technician Courses and are going to replace them with T.E.C. Programmes. Units and Programmes Programmes for various types
of technician occupation may be based on Standard Units (devised by TEC) or on College Devised Units. At present only the core units and those in considerable demand have been devised by T.E.C. The more specialized units have to be College devised. All units whether Standard or College will be written in the form of general and specific objectives to be achieved by the student and not the traditional syllabus content form. The advantage of this method is that it defines subject matter and depth of treatment which should avoid need to refer to past exam papers as is the case with syllabus only guidance. When units are devised there should be consultation with industry on the objectives to be achieved by the units to be included in a programme. Most colleges will have consultation committees, and perhaps steering committees for specialized areas of work, the members of which will include representatives of industry or the
professions. An alternative method of consultation is by the use of questionnaires. This however, is usually too involved for single colleges to carry out with their resources. In the case of the ILEA Colleges and Polytechnics change over to T.E.C. Programmes, a survey was carried out of the work subjects and skills of all technician students at
different levels of study and not years of study it is not sufficient to decide what the programme will be for one year of study. Counselling thus becomes very important in the early stages of a students entry to college and the colleges should involve both the student and the employer, if student is sponsored, in the decision on the programme to be followed. The student on his particular aspirations and ambitions, the employer on the technician occupation to be followed and the level to which he wishes to sponsor the student. The college will be responsible for crediting previous studies and for guidance on the ability of the student to follow the programme selected and whether it is in the students best interest to follow that programme. Obviously this degree of counselling and consultation cannot take place at the time of enrolment and the procedure for most colleges would be as follows :A student will be sent to the college in September and be enrolled in a provisional programme based on a short interview with the student and/or a letter from the student’s employer. During the period from September to December some diagnostic testing and assessment will be carried out by the college to 1) confirm justification of exemptions given from units, if any. 2) assess student’s ability to deal with particular types of study (i.e. mathematical versus a motor skill or a communicative ability) and his potential to go on to further studies. A programme will then be given to the student (for him to discuss with his employer where appropriate) and if when acceptable the programme will be registered with T.E.C. in the following January. When a registration fee will be payable to T.E.C. ASSESSMENT ALL UNITS must be assessed, some, mainly those in Level I will be wholly college assessment whilst the great majority of Level II and Level III subjects in Certificate and Level IV and V in Higher Certificate will be externally moderated. The assessment may be ’in course’ or ’end of unit’ or both depending on the work involved, e.g. a project work unit will be ’in course’ assessment, but Colleges will be responsible for agreeing with T.E.C. the form the assessment is to take. This assessment will have to take account of the percentages that the particular topics and particular skills take in the overall assessment. The skills to be assessed are in three main groups: 1) Motor Skills which will cover such as; drawing ability and practical skills as may be used in site
surveying.
2)
Intellectual Skills which will include
who had
knowledge (factual recall) comprehension (understanding) application and invention (analysis, etc). i.e. those of leadership and 3) Attitude skills mental approach to problems. The forms of testing will vary from multiple choice questions to long answer essay or drawings, projects
and Registration of students on T.E.C. Programmes Having in mind that Programmes consist of Units of
and oral interviews. The assessment marks awarded to a topic must be in accord with the assessment schedule and not with the length of time involved in the assessment, e.g. a drawing test may take 33 per cent of the time allocation, but it may still, for example, only account for 15 per cent of the marks in the overall assessment of the unit. As will be gleaned from the above,_ assessment is
present in construction and allied
courses
and of those
completed a course within the last two years. Over 2,000 questionnaires were processed and evaluated in the development of the I.L.E.A. colleges devised units. (See pages 285, 286, 287 for example programmes.) Entry
-
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284 to take more of the lecturers time in the future and critics will be ready to say that more time assessing means less time teaching; those who express the other point of view will reply that it is no use plodding on lecturing if you are not able to show that the subject matter has been learned and understood. Undoubtedly there will be greater demands on the teacher for ingenuity in testing and assessment without too much resource expenditure.
going
4) Design 5) Discussion with 6) Site supervision 7) Time on site 8) Time in office
client
etc. etc.
available. With this in mind a number of the I.L.E.A. Colleges started work on producing programmes of units for the different types of technician occupation. The task at that stage was time consuming and a load on college resources, but the thoughts of how industry was to be consulted on what was being done led quickly to discussions with the I.L.E.A. inspectorate. In January 1975 a proposal was put to a meeting of senior staff of the I.L.E.A. Colleges and Polytechnics by the I.L.E.A. Deputy Chief Inspector for Further and Higher Education for collaboration in the work. The meeting agreed unanimously to the setting up of Steering Committee for the different sectors of T.E.C. work. All colleges and polytechnics involved with a sector work were represented on a steering committee. The Sector ’B’ Committee comprised representatives from five Colleges, three Polytechnics and the I.L.E.A. FE/HE Inspector for Construction in an advisory capac-
How relevant is the present course to your work needs? d) What forms of teaching were most appreciated by students, i.e. lecture, project, case study, etc. etc? The next task was to decide how to put the questions to industry and the professions. If a survey of this sort was to be valid it would have to be wide and the task of getting a sufficient number of employers to answer the questions would be expensive in both time and money and probably many questionnaires would be lost. It was, therefore, agreed that the most economical and probably the most reliable source of providing this information was from the students on construction and related courses in the colleges and polytechnics. *Dr M. Romans, Head of Building at Polytechnic of Central London and Dr D. Strongitharm of I.L.E.A. agreed to accept the task of producing a questionnaire and on completion write a report. The questionnaires were not to have reference to the name of the student or the firm, but they were to be numbered and recorded so that types of courses and groups of questionnaires could, if necessary be related. Subsequently it was decided to include all students who had completed a course at a college within the last two years and to include questions on the usefulness of their college course in their work experience. In all some 2,600 questionnaires were processed and evaluated. The information gained from this survey was incorporated in the design of the programmes and as programmes developed they were circulated by the steering committee to all interested bodies representing employers, professions and technician occupations for
ity.
comment.
The immediate task of the committee was in three main areas: 1) To set up working parties to deal with the development of programmes and units for certificate level in B2 and B4 areas. 2) To arrange consultation with industry and the
On completion of the programmes, colleges circulated information to employers of students. Vauxhall College alone sent out 1500 explanatory leaflets together with an invitation to a seminar for which a choice of dates was given. Three Seminars were held in June 1976. Programmes for B2 &dquo;Certificates in Building Studies&dquo; and for B4 &dquo;Certificates in Civil Engineering Studies&dquo; were started in September 1976 and intake into: ONC Construction ONC Engineering City & Guilds Part 1 Const.Tech.Course 626 Part 1 Struct.Eng.Tech.Course 630 Part 1 Highway Tech.Course 635 has ceased in I.L.E.A. Colleges. Programmes for the Certificate in Building Engineering Services started in September 1977. The proposed programmes for the B5 area are not as far advanced and it is likely that they will not be finalised and introduced until 1979/80. The ONC Programme for Surveying, Cartography, Planning and Estate Management will continue until that time although the Joint Committee will hand over the administration to T.E.C. pending introduction of T.E.C. Programmes. Higher Certificate Programmes are being developed and will be introduced in September ’78 to provide for students completing the first Certificate Programmes. Students on existing ONC or City & Guilds Courses are in general recommended to complete their present
THE PARTICULAR ROLE OF THE ILEA COLLEGES AND POLYTECHNICS THE POSITION in 1974 was one of uncertainty in that T.E.C. policy was very open on the question of the development of units by Colleges for their own devised programmes. T.E.C. had proposed issuing some standard units for the common core subjects at certificate level, but it was not known for which subjects or when they would be
professions.
3)
To arrange co-ordination of the work and the subsequent implementation within the colleges. (This phase has been developed as an on-going exercise with the intention of producing course assessment papers and standards; methods of dealing with exceptional cases for entry to pro-
grammes, etc). The first area of work was very much routine hard work which included two residential weekend conferences arranged by the I.L.E.A. Inspectorate both of which were fully subscribed. In the second area the problem was ’How to consult with industry and the professions’ and what precisely was the consultation to include. The agreed policy was first to produce a questionnaire covering such things as: a) What categories of technicians do you employ? e.g. architectural, quantity, surveying, structural, etc.
b)
how much time do they spend in a given period? 1) Detailing and drawing
2) Surveying 3) Measurement
on
individual tasks,
c)
Downloaded from rsh.sagepub.com at University College London on June 4, 2016
285 course
of studies.
Bridging facilities for students who leave courses and then wish to resume in a T.E.C. course have not yet been pronounced. It is desirable that a policy should be formulated on a national scale, but if this is not forthcoming colleges will have to judge the merits of individual cases. DIPLOMA COURSES THE T.E.C. policy on Diploma courses has been included in the 1974 document. It differs from the traditionall approach in that previously it has been associated with full time study whilst the certificate has
been for part-time day release. In future the diploma will indicate a greater breadth of study 20-25 units will be required compared with the 12-15 units for the certificate. Either programmes may however, be taken as full time study and it is probable that most diploma students will be studying on full-time courses, but there should be inherent in any scheme of full time study, where students do not possess work experience, additional specially devised units (practical experience units) included in the programmes. It is probable that programmes for Diploma will be offered, starting in September 1978. In Sector B it is possible there might be two different types of Diploma
Downloaded from rsh.sagepub.com at University College London on June 4, 2016
286
Downloaded from rsh.sagepub.com at University College London on June 4, 2016
287
Programmes. One will be for the students who have made up their minds on the career they wish to follow and it will be a Diploma in the specialist subject area with conditions as outlined. The other Diploma Programme will give a wide choice of options and careers. The intention is to provide for students who are not yet committed to any particular specialist career occupation but wish to have the opportunity of sampling and selecting from Architecture, Civil Engineering, Building Engineering Services or Land Use i.e. any of the ,
,
B2, B3, B4
or B5 Career Areas. This Diploma may also be taken as an alternative to ’A’ levels for entry to higher education at degree level However, other students may wish to concentrate on
obtaining a qualification, readily acceptable to employon completion of the programme. The Programme;
ers,
would appear to have much to offer to young person who have an interest in this career area.. This paper
was
presented
at a
Planning and Building Group
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3
meeting of the RSH Environmental February 1977
The New Technician Education Council Programmes of Study-Sector B
S.
JENNINGS, C.C.I.A., F.I.P.H.E., M.R.S.H. Head o f Department o f Technician Studies - Vauxhall College o f Building and Further Education
HE Technician Education Council
set
(T.E.C.)
was
up in 1973 as an Independent Organization -~- with terms of reference which are summarized in the Policy Document issued in June 1974 as follows: &dquo;The Council will be concerned in the development of policies for schemes of technician education for persons at all levels of technician occupations in industry and elsewhere. To this end it will, as proposed in the Haslegrave Report, plan, administer and keep under review the development of a unified national system of courses for such people and will devise or approve suitable courses, establish and assess standards of performance, and award certificates anddiplomas as
appropriate.&dquo; The Policy
Document also includes the
following essentially to saving valuabl
statment: &dquo;T.E.C.’s functions will be
rationalize
existing provision thus keep the system which it introduces under review and to innovate or provide for innovation.&dquo; To understand why the Education Councils for Business Education and Technician Education (in particular T.E.C.) were established, it is necessary to look at the systems of part time study which have operated since resources
-
the end of the second world war. In 1946 there was a firmly established National Certi!cate System run by Joint Committees under the direction of the Ministry of Education: Certificates were at Ordinary and Higher Level. The ordinary certificate was a three-year part-time day course with little requirement for entry. Students with Final Craft certificates of the City and Guilds, R.S.A. or other qualifications could be given exemption from the first year. The higher certificate was a two-year course and entry was in general limited to holders of ordinary national certificates. The system did not seem to invoke much criticism until the Crowther Report in 1959 showed that of the initial student in-take into ONC courses only 11 per cent completed and achieved a H.N.C., the remainder failing or leaving the course at various stages. The reason for acceptance of this situation was that the majority of students dropping out of courses were nevertheless finding employment in industry and filling posts of varying degrees of responsibility usually in keeping with the partial s ccess achieved in their studies. Those obtaining the H.N.C. usually achieved
professional
status.
The concern, however, from the educational provision viewpoint, was that the system was extravagant of resources owing to low numbers in final years of courses. Also it was considered wrong for the majority of people employed in a very important section of the industry to be there virtually by failure along the road to a higher plane. The system thus became tagged with the expression ’Training by failure’. The outcome of the Crowther report was a division of Technician Studies into ONC/HNC and City and Guilds Technician Certificates. The ONC was reduced to a two-year course with an entry requirement of 4 GCE passes at ’0’ level which had to include Maths and English and for some courses a Science subject. The curriculum was still a theoretical approach although the idea that ONC/HNC courses were intended for technicians and not professional or chartered grades in institutions was given voice in these schemes. The City and Guilds Technician courses are considered in the main to provide a Technician Education for those who do not possess the necessary ’0’ levels for entry to an ONC course. The curriculum is less demanding in Science and Maths with more emphasis on the ’Technologh’ and ’Design Detail’ aspects of a technicans work. Most City & Guilds Technician courses are in two parts, each of two years, others have a part Three consisting of a further year and perhaps even further subsidiary studies. The standard on Part III of these courses is approximately HNC level. In the more recent years the City & Guilds Technician Courses have been seen to provide a type of technician education which is needed and often industry has asked for students to follow City & Guilds courses in preference to the ONC HNC route particularly in the case of Structural and Highway Engineering Technicians. The main criticisms of these near parallel courses have been: 1) The rigidity of the course structures 2) The waste of resources. The latter particularly in regard to small colleges where it is not possible to run courses with viable numbers in both routes. A further criticism comes from students who possess some, but not all four G.C.E. ’0’ level passes required to get into an ONC course. Because of the system in which the courses are run it is not possible to credit such a student with any of his previous studies and some-
Downloaded from rsh.sagepub.com at University College London on June 4, 2016
282
times he would have to plod through Maths or Science at a lower level than that for which he already had a
qualification.
This has resulted in wasted time for the student, a authority and a very difficult session for the lecturer tutoring such a student. With this as background Dr Haslegrave was asked in the late 1960s to chair a committee to look into these areas of education and make recommendation for a complete restructuring. The committee produced a report which recommended the setting up of two Education Councils, one for Business Education Studies and one for Technician Education Studies. Both had similar concepts, but we are dealing specifically with the Technician Field and for this it recommended that City & Guilds and ONC/HNC Technician courses should be merged into one flexible scheme which could take account of a students previous studies and give a more detailed consideration of what was required by the student for him to be trained in areas of work of which he had particular need. The report was accepted by the Government and the T.E.C. was set up with a brief which to say the least, was formidable. Many people said it was an impossible task and that the education systems could only submerge into the pitfalls which experience had shown lurked along all paths. The object in this paper cannot be to pass judgement as we have not reached a stage where that would be feasible or just. At this stage it must be to look at the steps which have been taken along the prescribed path hopefully avoiding the pitfalls. waste of money for the education
THE T.E.C. FUNCTIONING THE TECHNICIAN Education Council has representatives from both Education and Industry. At the end of 1973 it produced a discussion document which was circulated to industrial, professional and educational institutions. Following the period for comment T.E.C. issued in June 1974 its Policy Document and since then has, at regular intervals, produced circulars and notes for guidance explaining and developing the items in the text. The demand for so much information arises from the fundamental changes which must take place if the aims outlined in the terms of reference are to be met. These aims may be summarized as follows: 1) To provide for Technician education at all levels of technician occupations in industry and elsewhere. 2) To rationalize and unify the education to give greater industrial and teacher participation with
little
or no extra cost.
give recognition for the students previous study and at the same time not rigidly fix entry qualifications. a system whereby a student, whether 4) To
3)
To
5)
he be a school leaver or a craftsman, can in his own time work his way up the Technicians’ ladders and finish with a degree. To give technicians a status of which they can be
provide
proud. Perhaps the
.
obvious need for change in the structure of Technician Education arising from these aims was the traditional course pattern, of a prescribed number of years, with specific studies in each year. In future students would have to be admitted to areas of study according to a) Their ability
Their vocational requirement Their long term aspirations. As a solution to the problem T.E.C. has adopted a system of Units of study. A unit being the equivalent of 60 to 75 hours of study for the average student taking that unit. Units would be in levels: A Level One Unit would be that which a student could enter without previous study of the subject given an acceptable standard of numeracy and literacy on
b) c)
entry. A Level Two Unit would be a study that required a and understanding gained in passing a level ONE unit in that subject or supporting subject. Unit Levels range from 1-3 for Certificate/Diploma. A Higher Certificate/Diploma will contain units at levels 4 and 5. Freestanding Units -some units cannot be given levels as they do not have pre-requisite study of other units and do not form pre-requisites for other units, such units are called Free-
knowledge
standing. Programmes of Study The course of Study then
becomes known as a PROGRAMME. A programme will consist of an approved combination of units of study which if successfully completed will lead to a Council Award. The Council has decided on the following awards: A Certificate Approx. 900 hours of study of between 12 and 15 units according to size of unit. A Higher Certificate - Approx. 600 hours of study after the Certificate Award, of between 8-10 units. A Diploma Approx. 1800-2000 hours of study of between 18 and 25 units. A Higher Diploma - Approx. 1200-1500 hours of study and may be entered on completion of a certificate or diploma programme. For the purpose of administration the range of the work of TEC is divided into three Sectors, A, B and C. Each Sector deals with a range of industries and professions and each has a series of Programme Committees to deal with specific types of Technician Occupation in that Sector. Sector A is for General Engineering (Electrical, -
.
,
’
’
Mechanical, Aero, Marine) B for Construction C for Sciences. Our special concern is Sector B which has six programme committees. B1 - a General Programme Committee dealing with co-ordination of Programmes within the sector and the common units in Certificate and Diploma programmes. B2 - for Architecture, Building and Quantity Sur-
veying. Building Engineering Services including Heating & Ventilating, Plumbing, Refrigeration, Electrical Installation, and Gas Supply. - Civil, Structural & Highway Engineering, Water Supply and Construction Plant. - Land Use - Surveying Cartography, Planning, Estate Management, and Valuation. - The Extractive Industries mining and quarrying.
B3 B4
most
B5
B6
-
-
These various programme committees consist of members representing industrial, professional and edu-
Downloaded from rsh.sagepub.com at University College London on June 4, 2016
283 cational aspects of the programmes of study. The programme committees will also be responsible for the validation of the Programmes of study to be operated in Colleges. The validation will include examination of: a) The Programme Title and the Technician occupation for which the programme is intended. (Committee will also require evidence of consultation with the industry). b) The content and levels of units. c) The combination of units which comprise the programme together with the list of those units which are essential and those of which a specific number shall be taken according to the students or employers need or preference. d) The teaching methods to be employed. e) The units to be externally moderated. The skills to be assessed in each unit and the method of assessment.
f) g)
The grading of pass and pass with merit for individual units. The method to be adopted for dealing with students who fail to achieve success in units or in programmes.
COLLEGE INVOLVEMENT IN T.E.C. PROGRAMMES IN THE majority of cases at the present time Colleges offering T.E.C. Programmes will be those colleges who have been running ONC/HNC schemes or City and Guilds Technician Courses and are going to replace them with T.E.C. Programmes. Units and Programmes Programmes for various types
of technician occupation may be based on Standard Units (devised by TEC) or on College Devised Units. At present only the core units and those in considerable demand have been devised by T.E.C. The more specialized units have to be College devised. All units whether Standard or College will be written in the form of general and specific objectives to be achieved by the student and not the traditional syllabus content form. The advantage of this method is that it defines subject matter and depth of treatment which should avoid need to refer to past exam papers as is the case with syllabus only guidance. When units are devised there should be consultation with industry on the objectives to be achieved by the units to be included in a programme. Most colleges will have consultation committees, and perhaps steering committees for specialized areas of work, the members of which will include representatives of industry or the
professions. An alternative method of consultation is by the use of questionnaires. This however, is usually too involved for single colleges to carry out with their resources. In the case of the ILEA Colleges and Polytechnics change over to T.E.C. Programmes, a survey was carried out of the work subjects and skills of all technician students at
different levels of study and not years of study it is not sufficient to decide what the programme will be for one year of study. Counselling thus becomes very important in the early stages of a students entry to college and the colleges should involve both the student and the employer, if student is sponsored, in the decision on the programme to be followed. The student on his particular aspirations and ambitions, the employer on the technician occupation to be followed and the level to which he wishes to sponsor the student. The college will be responsible for crediting previous studies and for guidance on the ability of the student to follow the programme selected and whether it is in the students best interest to follow that programme. Obviously this degree of counselling and consultation cannot take place at the time of enrolment and the procedure for most colleges would be as follows :A student will be sent to the college in September and be enrolled in a provisional programme based on a short interview with the student and/or a letter from the student’s employer. During the period from September to December some diagnostic testing and assessment will be carried out by the college to 1) confirm justification of exemptions given from units, if any. 2) assess student’s ability to deal with particular types of study (i.e. mathematical versus a motor skill or a communicative ability) and his potential to go on to further studies. A programme will then be given to the student (for him to discuss with his employer where appropriate) and if when acceptable the programme will be registered with T.E.C. in the following January. When a registration fee will be payable to T.E.C. ASSESSMENT ALL UNITS must be assessed, some, mainly those in Level I will be wholly college assessment whilst the great majority of Level II and Level III subjects in Certificate and Level IV and V in Higher Certificate will be externally moderated. The assessment may be ’in course’ or ’end of unit’ or both depending on the work involved, e.g. a project work unit will be ’in course’ assessment, but Colleges will be responsible for agreeing with T.E.C. the form the assessment is to take. This assessment will have to take account of the percentages that the particular topics and particular skills take in the overall assessment. The skills to be assessed are in three main groups: 1) Motor Skills which will cover such as; drawing ability and practical skills as may be used in site
surveying.
2)
Intellectual Skills which will include
who had
knowledge (factual recall) comprehension (understanding) application and invention (analysis, etc). i.e. those of leadership and 3) Attitude skills mental approach to problems. The forms of testing will vary from multiple choice questions to long answer essay or drawings, projects
and Registration of students on T.E.C. Programmes Having in mind that Programmes consist of Units of
and oral interviews. The assessment marks awarded to a topic must be in accord with the assessment schedule and not with the length of time involved in the assessment, e.g. a drawing test may take 33 per cent of the time allocation, but it may still, for example, only account for 15 per cent of the marks in the overall assessment of the unit. As will be gleaned from the above,_ assessment is
present in construction and allied
courses
and of those
completed a course within the last two years. Over 2,000 questionnaires were processed and evaluated in the development of the I.L.E.A. colleges devised units. (See pages 285, 286, 287 for example programmes.) Entry
-
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284 to take more of the lecturers time in the future and critics will be ready to say that more time assessing means less time teaching; those who express the other point of view will reply that it is no use plodding on lecturing if you are not able to show that the subject matter has been learned and understood. Undoubtedly there will be greater demands on the teacher for ingenuity in testing and assessment without too much resource expenditure.
going
4) Design 5) Discussion with 6) Site supervision 7) Time on site 8) Time in office
client
etc. etc.
available. With this in mind a number of the I.L.E.A. Colleges started work on producing programmes of units for the different types of technician occupation. The task at that stage was time consuming and a load on college resources, but the thoughts of how industry was to be consulted on what was being done led quickly to discussions with the I.L.E.A. inspectorate. In January 1975 a proposal was put to a meeting of senior staff of the I.L.E.A. Colleges and Polytechnics by the I.L.E.A. Deputy Chief Inspector for Further and Higher Education for collaboration in the work. The meeting agreed unanimously to the setting up of Steering Committee for the different sectors of T.E.C. work. All colleges and polytechnics involved with a sector work were represented on a steering committee. The Sector ’B’ Committee comprised representatives from five Colleges, three Polytechnics and the I.L.E.A. FE/HE Inspector for Construction in an advisory capac-
How relevant is the present course to your work needs? d) What forms of teaching were most appreciated by students, i.e. lecture, project, case study, etc. etc? The next task was to decide how to put the questions to industry and the professions. If a survey of this sort was to be valid it would have to be wide and the task of getting a sufficient number of employers to answer the questions would be expensive in both time and money and probably many questionnaires would be lost. It was, therefore, agreed that the most economical and probably the most reliable source of providing this information was from the students on construction and related courses in the colleges and polytechnics. *Dr M. Romans, Head of Building at Polytechnic of Central London and Dr D. Strongitharm of I.L.E.A. agreed to accept the task of producing a questionnaire and on completion write a report. The questionnaires were not to have reference to the name of the student or the firm, but they were to be numbered and recorded so that types of courses and groups of questionnaires could, if necessary be related. Subsequently it was decided to include all students who had completed a course at a college within the last two years and to include questions on the usefulness of their college course in their work experience. In all some 2,600 questionnaires were processed and evaluated. The information gained from this survey was incorporated in the design of the programmes and as programmes developed they were circulated by the steering committee to all interested bodies representing employers, professions and technician occupations for
ity.
comment.
The immediate task of the committee was in three main areas: 1) To set up working parties to deal with the development of programmes and units for certificate level in B2 and B4 areas. 2) To arrange consultation with industry and the
On completion of the programmes, colleges circulated information to employers of students. Vauxhall College alone sent out 1500 explanatory leaflets together with an invitation to a seminar for which a choice of dates was given. Three Seminars were held in June 1976. Programmes for B2 &dquo;Certificates in Building Studies&dquo; and for B4 &dquo;Certificates in Civil Engineering Studies&dquo; were started in September 1976 and intake into: ONC Construction ONC Engineering City & Guilds Part 1 Const.Tech.Course 626 Part 1 Struct.Eng.Tech.Course 630 Part 1 Highway Tech.Course 635 has ceased in I.L.E.A. Colleges. Programmes for the Certificate in Building Engineering Services started in September 1977. The proposed programmes for the B5 area are not as far advanced and it is likely that they will not be finalised and introduced until 1979/80. The ONC Programme for Surveying, Cartography, Planning and Estate Management will continue until that time although the Joint Committee will hand over the administration to T.E.C. pending introduction of T.E.C. Programmes. Higher Certificate Programmes are being developed and will be introduced in September ’78 to provide for students completing the first Certificate Programmes. Students on existing ONC or City & Guilds Courses are in general recommended to complete their present
THE PARTICULAR ROLE OF THE ILEA COLLEGES AND POLYTECHNICS THE POSITION in 1974 was one of uncertainty in that T.E.C. policy was very open on the question of the development of units by Colleges for their own devised programmes. T.E.C. had proposed issuing some standard units for the common core subjects at certificate level, but it was not known for which subjects or when they would be
professions.
3)
To arrange co-ordination of the work and the subsequent implementation within the colleges. (This phase has been developed as an on-going exercise with the intention of producing course assessment papers and standards; methods of dealing with exceptional cases for entry to pro-
grammes, etc). The first area of work was very much routine hard work which included two residential weekend conferences arranged by the I.L.E.A. Inspectorate both of which were fully subscribed. In the second area the problem was ’How to consult with industry and the professions’ and what precisely was the consultation to include. The agreed policy was first to produce a questionnaire covering such things as: a) What categories of technicians do you employ? e.g. architectural, quantity, surveying, structural, etc.
b)
how much time do they spend in a given period? 1) Detailing and drawing
2) Surveying 3) Measurement
on
individual tasks,
c)
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285 course
of studies.
Bridging facilities for students who leave courses and then wish to resume in a T.E.C. course have not yet been pronounced. It is desirable that a policy should be formulated on a national scale, but if this is not forthcoming colleges will have to judge the merits of individual cases. DIPLOMA COURSES THE T.E.C. policy on Diploma courses has been included in the 1974 document. It differs from the traditionall approach in that previously it has been associated with full time study whilst the certificate has
been for part-time day release. In future the diploma will indicate a greater breadth of study 20-25 units will be required compared with the 12-15 units for the certificate. Either programmes may however, be taken as full time study and it is probable that most diploma students will be studying on full-time courses, but there should be inherent in any scheme of full time study, where students do not possess work experience, additional specially devised units (practical experience units) included in the programmes. It is probable that programmes for Diploma will be offered, starting in September 1978. In Sector B it is possible there might be two different types of Diploma
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286
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287
Programmes. One will be for the students who have made up their minds on the career they wish to follow and it will be a Diploma in the specialist subject area with conditions as outlined. The other Diploma Programme will give a wide choice of options and careers. The intention is to provide for students who are not yet committed to any particular specialist career occupation but wish to have the opportunity of sampling and selecting from Architecture, Civil Engineering, Building Engineering Services or Land Use i.e. any of the ,
,
B2, B3, B4
or B5 Career Areas. This Diploma may also be taken as an alternative to ’A’ levels for entry to higher education at degree level However, other students may wish to concentrate on
obtaining a qualification, readily acceptable to employon completion of the programme. The Programme;
ers,
would appear to have much to offer to young person who have an interest in this career area.. This paper
was
presented
at a
Planning and Building Group
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3
meeting of the RSH Environmental February 1977
