The Education Workforce Council has begun work on a review of the Professional standards for further education teachers and work-based learning (WBL) practitioners.
Commissioned by the Welsh Government, the project is focused on developing new practical tools to help practitioners to engage with the standards. It will also involve a light-touch review of the standards themselves.
We'll be looking at best practice in FE and WBL in other countries as part of the review, and considering lessons from other sectors. We'll also be listening to our registrants, their employers and other stakeholders to find out how the standards are currently being used and how they could be improved.
We've already sent questionnaires to all registered FE teachers and WBL professionals to help us understand their needs. Their voice will be key in shaping the new resources and will inform our advice to the Welsh Government on refreshing the standards. We'll be holding face-to-face interviews and a series of focus groups later this year.
The Welsh Government first published the Professional standards for FE practitioners in 2007. They were then updated in 2017 to serve over 7,000 practitioners in FE and WBL in Wales.
We welcome the invitation to lead on this work, which is an important opportunity to help improve standards of teaching and the quality of learning in Wales.