Systems for monitoring learners' progress - Constant Browning Edmonds Ltd (CBE)

Overview

“Before we developed this new system, tracking learners' progress was all paper based. It was inconvenient, often inaccurate and very bulky to carry around. Now we record and calculate progress using our new IT system and we all have a common understanding of what the figures mean. It gives our training consultants a really quick way to identify those who are struggling so that we can provide extra help along the way. It really works well. Some of the training consultants were nervous about moving over to the new system at first, but the training was excellent and the switch over was remarkably trouble free. Now it's all in place, they wouldn't change it for anything.”

Advice for others? “If you choose to go down this route, you need to get the training right. You need to check and double check that the data held on the old paper systems is accurate before moving it to the new system.”

Pauline Nichols - National Service Delivery manager

The good practice in detail

How do you know if your widgets measure up? In manufacturing it's fairly straightforward - the standards are clear. It's not quite so easy when you're training apprentices, but every organisation needs to be able to monitor its performance effectively. For training providers, it is about knowing your learners and ensuring that they are able to reach their full potential. You need to know how well they are progressing, identifying those who are falling behind and needing extra help, or those who need additional learning support. Without easy access to this type of information, it is difficult to be sure that the provision meets the needs of learners. So how do you give those who work most closely with the learners easy access to a wide range of information about learners?

Why not download the Q-box Action Plan for this example and make notes as you read.

At CBE's last inspection their management of the training was described as very good. One of their key strengths was:

• comprehensive arrangements to monitor and review different groups of learners' performance

Inspectors said:

'Management of training is very good. After the previous inspection, Constant Browning Edmonds Ltd (CBE) introduced new arrangements for the management and provision of training. These arrangements provide a very well-structured, particularly thorough and coherent approach to training. Each part of the training programme is provided in clear manageable stages. What each stage covers is based on the requirements of the national vocational qualification (NVQ), key skills qualifications, technical certificates, and the assessment process. CBE supports each stage with comprehensive written learning materials and questions to provide learners with knowledge and understanding.'

Exerpt from the inspection report.

Comprehensive initial information about learners

CBE starts recording information about learners even before they are enrolled. Once an employer has identified potential learners, CBE records information such as date of birth, likely award and existing qualifications and experience. Staff look carefully to ensure that learners are eligible for the recommended programme to avoid the disappointment of learners going through the enrolment process only to find that they are ineligible. Other information recorded during the enrolment process includes the results of numeracy and literacy screening and any accreditation of prior achievement. Key elements of this good practice are the very flexible information system on which this is recorded and that the information is available to CBE's training consultants online. It is also readily available to managers and staff working in the head office.

How easily can your staff, including assessors and training consultants, access information about learners? How do you keep the data safe?

Devising ways of measuring progress

At the heart of this aspect of good practice is the way that CBE has divided the programme into clear manageable stages. Each stage covers parts of the NVQ, the technical certificate, and key skills. It is designed to lead the learner through the programme in small steps, but it is also sufficiently flexible to enable learners and employers to work around their individual needs. Well-written learning materials and a series of questions are there to support each stage. Says Pauline Nichols, “In our old system, we would estimate what proportion of the programme each learner still had to do, but this could be inaccurate. One person's estimate was not always the same as another's when we weren't looking at a complete unit.” But in the new system, because each stage is quite small, smaller than, for example, an NVQ unit, a more accurate assessment can be made of the percentage of programme completed.

How does your organisation ensure that you accurately measure how much of the programme a learner has completed? How do you make sure that your learners can see their progress in manageable chunks and meaningful stages?

Recording learners' progress

After each visit by the training consultant or one of the support coaches, a comprehensive report on the progress a learner has made is recorded on the information system. Each report has clear learning targets for the learner, which training consultants review at each visit. The system will automatically give a figure indicating how much of the programme each learner has completed and, most importantly, highlight any learner whose progress is slower than expected. Learners do not have direct access to this information at present, but they do have the paper-based programme scheduler which shows what still has to be completed. Learners receive an updated version of this at each meeting with their training consultant.

How do you ensure that you have accurate information about each of your learners and the progress they have made? How do you set learners' progress against their attainment plan so that the first signs of underperformance can easily and quickly be seen?

Easy access to the information

With remote access, including form home, managers, training consultants and support coaches can easily bring up the most recent information about each of the learners. This enables the training consultants and support coaches to plan effectively for their work-place visits to maximise the impact of their time. Reports include a list of due and overdue reviews and a breakdown of activities by learner, which includes those who are not attending their off-the-job training sessions. CBE is very aware of the need to keep learners motivated, especially those learners who find the work difficult. This more accurate assessment of how much progress each learner has made, and the early identification of learners who are falling behind, enables staff to adjust targets, provide additional support where required, and avoid learners feeling they are in a downward spiral of unmanageable workloads. They can also raise their aspirations for learners who are finding the work easy, enabling them to complete ahead of schedule.

The new flexible information system also enables staff to request reports that meet their particular needs. This ensures that the system is continually being changed and improved to meet new demands. Managers are able to see the performance of the company as a whole, by sector skills area, by employer or for individual training consultants so that they can identify trends, particularly underperformance, and pinpoint any possible causes. Training consultants are also able to see how they are performing against their targets for their performance related pay.

How do you make sure that your organisation and its staff have access to good information about your provision? How do you use available data to improve the experience of your learners? How do you aggregate the data in different ways to assess how well your company is performing?

Uploaded - July 2008

What could you do next to improve your provision?

Answering all of the italicised questions in the Q boxes above will help you begin to health-check your current practice. Download all of the linked documents, compare them with your own or adapt them for your own use. Write a short action plan to get you from where you are now (what is good and what needs improving) to where you want to be.

The Building Better Practice (BBP) web resource is a great place to start if you want to benchmark yourself against other providers. It will show you the most common inspection strengths and weaknesses for each issue or topic, an analysis of the good practice found on inspection and a series of health-check questions to help you establish how you compare to others. Look specifically at how you could use BBP to improve your progress reviews and your monitoring of learners'/participants' progress, to improve your management information, your use of data for quality improvement, your monitoring of participation and your use of targets.

Actions for Quality Improvement (AQI) is a set of activities with resources around which you can run staff development sessions with your teams. The activities cover all aspects of the learner's journey and will help your staff embed quality improvement in the heart of your provision. Look specifically at how you could use AQI to improve the reviewing of your learners' progress and how management information can be better used to plan provision.

If you need more help, ideas and resources for the process of self assessment then look at the Learner-Centred Self Assessment (LCSA) materials. This is a web-based or hard-copy resource to help you generate a rich source of evidence for your self-assessment report through professional discussion rather than the completion of lengthy forms.

9 Data Projects to Improve Your Provision is a set of projects which help you use data to explore all aspects of the learner's journey for improvement themes.

The Self-Assessment Surgery Projects have proved very popular at the Preparing for Inspection events. They will help you determine whether or not your SAR is fit for purpose.

Interpreting the Common Inspection Framework (CIF) is essential guidance on how to interpret the CIF for your remit and is now contained in the appendices of the Ofsted inspection handbook for work-related and adult and community learning.

The Inspection Toolkit contains step-by-step guidance on how to prepare for inspection and covers such topics as choosing the right person to be nominee, using data and self assessment.