Learning Support Assistants’ career structure progression routes and ambitions – a chance to have a say

There is no formally recognised senior LSA role in lifelong learning. Some LSAs said they are happy with their current jobs, some have ambitions to be teachers and others want to have extra responsibility and to have that responsibility recognised.

Are you a senior LSA? If so what are your role and responsibilities? How does it differ from a standard LSA role? Did you have any training or qualifications for the role? How would you change your job if you could?

Alternatively, some LSAs develop a specialism for example for dyslexia support or take on a particular responsibility e.g. for IT or assistive technology. Do you have a specialism? What is it for? How is it recognised?

What progression routes would you like to see available for LSAs in lifelong learning?

What are your ambitions? What would you like to be doing in 1, 3 or 5 years time and why?

 leave a comment  with your details or email Sally Faraday (email sallyfaraday@hotmail.com)

North East - Systems and Structures

The way we work is influenced by systems and stucutures.

If you could change one thing about the " system" that would improve the experience and outcomes for your learners what would it be, why and how would you do it?

West of England College - Effective Management of Learning Support

We are looking for contributions to form into case studies to illustrate our report on effective practice as part of the Enhancement of Learning Support Project http://www.natspec.org.uk/

Do you have interesting stories that relate to any of the following headings? Would you like the opportunity to publicise examples of your best practice?

• How do you promote effective working relationships between LSAs and Tutors?
• Do you have good examples of effective recruitment,induction and CPD for LSAs?
• How do you measure the impact of learning support
• How do you promote the value and status of learning support within the culture of your organisation

We need stories from all types of delivery including GFE, work based learning, specialist colleges, sixth form colleges, private training companies and offender learning.  

If you think you do please e-mail Angie on award@westengland.ac.uk

South West - Involving learners in Identifying their own support

We are looking at involving learners in identifying,planning and managing their own support. 


We would love to hear how you involve your learners in this - have you got any effective practice you would be willing to share?

London Region - Self Assessment Audit Tool

In London we are developing a self assessment audit tool that will enable organisations to measure their current practice in the management and delivery of learning support and use the outcomes to plan future developments.

The tool has been developed in draft and we are now in the process of piloting it with providers within the London region. We would however be really keen to gather the views of providers from outside the region. If you would be willing to have a look at this and give us some feedback we would be delighted.

You can see the draft tool and guidance etc at

http://www.natspec.org.uk/enhancement-of-learning-support/regional-activity/london/november-10th-presentations.html

West Midlands - " More than Courses" Alternative Approaches to CPD

In the West Mids we are looking at alternative approaches to CPD – such as mentoring, shadowing, buddying and “Learn and share”. What we think we know is that these approaches work really well, but what the original research showed was that they are often only used for a short time during induction. What we would like to be able to do is generate a set of materials and examples of effective practice which will enable organisations to get alternative approaches off the ground more easily. It is often difficult to change practice and we hope to be able to  do some of the initial work and produce some how to guides that you can use easily.

We know there is effective practice out there and we would really like to capture as much as possible. So if you are doing something really good – let us know! Alternatively please have a look at the draft documents we have produced which are available at http://www.natspec.org.uk/enhancement-of-learning-support/regional-activity/west-midlands.html and let us know what you think. Being able to deliver effective CPD opportunities by drawing on the expertise and experience of you own staff team should be a very powerful way of delivering CPD as well as being very cost effective  in these times of tight budgets!

We are not just interested in mentoring, shadowing, buddying and “Learn and Share” What we would really like to hear about is anything that you feel has provided you with an opportunity to learn and develop your practice – no matter how unorthodox it might appear to be. Often the casual or unplanned is very effective and we want to see if there are ways of making the unplanned more planned!!

 Can you tell us one thing that you have learnt in the last year that made a difference and ........how you learnt it!

North West Region - Involving learners in identifying their own support

Following on from our conference on 22^nd October 2010, we need to collect more feedback on additional support practice in Work Based Learning, how it is embedded in the workplace and how WBL involve learners in identifying, delivering and evaluating their additional learning support.  What support do you they provide  and how do they provide  it?  What are the  models and approaches?

How do you identify Additional Learning Needs and/or Additional Social Needs?  How do you work with others to do this?  How do you work with learners to ensure their support needs are met?

If you are involved in Work Based Learning can you give us your experiences or are you aware of any work based learning providers in your region that have effective practice we could approach?

You can find out more about the North West Programme here

http://www.natspec.org.uk/enhancement-of-learning-support/regional-activity/north-west.html