Vocational 14-19

A health and beauty teacher reassesses her use of PowerPoint

Michelle Zini is a professional beautician who now teaches heath and beauty at City and Islington College in north London. Her NVQ Level 1 students are learning the theory and practice of beauty treatment on nails. Helen Kent, deputy director for health and beauty, observes her lesson and praises her clear vocal projection and her appropriate use and pace of language. This has helped to build the confidence of her young students. However she finds Michelle's PowerPoint presentation much too long and her students are obviously bored. Michelle is keen to use PowerPoint as it's flexible and good for teaching theory, but she begins to see its limitations. She agrees to break up her presentations into bitesized chunks and to introduce more practical group work into her next lesson. The variety works well: there's a buzz in classroom, the students are engaged and the feedback is good.

A Twist in the Nail

Using AfL in enterprise education at a special school

A special school shows how it has developed an enterprise education scheme to give students opportunities for self-assessment and independent learning, tying into the Assessment for Learning (AfL) model. Headteacher Maxine Pittaway and her team have developed practical enterprise education schemes that work alongside the mainstream curriculum, and encourage self-assessment, peer mentoring and independent learning. The students and teachers at St Christopher's, Wrexham, are successfully running sustainable social enterprises from within the school premises, including a hairdressing salon cafe and a car valeting service. This helps students to gain confidence and practical social skills and feed their experiences back into the classroom and their every day learning. Maxine and her team have found that these opportunities for independent learning fit well into the AfL model that they've embedded throughout the school, one of the largest special schools in Wales.

AfL in Special Schools - A Case Study

Watch a highly talented autobody repair technician at work

Simon Noble is a highly talented autobody repair technician who can repair a car to more accurate levels than when it first left the factory. In this video we see Simon perfecting his technique ahead of the WorldSkills competition, held in Japan in November 2007. Simon's eye for accuracy is one of many skills that helped him achieve success in Japan. At the competition he had to replace a front chassis leg with millimetre accuracy and carry out a rear quarter panel repair only evaluated by eye. Find out how, after four days of competition, Simon's level of skill and accuracy earned him a silver medal.

Autobody Repair

Beauty therapist Jade Kidd prepares for WorldSkills 2007

A focus on Jade Kidd, the UK's beauty therapy competitor for WorldSkills 2007. At just 19 years of age she has already opened a beauty salon in Skegness. The programme follows Jade and her training manager to a health spa in Lincolnshire where she gets a master class in body massage to help prepare her for the WorldSkills competition, to be held in Japan. We meet her sisters who work in the hairdressing salon opposite her premises and who share clients. The family business is completed by her mother Tina, who went back to college at the age of 45 to study for a City and Guilds qualification in nail treatments and manicure. As Jade gets to grips with an eyebrow tint and wax she explains how she uses her experience in the salon to prepare for competition. She also discusses her ambitions to open a super salon using her sisters' and her mother's skills alongside her own!

Beauty Therapy

Follow the young people representing Britain at WorldSkills 2007

In the first of two special programmes, we follow the achievements of 23 young people chosen to represent Britain in Japan at WorldSkills 2007. Competition is fierce as the British team is pitched against the world's best practitioners of vocational skills; from bricklaying and joinery to automotive technology and beauty therapy. The competitors' journey began more than a year ago with team selection events in the Lake District. Now after intensive training it's time to perform on a world stage. Britain achieved one gold and two silver medals in 2005, will the team do better this time?

Bound for Japan

Bricklayer Michael Broadley prepares for WorldSkills 2007

A focus on Michael Broadley, a 21-year-old bricklayer from Northern Ireland as he prepares to compete with three peers to make the UK team for WorldSkills 2007 in Japan. The programme follows Michael from his rural home to the building site where he lays heavy concrete blocks all day. Then it's off to college where he practices the fiendishly difficult brick wall he'll need to produce in the UK Selection competition. Michael's training manager takes him to meet master bricklayers on a multi-million pound development site in Belfast. Then it's off to another college to study for his HNC, which he hopes will lead him to the career he seeks.

Bricklaying

A school in Birmingham partners with industry

Pupils from Colmers secondary school in Birmingham are receiving an invaluable opportunity to build careers in the construction industry. Colmers is one of ten secondary schools in the Quinton Education Action Zone (EAZ) participating in an NVQ supported by the LEA and Lovell Construction. As part of the NVQ Level 1 course in construction, 150 students are spending 36 weeks at the Quinton/Lovell Construction Academy gaining hands-on experience in skills such as plumbing, carpentry, brick-laying and painting. They spend 9 weeks on each of the different disciplines, as well as learning to use all relevant tools and materials. The Quinton EAZ (Quinzone) is impressed by pupil attendance on the course, with the majority expected successfully to complete the NVQ. Tutors have also reported a marked improvement in the attitude towards learning of many of their students. At the end of the school year they will be offered the the option of furthering their studies by taking an NVQ Level 2.

Building a Future

Achieving a whole school approach to enterprise education

Find out how Foxhills Technology College in Scunthorpe is achieving a whole school approach to enterprise education via the appointment of an enterprise champion. Rachel Dixon has spent three years ensuring that enterprise is embedded across the curriculum at the school. This is partly achieved through inter-departmental sessions, allowing teachers to discuss ideas for a cross-curricular approach, with Rachel then suggesting ways in which these proposals can be refined. In addition, Rachel leads a class of low ability pupils as they design and cost a school restaurant, intended to run on a commercial basis in the following term. Finally, she leads a lesson during which older students, known as economic well-being officers, take the lead in assessing a series of enterprise resources and making recommendations as to which would be most attractive to fellow students.

Business Champion

Watch the best young cabinet maker in the world at work

Gary Tuddenham is the best young cabinet maker in the world having won the gold medal for cabinet making at WorldSkills 2007. In this video we see Gary in his workplace, a bespoke furniture makers in Hampshire where the ethos is everything has to be perfect. For Gary the WorldSkills competition is a home away from home; building complex, one-off pieces of furniture is something that he is used to. In Japan, Gary was up against 21 other competitors from around the world. His skills, technique and impressive ability ensured him success.

Cabinet Making

Watch a world class car painter practising his skills

Jonathan Lloyd from Belfast is a world class car painter having won a bronze medal at the WorldSkills 2007 competition in Japan. In this five-minute video, we see Jonathan practising his skills and technique at home in Northern Ireland ahead of the competition, which took place in November. We also see Jonathan learning new techniques for paint mixing, something that he had to perfect for WorldSkills.

Professional Development for Quality Teaching

Subjects

> Secondary Vocational 14-19