Dear All,
Once again thanks to all of you on both LIS lists who have given some
stimulating replies and thoughts on this topic. I have had a number of
requests for summaries, which I have pasted into this email. I hope you find
these useful.
NB To summarise the summaries: City & Guilds 730 and 740 (higher level) are
recommended as recognised and practical teaching qualifications. Also, try
the Institute of Learning and Technology. (Websites provided in the
summaries). If anyone is thinking of going into the school or academic
sector, a cert ed or a PGCE would carry more "weight" in the academic world
alongside your LIS qualification. However, the health sector concentrates on
adult education, so a city & guilds may be more appropriate.
Here are the summaries
One of my staff did undertake the City & Guilds 730 (I think that it the
one) It is Teaching in Adults. However, here in Great Yarmouth I know that
the Local college has recently changed its rules for people who can
undertake this course and insist that you are employed in adult education.
A number of libraries are encouraging staff who have an academic/teaching
role to obtain Membership of the Institute of Learning & Teaching in Higher
Education. See:
http://www.ilt.ac.uk/howdoijoin.asp
I would agree with you on this one. I have done the two-day CILIP teaching
skills course which was excellent and I would strongly recommend it. I have
changed my sessions as a result of this in an attempt to improve the
learning experience of my students. I do plan to do a teaching qualification
at some point, probably after finishing the management one...
Colleagues have recommended to me the Further Education Teaching 7407
(Certificate) and I know a number of people who have done this at local FE
colleges and thought it excellent.
I notice now that there are quite a few of these now being offered by the
likes of CILIP and TFPL. As it was, I had to learn by my own experience.
Really, what you are arguing for is a change to the curricula of library
schools to reflect more "real life" librarianship, and I wholeheartedly
agree with that: in fact I believe that CILIP should be more active in this
area. It might be worth writing to them to suggest your idea.
One thing I have meant to explore is the Institute of Teaching and Learning
- might be learning and teaching .. Cilip could advise.
ILTHE, the Institute of Learning and Teaching in Higher Education, agrees,
having a special interest group for librarians - see http://www.ilt.ac.uk/
You are not alone in your perception. As part of the eLib programme a few
years back (in the HE sector) there was a project called EduLib that sought
to address just this issue. You may find some of their stuff useful. I'm
not entirely sure what the current state of play is.
http://www.tay.ac.uk/edulib/background.html
I would add that librarians in the academic sector are encouraged to join
the ILTHE which if you're not aware involves a personal development report
(3,000 words) under various category headings related to teaching and
learning. You are normally expected to have 3-4 years teaching experience
before submission.
I don't know what types of teaching qualifications might be recommended
specifically for librarians, but City & Guilds might be a good place to
start generally. If you go to their web page
(http://www.city-and-guilds.co.uk/) and look under qualifications, there's
an option to find a qualification - if you search for "teaching" there
courses like the FAETC (been around for years and seems well respected) or
teaching adult learners. Or you can search by sector, eg education,
training and development. Local colleges might also have other types of
courses available.
The LTSN website for Education (Escalate) has a link to various departments
of education at HE / FE institutions
(http://www.escalate.ac.uk/Temporary/departments2.php3). These would
probably include PGCE type courses?
The CILIP website also has a section on training, which includes 'training
the trainer' type evens.
The City & Guilds do a short course qualification for teaching adults which
a friend of mine did. It is available from a number of FE colleges.
Public libraries vary greatly in what the expect of librarians but ECDL in
no way qualifies us to teach. I agree that it would be useful but can't see
public libraries funding it.
I did City & Guilds 730 (?) some years ago. It may have changed its number
now - I think it's called Certificate in Further Education Teaching - or
something like that.
One or two colleagues have done that in recent years. It has the advantage
of being a "recognised" qualification and is pretty flexible - I did one day
a week over an academic year. Some colleges run evening sessions as well.
I did a post grad cert in post 16 education via Liverpool JMU (1 year) The
course is at certificate level - year one was/still is? a city and guilds
qualification (731?) and year 2 is the certificate. They just add on bits
extra for the pg bit. If you work within an academic framework and support
course programmes I think it's a really good idea to do it.
I,ve thought myself that this would be useful but in my very brief
investigation qualifications seemed to be major and require a lot of
time-which seemed to be overkill for the situation.
I hope this is of some use to you all.
Yours sincerely
Phil
Philip Hall
Temporary Library Assistant, Library & Information Services
Chartered Society of Physiotherapy
14 Bedford Row, London, WC1R 4ED
Tel: 0207 306 6155 Fax: 0207 306 6629
Email: [log in to unmask] Website: http://www.csp.org.uk
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