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No I wasn't suggesting a separate qualification as such - particularly where institutional PgCerts can offer sufficient flexibility to meet everyone's needs. Our own pgCert does this to some extent, in terms of including learning development/tutoring and pastoral support withoin the core curriculum. However, it and many others are targeted at relatively new staff, whereas what seems to be needed is not just an initial qualification but a nationally recognised way of benchmarking or accrediting individual CPD activities - including more specialised elements, such as those relating to disability. I think LDHEN could offer a focus for this - however, the details would need to be discussed as widely as possible Pauline -----Original Message----- From: learning development in higher education network [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Margo Blythman Sent: 01 April 2006 09:32 To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: Qualifications/CPD for learning development work Hi All I have come to this discussion rather late so apologies if I am missing the point. Are you suggesting a SEPARATE PG Cert in LD? Isn't there considerable danger is separating LD from more general issues of T&L - not least because it encourages mainstream academic staff to see it as 'not their problem'. I would much rather we argued for LD, and other student academic support activities, to be a much bigger part of the curriculum of ALL PG Certs in T&L. Margo -----Original Message----- From: John Hilsdon <[log in to unmask]> To: [log in to unmask] Date: Sat, 1 Apr 2006 00:50:01 +0100 Subject: Re: Qualifications/CPD for learning development work Hi All I'm glad Pauline has raised this topic again. I hope Ann's offer will encourage others to submit ideas or information about programmes they are aware of/involved in. In Plymouth we have a Learning and Teaching in Higher Education PG Cert which caters for a wide range of academic practice and sounds as if it has some similarities to the course David Donnarumma describes. As Pauline says, we have talked about this on LDHEN a little in the past - and the Steering Group has considered becoming involved in initiatives to develop an accreditation process - possibly our own, or in association with others ... and to encourage coherent and appropriate pathways for LD qualification/professional development. Next Tuesday at the Symposium, in the session on codes of practice by Julia Braham of the University of Leeds, there may be some scope to talk about related issues. The HEA is consulting about this area too and so we do have a chance to express views from this network in a potentially powerful way. Further ideas and suggestions would be welcome - and if people are keen to do so, shall we establish a working group from LDHEN to develop our strategy and help formulate representations to bodies such as the Academy? I also wonder if SEDA colleagues would wish to join in this discussion ...? Best wishes John John Hilsdon Co-ordinator, Learning Development University of Plymouth Drake Circus Plymouth PL4 8AA 01752 232276 [log in to unmask] http://www.plymouth.ac.uk/learn -----Original Message----- From: learning development in higher education network [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Pauline Ridley Sent: 30 March 2006 18:57 To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Qualifications/CPD for learning development work I seem to remember a discussion earlier in the life of this list - possibly linked to LearnHigher - about developing a nationally recognised CPD award for people who work in learning development in HE. Does anybody remember this, and/or know if there has been any action on this? We've been talking in my institution about how best to meet the needs of various groups of staff including: * hourly paid learning support workers for students with various disabilities, who may undertake a variety of roles and sometimes need updates as well as training in new areas such as Aspergers * tutors eg in dyslexia support who will already have more specialist qualifications * library staff who increasingly have a teaching role offer learning support in information literacy etc * others from a variety of academic backgrounds who may need additional support/training to take on a study advisor role There are specialist courses offered by eg Council for the Advancement of Communication with Deaf People (CACDP), British Dyslexia Association etc. There are also NVQs etc in areas such as Counselling or Advice and Guidance but not in an educational context, and those in Learner Development tend to either be for Adult Literacy/Basic Skills or classroom assistants in schools. Institutional HE Academy-accredited Learning and Teaching certificates for new and experienced lecturers don't quite fit the bill either as they tend to include too much stuff that is not necessarily relevant, and may not support specialist skills development. There are also courses for part-time or associate lecturers, or personal tutors, all of which are partially relevant to the constituencies above. I think the best solution would be to develop a fairly generic portfolio-based CPD award. There would be some common elements but each participant would also draw up an individual learning plan with the opportunity to include more specialist elements, some of which might carry external accreditation, as appropriate to people's roles. Ideally this would be endorsed nationally by LDHEN and LearnHigher, but undertaken locally with peer support through eg action learning sets, as well as an online element possibly? Have other people already found solutions to this - or would it be worth exploring further? Perhaps those of us who are going to the LDHEN conference/LearnHigher launch in Liverpool next week could gauge the level of interest ? ------------- Pauline Ridley Centre for Learning and Teaching Room 113, Mayfield House, Falmer University of Brighton Brighton BN1 9PH 01273-643406 Email [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]> Visit the CLT website at http://staffcentral.brighton.ac.uk/clt Dr Margo Blythman LCC Director of Teaching and Learning London College of Communication University of the Arts London