Wednesday, 25 February 2015

Training and Professional Development

Today's meeting of the NUT Training & Professional Development Subcommittee started by welcoming the success of the recent one-day Division Secretaries' Briefing.  The use of a larger venue at Congress House enabled a greater attendance, meaning that a wider layer of activists (beyond just Division Secretaries) could attend.  This was welcomed by the committee.

Next, the committee received a report from Lindsey McDowell, Training Advisor, on the development of the Advanced Reps course, which takes Reps from the Foundation course and develops their skills in the workplace, in leading change and in developing their leadership within the Union.  The three principles underlying the course are Leadership, Democracy and Agency.


The full ten day Rep entitlement comprises:

  • Foundation Rep Training (3 days)
  • Advanced Rep Training (3 days)
  • Pay and Conditions (1 day)
  • Negotiation (1 day)
  • Employment Law (1 day)
  • Regionally-specific Rep Training (1 day)


The committee then went on to receive a report on CPD.  One major changes is in the way courses are evaluated.  Rather than being general, evaluation now focuses specifically on learning outcomes from the courses, meaning that we get more detailed feedback which can be used both to develop the course and for participants to reflect on their learning journey.

To complement the other creative courses on Reading for Pleasure, with Shakespeare's Globe and with Music for Youth, the NUT is now expanding the range of courses run with INTO Film (previously Film Club).

The committee then discussed the variety of courses run in Wales, including welsh-language courses.  Interestingly, about half of the participants on general professional development courses run from the Wales office are from areas on England.  Never-the-less, all courses are being reviewed to ensure that they can be made Wales-friendly, removing references to specific English education policies which are not relevant for Wales.

Key courses, such as Foundation and Advanced Rep training have been produced in bilingual format for Wales.

There was then a discussion on local training and the committee then went on to look at the Annual Conference New Delegate Course which I have reported on in a separate post.

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