What We Do - Procedures and Information
Introduction
The Skills for Life Department at the West Suffolk College is dedicated to providing a professional, friendly and qualified service to local employers to help engage and up-skill members of staff and guide them towards achieving qualifications and certificates in the following areas:
- Numeracy and Literacy (Maths and English) from Entry level to Levels 1 and 2
- ICT - covering aspects of the Microsoft Office software
- ESOL - follow link for information
By utilising a number of funding opportunities we are able to offer training to small / medium groups of students in the workplace.
Course Structure
Once contact has been made with an employer and individuals have signed up for a course, we work to the following guidelines, allowing us to offer West Suffolk College standards in the workplace:
- Initial contact with student - explain course and complete initial assessment - identify which curriculum areas need to be covered
- Course work - using bespoke and published material, working to up-skill individuals in weak areas
- Practice tests - electronic tests representing the format of the live exams
- Exam - provided by our dedicated Exam Server Laptop System
Course duration is open to discussion
Qualifications
The National Tests in Numeracy and Literacy provide adults with the opportunity to achieve GCSE equivalent qualifications for the following reasons:
- Parents wanting to help their children with their homework
- People looking to gain entry to higher level qualifications
- To improve a C.V
- To gain a new certificate
- To prove to yourself that you can achieve Maths and English qualifications
(National Test qualifications equate up to GCSE level C, but the current exam format is an electronic, multiple-choice assessment, lasting one hour for literacy and one hour and a quarter for numeracy)
Our ICT element is an add-on to the National Tests - allowing students on these courses the opportunity to improve their computer skills along with their Numeracy and Literacy.
As the ICT element is not government funded we are able to create bespoke learning materials to suit each individual, allowing them to gain relevant skills as well as achieving the framework of the eDCC Computer Competency Certificates. These generally cover Microsoft Office software applications from beginner level to advanced, as required.
Employer Engagement - Our Experience
During the previous academic year we worked closely with a number of employers in the East Anglia region, helping them to offer qualifications, up skilling and new opportunities to their staff.
In total we helped some 165 individuals achieve a National Test qualification under our 'off-site' provision in 07/08
This represents around 50% or our yearly achievement claim (Bury St Edmunds Centre only).
In 2007/08 we worked with a number of different agencies, including:
- Local Government
- Jobcentre Plus
- Fire Department
- Local Schools - parent engagement
- Care Homes
- Prison and Probation services