 in this issue:
Diplomas – coming soon to a school near you
 Yes, that’s right, the new 14-19 Diplomas will soon be with us. Nottinghamshire is in the fortunate and exciting position of being responsible for piloting all of the first five lines of learning in the city and some parts of the county via local consortia from September 2008.
This obviously has immediate implications for option choice for Year 9 students. Schools will therefore need to ensure that their students have the necessary skills, information and support to be able to decide if Diplomas are right for them.
The Diplomas are being introduced at 3 levels, now to be called:
- Foundation = level 1, taking the same amount of time as 4-5 GCSEs
- Higher = level 2, taking the same amount of time as 5-6 GCSEs
- Advanced = post-16 level 3, taking the same amount of time as 3 A levels
- A Progression Diploma (also level 3) will be available, taking the same amount of time as 2 A levels.
Diplomas are education programmes, not training programmes, and they will combine fully-rounded general education with applied work-related learning.
Diplomas will also include Functional Skills in maths, English and ICT, Personal Learning and Thinking Skills (PLTS), project work and a minimum of 10 days work experience.
Students taking Diplomas will be able to progress on to further or higher education (including the next Diploma level) or employment, in the same way as students not taking Diplomas.
This may be in a directly relevant area or in a different subject or sector.
Most schools provide information and events to help with subject choice in the spring term. It is useful for your Connexions Personal Adviser to be part of this event.
Choices and Diploma Support:
- Updated and detailed student advice is available on sortitonline.com (under ‘choices and learning’). Diploma details can be found using the ‘search and go’ on the site.
- What Next publications (produced by Connexions Nottinghamshire) and the national publication Which Way Now are provided for students and parents via schools.
- Advice and news for teachers can be found on cnxnotts.co.uk
The Curriculum Development Team is able to assist your school individually by offering 2 FREE days of staff time to help you develop your curriculum to meet the needs of your students and the demands of curriculum change.
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"Be whatever you want to be"
 Nottinghamshire’s online 14-19 Prospectus was launched in September. It provides details of all accredited learning opportunities in schools and colleges and details of E2E and apprenticeship provision. A range of simple searches allows users to find learning opportunities locally.
The site is being developed to include information and advice about the choices facing young people in the changing curriculum. This will include the Diplomas. Additional sections will focus on SEN, qualifications, open days and financial information such as EMA.
To be an effective resource MyChoiceNotts relies on high quality data provided by institutions. We will shortly be contacting all providers to arrange collection of 2008 entry data to keep the site up to date and accurate.
Posters and postcards are available to promote MyChoiceNotts and will be followed by supportive materials including User Guides, Quick Tips and a Virtual Tour. For enquiries please contact Sarah Lindsey on 0115 992 6128 or email ask@cnxnotts.co.uk
For more information, view our MyChoiceNotts web page.
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Passportfolio training posters
We are currently creating a range of support materials for teachers, advisors and young people using Passportfolio. The ‘Jigsaw’ symbol will be used as a theme throughout Passportfolio and on these support materials. Other downloadable resources, such as a powerpoint presentation about getting started on Passportfolio and step by step guides to using the site can be found on www.cnxnotts.co.uk in the ‘Partners’ section. Click on ‘schools and colleges’, on ‘Curriculum support’ and then ‘Passportfolio’.
The new training posters will help to demonstrate to colleagues and students how Passportfolio supports the development of the skills needed for progression planning. The ‘Jigsaw’ symbol reflects the steps necessary for making well informed and realistic decisions. The posters are designed to help teachers introduce the site to students and explain how and why Passportfolio is an important part of the progression planning process.
Copies of these training posters will be sent to all schools currently using Passportfolio in the spring term. The posters will eventually be available free to all schools, colleges and providers in Nottinghamshire.
To order further copies please contact David Cockayne on 0115 992 6025.
For more information about passportfolio or these support resources please contact Lucy Peck 0115 983 8969, or email passportfolio@cnxnotts.co.uk
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New national quality standards for IAG
 From April 2008 responsibility for commissioning IAG services for young people and the associated funding will be devolved from the 47 Connexions partnerships to the 150 local authorities in England. Quality standards have been written to provide a framework for planning, managing, reviewing and assessing IAG services in a locality. They can be used by learning providers (including schools), external IAG providers such as Connexions, users of IAG services and organisations working under contract to the local authority.
There are 12 quality standards, each with evidence indicators for assessing performance. Areas covered include the roles and responsibilities of IAG providers, programmes of career and personal development, the types and levels of information, advice and guidance that should be available and to whom and equality of opportunity.
The standards will be embedded in a number of key processes such as Ofsted inspections and the gateway requirements for piloting the new Diplomas. Locally, we have mapped the standards against Career Mark and the Nottinghamshire IAG Framework.
The standards, plus a user guide and a guide for young people and parents were officially launched at the end of October 2007. The standards can be downloaded from the Managing CEG section of the website www.cegnet.co.uk.
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Nottinghamshire IAG Framework
This guide has been developed by the Curriculum Development Team to support local schools and colleges in preparing for changes to the 14-19 curriculum, in particular the delivery of the new Diplomas from September 2008. As part of the gateway process for Diploma delivery Area Strategy Groups in Nottinghamshire have committed themselves to ensuring that careers education and IAG across their area will be of an acceptable standard by the time that Diploma delivery commences.
The Framework represents a minimum acceptable standard for careers education and IAG (based on Career Mark standards). We have also outlined the necessary staff competencies for those managing and delivering IAG, and provided a menu of support from Connexions Nottinghamshire. Examples of the support on offer include school and ASG area-based training, consultancy support for information and curriculum provision as well as professional resources including an online practitioner zone on www.cnxnotts.co.uk.
Copies of the Framework will be distributed via the link Personal Adviser in each school and college during the autumn term.
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Online help for careers education and IAG
The IAG Workforce website (www.iagworkforce.co.uk)has been developed by national IAG and curriculum specialists to support local partners in developing careers education and IAG in their area in response to changes in the 14-19 curriculum. The site is very comprehensive and includes checklists, basic background information on a range of topics, web links, downloadable documents and curriculum resources. Sections on the site include:
- Starting Points: basic information on IAG such as what it is and why it is important.
- National Requirements and Guidance: an overview of the legal, curriculum and other requirements that shape delivery
- Management Issues
- Effective Delivery: how to enhance the careers education and IAG that young people receive
- Free Downloads: includes training materials, planning templates and lesson plans, including classroom materials about the new Diplomas.
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Careering ahead
Leading businesses and education providers encourage young people to aim higher at Opportunities Fair
 Over 70 of Nottinghamshire’s major employers, training providers, universities and FE colleges converged on this year’s ‘What Next?’ Careers and Opportunities Fair at Harvey Hadden Sports Stadium in October. Organised by Aimhigher Nottinghamshire, in partnership with the Nottinghamshire Learning and Skills Council, this annual event aims to raise young people’s aspirations and make them aware of the opportunities available in Nottinghamshire. Among the employers exhibiting were: Nottinghamshire Police, the Army, NHS, EON, city and county councils, Inkfish, Rolls Royce and many more.
All schools in Nottinghamshire were invited and an advertising campaign encouraged parents to attend the evening sessions.
‘What Next?’ gets bigger and better each year and as usual the event was extremely well attended by over 4000 students and with over 3,000 parents and carers visiting the evening sessions.
As usual the huge Connexions stand attracted a high volume of visitors. Connexions Personal Advisers were on hand to provide advice to the young people who were yet undecided about what to do next year. Parents and carers were also very interested in the information on offer at the Connexions stands and many took the opportunity to discuss their sons’ and daughters’ futures with Personal Advisers.
At the Connexions stand we also took the opportunity to showcase our new website MyChoiceNotts.com and our Vacancies Online team advised on Apprenticeships and job vacancies in Nottinghamshire. Parents were also given the opportunity to watch a presentation by Personal Advisers about post-16 options.
The event offered students the opportunity to meet leading employers from government and private industry and to explore the various education and training options. This year, there were also lots of new and fun interactive zones.
For more details about the opportunities fair, visit www.aimhighernotts.co.uk/whatnext
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