KAFEC Director’s Blog

On Friday 19th October the Quality and Curriculum Group met at Kings Hill.  The group received presentations from the Lifelong Learning Network regarding the Credit Framework they are looking to establish; and from FE Sussex, the partnership of colleges in Sussex. 

FE Sussex have been commissioned to undertake a review of Skills for Life across the South East and Debbie Shandley, the Chief Executive, attended the meeting to present her findings on Kent & Medway.  Following the presentation the group agreed to convene a meeting between the Vice Principals for Curriculum and the Skills for Life leads with Debbie invited along to look at ways to improve this provision.

Following these presentations the group discussed Framework for Excellence Pilots; the New Standard Assessment; Learner Involvement Strategy; Provision for NEETs; and 14-19 Diplomas. 

The Agenda and Minutes of the meeting together with the Report on Skills for Life will all be available for download shortly in the Member’s Area of the KAFEC website www.kafec.org.uk/members

Following the Quality and Curriculum Group meeting, KAFEC Quality and Curriculum staff remained for a KAFEC-organised Lesson Observation Workshop, which ran all afternoon and was led by North West Kent College.

The KAFEC Director of Operations met with Tony Edmunds and Evelyn Goodall of the LSC on Tuesday 23rd October to discuss Train to Gain and look at collaborative working between KAFEC Colleges in this area.  It was noted that this would be very well received by the LSC.  KAFEC Colleges are also considering joint commissioning through the ESF.  Further details will become available as they arise. 

Also this week KAFEC staff were issued with their user names and passwords to access the KAFEC members area.  If there are any queries these should be directed to the KAFEC Director of Operations at operations@kafec.org.uk in the first instance.

This will be the last blog entry until the week commencing 19th November as the KAFEC Director of Operations will be on leave from Wednesday 31st October to Friday 16th November inclusive.  Emails sent to operations@kafec.org.uk will be collected and responded to upon her return.

The KAFEC Principals’ Group met with senior staff from Kent and Medway LSC on Tuesday 9th October to discuss the future working of KAFEC and the transition of funding for FE from the LSC to the LEAs in 2010/11.

The meeting was held at Eastwell Manor and lasted for a full day.  The group indicated a number of priorities, including strengthening the KAFEC brand, stronger relationships with employers, and identifying the unique selling points of KAFEC.  These, added to the priorities identified at the review meeting held on 18th September, have been brought together into a Strategic Plan by the KAFEC Director of Operations.

The Plan is currently with the Chair of KAFEC and will shortly be passed to the Principals’ Group for comment.  Part of the plan for 2007/08 includes the option to involve the KAFEC network groups more strongly in the work of KAFEC and to encourage all groups to feel that they are a part of the larger structure of the partnership.

The results of the review of the KAFEC Network Groups have now been received and these are very positive.  The continuation of these groups has been strongly supported and many comments were received regarding how well these groups work together in sharing good practice and building local networks.  Further information on the review will be available here soon.

The KAFEC Director of Operations met with the 14-19 Team at Medway Council on Wednesday 17th October to discuss their roles and how the two organisations might work together more closely in the future.  This collaborative thinking and working will be especially important as the 14-19 agenda grows and the implementation of the Diplomas looms ever closer.

The Quality and Curriculum Group will meet on Friday 19th October to share good practice on lesson observations, which is another example of how the relationship between KAFEC colleges continues to grow.

For further information about KAFEC please contact the Director of Operations at operations@kafec.org.uk