Vocational teacher training programme

February 4 marked the launch of a programme of induction and familiarisation for all those contributing to the Vocational Teacher Training Programme being run at the Malta College of Arts, Science and Technology (MCAST).

The contributors, apart from those coming from MCAST itself, hail from various educational institutions and government bodies such as the Education Division, the University of Malta, the Federation for IT Accessibility, the Foundation for Educational Services and the Attorney General's Office. The delegates invited to participate in the programme were representative of these outside agencies.

The Vocational Teacher Training Programme, in which these delegates are or will be involved, is being offered in-house and is fully sponsored by the college.

The college has recruited three full-time lecturers who will be fully committed to the running of the initial 18-month training programme. They are currently working within the newly established MCAST Professional Development Centre, which will eventually be responsible for training initiatives throughout the college, including the Continuing Professional Development Unit as well as the Vocational Teacher Training Unit.

The involvement of this centre in these areas would work towards a measure of quality assurance and standardisation in the delivery of quality education and learning throughout the college.

To fulfil the mission statement of the Vocational Teacher Training Unit within the Professional Development Centre, MCAST has chosen the Edexcel/BTEC Vocational Teacher Framework as the vehicle to achieve a Certificate in Further Education Teaching (FE) of international recognition.

The qualification, which will have the joint badge of Edexcel and MCAST, is designed to provide focused and specialist vocational programmes with a clear work-related emphasis. It also provides a vocational programme of study that meets the individual needs of candidates related to their current vocational area of specialism.

A strong emphasis is being made on the development of practical skills alongside the development of requisite knowledge and understanding in further education and training.

The innovative factor of this particular qualification is its move away from dependence on summative assessment towards a motivating formative approach in assessment with assignments and projects being subjected to double marking under the scrutiny of two assessors through an internal verification process.

The first cohort of candidates, at this stage all MCAST lecturing staff, have embarked on an intensive training course covering areas like Induction, Initial Assessment and Support; Communication and the Teacher; Learning Theories and Teaching Techniques and Styles; the Purpose and Use of Assessment; Teaching Practice and Resources; Research and the Research Project; Further Education in Higher Education, Adult and Community Settings; and the Professional and Reflective Practitioner.