Tomlinson Report will boost education recruitment

Select Education, the UKís largest education recruiter, today welcomed the publication of the Tomlinson Report on reform of the education system for 14 ñ19 year olds, but warned that the Government will need to invest in attracting a new style of teacher into the classroom.

The Report of the Working Group for 14 ñ 19 Reform sets out a number of recommendations to the Government aimed at tackling weaknesses in the education system. These include low post-16 achievement and participation in education, and a fragmented framework of vocational qualifications.

John Dunn, Marketing and Projects Director of Select Education, commented, ëWe have been watching developments in this sector of education very closely and indeed have been anticipating these proposals by building our business to reflect some of the recommendations from the interim report earlier this year.í

Under the proposals, there will be a new diploma framework for 14-19 education, which is intended to ensure that students achieve qualifications that reflect their performance and yet reduce the assessment burden. At the same time, most GCSEs would be replaced with an exam marked by teachers themselves with the report recommending that teachers are trained as ëchartered examinersí to oversee internal assessment in schools. According to John Dunn, this could add enormously to teachersí workloads, ëIn our experience, the workload reform proposals have made little difference to teachersí workloads so far and if teachers are required to assess for public examinations in schools this will add an enormous additional burden. It is likely that schools will need to take on extra specialist staff to help teachers through peak workload times and this is an area that we will be exploring.í

John Dunn is confident that on balance the changes will present opportunities to education recruiters. ëThere will certainly be increased emphasis on vocational teaching in schools. The challenge will be to attract individuals to teach vocational qualifications and to provide those new teachers, many of whom will be embarking on new careers, with the all-important classroom management techniques that they will need to succeed. The Government will need to invest in training skilled people to schools and colleges. For our part, we have already embarked on a programme aimed at attracting people with the right skills into a range of roles in education and are providing appropriate continuing professional development for those already in education.í