CWN is working with a range of partners on the development of two new Diplomas.

The 14-19 Diploma workstream is being led by SkillsActive.

1. Society, Health and Development (SHD) began to be taught for the first time in September 2008. This Diploma provides young people with an understanding of health, adult social care, the children and young people’s workforce and community justice. The lead for this Diploma is Skills for Health in partnership with Skills for Care and Skills for Justice. SkillsActive represents the interests of the Children’s Workforce Network (CWN).
2. Sport and Active Leisure: this Diploma is scheduled for first teaching in September 2010. SkillsActive is the lead for this Diploma working in partnership with CWN, Skills for Security, Lantra, the National Youth Agency and Construction Skills.

For students of all abilities

The new Diplomas are designed to provide students of all abilities with a stimulating and challenging learning programme which will enable them to progress to higher education, a workbased learning route such as an apprenticeship or into employment. In addition to the detailed and rigorous content included in the Diplomas, all students will be given the opportunity to develop the kind skills critical to employers and higher education. These include problem solving, team working, communication, creative thinking and taking personal responsibility for their own development. They will also develop the functional skills of English, Mathematics and Information Communication Technology (ICT).

Learning in an applied context

A key aspect of the Diploma learning experience is that 50% of the learning must be delivered through an applied learning context. This means that students will learn fundamental principles and theories through the context of the world of work. An example from SHD is a consideration of communication and partnership working. This will introduce students to the importance of partnership and multi-agency working through the provision of integrated services to children, young people, their families and carers. They will gain an insight into the ways that individuals communicate including non-verbal communication and communicating with children and young people of different ages. They will be given opportunities to practice different forms of communication, perhaps through role play or in the workplace.

Example

An example for students studying Sport and Active Learning could be learning detailed human anatomy and physiology, through exploring how it is applied in a sport and active leisure context. Instead of learning about boring skeletons and muscles, they will learn what levers are, how they work, how they may be damaged, why a knowledge of the body is important in terms of improving fitness and health etc.

Work experience

All Diplomas also have a minimum period of 10 days work experience (20 days at advanced level in SHD). Employers are also involved in other ways e.g. providing work shadowing for teachers’ CPD, giving talks and presentations to students, helping to design work based assignments, case studies and projects.

Innovative approaches to learning

The new approach to learning means that teachers also face a challenge and are being trained to approach their learning in innovative ways that will engage and stimulate young people and provide them with a real choice in terms of their learning programme.