It’s been officially agreed by LSIS’s board that work on qualifications and skills taken over from the Lifelong Learning UK last April will continue to be conducted by LSIS’s Qualifications and Skills team.
 
The work which forms part of its core business from 2012-2013 onwards consists of three areas of activity:
 
•  BIS supported work for FE and skills in England;
•  Universal Services work funded by the UK Commission for  employment  and skills (UKCES); and
•  Potential to bid for work such as collecting Labour Market Information (LMI).
 
The Qualifications and Skills team will continue taking responsibility for the standards, qualifications and strategic oversight of the FE and Skills workforce in England.  This includes the whole workforce, not just the teaching workforce, and also the careers and guidance workforce in England. 
 
The team will provide technical guidance and support further education and skills providers for the development and implementation of FE and Skills qualifications and the sector workforce strategy including support for the Preparing to teach in the lifelong learning sector(PTLLS) certificate to teach in the lifelong learning sector (CTTLS) and diploma to teach in the lifelong learning sector (DTLLS) suite of teacher training qualifications.
 
They will also lead on technical qualification strands of the new LSIS project ‘Supporting excellence in Initial Teacher Education (ITE) in FE and Skills; this will include the appropriateness of qualification requirements for sessional/part-time workers and a new web portal for ITE.
 
Penny Bance, Director of UK Qualifications and Skills said: “With Apprenticeships Week upon us it seems timely to announce that we will be supporting the development of an apprenticeship framework for learning support practitioners."

“We will be developing, promoting and supporting the implementation of new apprenticeships for the FE,Work based learning (WBL) and Adult and Community Learning (ACL) sectors including the learning and development apprenticeships.”
 
“My team will continue to support the awarding organisation community and the Skills Funding Agency on its vocational qualifications funding decisions. We act as both the Issuing Authority for Apprenticeship Frameworks and issue certificates to apprentices who complete lifelong learning apprenticeships. We’ll also continue working with Ofqual to inform the accreditation of qualifications on the Qualifications and Credit Framework.”