Learning to keep pace in a changing world

Well, now I want to discuss what is undertaken in order to develop the suite of qualifications. Qualifications normally have a five to six year life before content, learning and assessment and recommended learning resources are reviewed and updated.

You can imagine how new inventions or scientific breakthroughs that we did not know about before need careful consideration to be included into subject content. For example, when I mention sports turf management you may just consider natural grass management. However due to the advances in man-made turf there is a large demand to understand the management of artificial turf and the maintenance of this product.

That is one example of advancement in technology that has created a product that is now widely used and requires skilled people to manage. But there are literally hundreds of advancements that need to be considered and embedded into the learning content of qualifications.

There are also new perceptions and ideological theories that need to be considered, especially around teaching and learning themes and processes in fairly capturing students’ ability via specific assessment criteria, which make the development of new qualifications very complicated.

The involvement of educationalists, employers, membership organisations, students and vocational experts is critical in getting this right. Under development at the moment are BTEC Higher National qualifications in animal management, equine management, veterinary practice management, animal science, animal behaviour and welfare, agriculture and agricultural business management, agricultural livestock production, agricultural crop production, farm administrating and accounting, horticulture, arboriculture, garden design and landscape construction, and habitat management.

We are in the process of writing the individual units that make up the qualifications and vocational experts are very busy completing this task.

Currently we are looking for reviewers to read through these draft individual units and provide feedback on what they think.

In order to be a reviewer you don’t need to be an educationalist. We are also looking for people working in the various industries with commercial knowledge and skills that are willing to support the development of the next suite of BTEC Higher Nationals. If you would like to know more about becoming a unit reviewer or you just want to know more about these new qualifications, please go onto the BTEC qualification web site or contact me (chris.jones@pearson.com) where I would be happy to discuss further.

Chris Jones is involved in land-based education, training and mentoring