Extract from the City & Guilds ITQ ‘Update’ Newsletter, Issue 15; where a feature article about ITQs at Wirral Met was published.
Jackie Ling, the ITQ coordinator at Wirral Met, has many strings to her bow. As well as managing the ITQ delivery team (consisting of three part time assessors, one of whom is a course lecturer as well) and coordinating all candidates, she does all the marketing, communication, and sales of ITQ, and at the same time doubles up as a lead IV for Level 3 ITQs. She is, what you might call, a one woman band!
Jackie Ling pictured (centre) with Lynette Byrne; IT Lecturer (left) and Jean Diamond, a successful Level 3 ITQ candidate (right)
Wirral Metropolitan College offers ITQ at Level 1, Level 2 and 3 in a variety of structured ways. The team runs flexible workshops in what Jackie calls the “twilight zone”, that is the hours between five and seven pm on weekdays. These workshops are targeted at those learners who want to address their IT skills gap but want to do something outside of their normal working environment. (Jackie says these students may have put themselves forward to do the course or they may have been cherry picked by their employer). Though the format tends to be workshops, they also run structured formal classes if there is enough of a demand across the learner base.
Like most other ITQ providers Update has spoken to, Jackie’s team also deliver the course on site, out in the workplace. In this scenario Jackie, as ITQ coordinator, tends to buddy and partner with a manager within the employer organisation in order to build good communication and a strong relationship. This includes designating the most appropriate units per learner employee in collaboration, ensuring the learner, the manager and someone from Wirral are all involved in the process of selecting the right units for the individual learners.
The third way the college delivers ITQ is by making use of online resources. The online facilities have been developed by Wirral themselves. Originally written for CLAIT and CLAIT PLUS, they have been adapted for ITQ, though Jackie adds that these resources are in a state of flux since it is not clear “which way we are going with the credit framework”. If a student wants to use books and handbooks to study Wirral offers this too. “Basically we will adapt to whatever suits the candidate”, says Jackie, with the caveat that all portfolios have to be electronic.
So far for 2006-7, Wirral has had an impressive 143 registrations for ITQ. Of these, 33 are Level 3 registrations, some of which from candidates who have progressed from Level 2. Jackie stresses the jump from Level 2 ITQ to Level 3 is significant and it’s very important to assess your candidates thoroughly before you enroll them in the qualification:
“Our achievement rate is in the high 90s because we make sure our candidates are doing the course at the right level for them”.
Marketing ITQ – a hands-on, creative approach
Jackie has done all the marketing of ITQ herself, taking a hands-on and creative approach. She has designed promotional packs from scratch, and created presentations for the workplace, designed newsletters for employers and candidates and created mailshots: basically she has done whatever it takes to engage with local employers.
Wirral Met was part of the original ITQ pilot, so Jackie was able to engage local business from a strong starting point.
The pilot lead to further opportunities, but Jackie has gone the extra mile in her efforts since then: she has not only cold called employers, she has driven round industrial estates and gone knocking on doors; she has decided to focus on particular employer groups e.g. solicitors, and made targeted mailshots and calls, and she has used the college’s needs analysis of the region to target specific employers.
In short Jackie has been relentless, determined and passionate about ITQ. Indeed she says because she was involved in the pilot and seen it grow, it’s very easy for her to sell ITQ to employers because she really believes in the power of the qualification. “Its flexibility and how it fits into the credit framework is great and it works for employers and learners alike”. Indeed Jackie says ITQ’s so adaptable that she has seen candidates who have changed their job role half way through the course but who have still been able to complete their ITQ qualification, keeping it relevant to their new job title by just selecting some additional different units.
Funding ITQ delivery
Wirral Metropolitan College has both drawn down LSC funding and charged employers for the course. A level 2 ITQ will cost a local employer £460, but for learners who don’t have five GCSEs or the equivalent, Wirral offers a full Level 2 ITQ for free. Jackie also has a Train to Gain bid with a target of 20 candidates to go through ITQ, so there’s lots of activity in the pipeline.
Update was really impressed by Jackie’s tenacity and ingenuity in managing, delivery and promoting ITQ and her account of what is possible with imagination and determination can give us all food for thought. We wish her well and the best of luck with the Train to Gain bid, in particular.