Tuesday 16 December 2008

Support from Independent schools

I'm the first to admit that i didn't expect to see this at all, but I have to say that the comments are extremely welcomed.
I'm referring to the Comment in TES by Seldon and Ford of Wellington School about the Diplomas and their relevance to students (Wellington is the first Independent School to offer the Engineering Diploma).
Great to see support from what would at first appear to be an unexpected source and even nicer to see a sensible argument put forward for the principle of the qualification.

Exams performance isn't the best indicator of success

A tiny piece in the TES this week caught my eye.  The Chartered Institute of Educational Assessors says that 6/10 teachers said exam performance did not reflect success in the workplace.
I've written about this before and I completely agree.  Enthusiasm and Attitude are the values that employers place above all else along with an ability to "get on with it".
How does this relate to functional skills?  Well FS are not "exam focused" and the focus on problem solving is much more closely related to the enthusiasm, attitude and Independence that employers value.
Similarly, the whole Diploma agenda tends to support this view.


Monday 15 December 2008

Unsolicited customer praise!

This morning we received an unsolicited letter from one of our customers.

It was a really nice letter saying thanks for your help and praising individuals for going the extra mile.  It also made me realise how important it is to do it ourselves as well.  I do it occasionally, but I shall do it more in the future.

Tuesday 9 December 2008

Schools Purchasing Officers

Schools purchasing may be about to change.  I noticed an advert in our local paper for "Procurement officers" to work as part of a larger team across a number of schools.

For those of us in smaller companies with limited resources (like us) this could be a very good thing as we'll be able to access the market better.  For larger companies it may very well be a bit of a disaster as these people work to get better deals because they know what other schools have done plus they may delay procurement to make bigger purchasing packages.

So if they do it right - a very good thing but if they do it badly, another layer of administration that adds nothing to the value chain.  Let's hope they are a good thing.

The salary by the way was £25K - I hope that's enough.

Schools purchasing

Schools purchasing may be about to change.  I noticed an advert in our local paper for "Procurement officers" to work as part of a larger team across a number of schools.

For those of us in smaller companies with limited resources (like us) this could be a very good thing as we'll be able to access the market better.  For larger companies it may very well be a bit of a disaster as these people work to get better deals because they know what other schools have done plus they may delay procurement to make bigger purchasing packages.

So if they do it right - a very good thing but if they do it badly, another layer of administration that adds nothing to the value chain.  Let's hope they are a good thing.

The salary by the way was £25K - I hope that's enough.