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Seeking excellence: key questions of the CIF

How well are learners guided and supported?

The evaluation requirements of the CIF state that inspectors should evaluate:

  • the care, advice, guidance and other support provided to safeguard welfare, promote personal development and achieve high standards
  • the quality and accessibility of information, advice and guidance to learners in relation to courses and programmes, and, where applicable, career progression.

How Subject Learning Coaches can help your organisation to achieve these outcomes

Ensuring that learners are well informed and guided to make decisions that are right for them

Ensuring robust processes to safeguard learner welfare and promote personal development will create the right environment for learners to reach their potential and achieve high standards. The whole approach of the National Teaching and Learning Change Programme is to work with learners and to really listen to what they say, exploring with them their perceptions and motivations so that they are well placed to make informed choices or decisions.

Subject Learning Coaches are trained to use coaching techniques such as active listening and deep questioning skills to understand what colleagues and learners are aiming to achieve and to explore with them ways of realising their ambitions. The Professional Training Programme for Subject Learning Coaches explores concepts such as learning styles, the ways in which individuals learn best and emotional competencies to really focus on what is best for each learner. Working in this way establishes a culture that promotes personal development and ownership of learning.

The 11 subject teaching and learning resource sets feature a variety of resources that can support these CIF objectives. For example the E2E resources have an extremely powerful interactive module on using motivational dialogue with learners; the Construction resources have activities that help practitioners to get to know their learners; the Business resources contain activities to promote differentiation; the Health and Social Care resources include activities that help to identify learner needs; and the Adult Learning resources include activities for profiling learner needs. All of these resources can be adapted for use in different subject settings.

What the inspectors might say…

The support for learners is excellent. They have prompt and effective pastoral support and advice to help them deal with their personal difficulties. The support for study is also outstanding. Advice and guidance sessions are very good. Progress reviews are thorough and detailed and keep learners focused by monitoring their progress effectively.

Training provider inspection report

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