Career Spotlight
Assess yourself against Professional Standards
Growing numbers of SET members are using an online self-assessment tool as a quick and easy way to rate their performance against the Professional Standards for Teachers and Trainers.
The tool, available exclusively to SET Members, gives a powerful insight into your current practice and can inform the focus for your professional development plan, as well as your continuing professional development.
Access it by logging into your‘ My SET dashboard’ and click on self-assessment to start your personalised self-assessment.
You are then invited to answer a series of questions in each of the three professional standards areas: professional skills; professional values and attributes; professional knowledge and understanding.
Use the sliders to rate yourself, on a scale of one to six, against each of the 20 questions relating to individual standards. There is space to add comments, if you wish, to support your assessment.
At the end there is a printable PDF summary providing at-a-glance charts that display your self-assessed skills. A copy of your self-assessment will be automatically saved in your My SET dashboard which you can revisit over time to monitor your progress.
RESEARCH MAP
Members can also access the interactive Professional Standards Research Map, which gives you easy access to research, resources and further reading, all relating directly to the standards.
The map, developed with the Centre for the Use of Research and Evidence in Education( Curee), resembles a London tube map and has 20‘ stations’ on it, corresponding to the 20 professional standards.
By clicking on a station you are taken to a page where you can access a range of articles, research and case studies relating to the standard in question.
There is a‘ How to use the map’ link which draws on the 2014 report, What makes great teaching?, by the University of Durham and the Sutton Trust.
Access the research map here goo. gl / 7RTJQi
Read more about the Professional Standards and download a copy here goo. gl / s0s3c2
Career Spotlight
INTERVIEWS – ALWAYS BE PREPARED!
It will be no surprise to hear that performing well at interview is connected to how well you are able to prepare.
It is worth investing time in planning various aspects of the activity. To do this well you’ ll need to consider closely all the information that you received along with the interview invitation.
If there was little additional information, consider taking the time to fi nd out more by contacting the HR department to enquire about the format of the interview. Try asking if there is anything you are required to prepare, or what timings are anticipated. This will osten provide you with useful additional information. Most teachers and trainers should expect:
• to deliver a micro teach or presentation;
• to discuss the role requirements in detail;
• to talk about recent learner outcomes;
• to demonstrate their understanding of safeguarding and Prevent duties;
• to be questioned on anything unusual on their application, such as gaps in employment or career changes;
• to demonstrate a good understanding of the organisation you are applying to;
• to be up to date with recent sector news.
When asked about your learners’ recent performance you should expect to say how they benchmarked, why results were good or, if they weren’ t good, what you are doing to improve outcomes next time.
You should also consider the wider agenda associated with the role you are applying for. For example, right now I’ d expect a candidate to be capable of discussing the T Level introduction, the industrial strategy and apprenticeship reform. Preparation like this is much better than preparing set answers to possible questions.
SET also offers lots of practical help. If you have QTLS then refer to this, and what you learnt during professional formation, in your interview. You might also want to use the self-assessment tool opposite as a way of honing your interview skills beforehand. And the new SET online Career Focus section has lots of useful resources, as does the Career Skills Research Centre which is part of the new SET Online Research Library.
Finally, do remember to be positive and enthusiastic in the interview.
Donna Lucas is group viceprincipal, HR and professional development, at the Shrewsbury Colleges Group and chairs the Association of Colleges’ West Midlands HR Network. She is a Member of SET and the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.
INTUITION ISSUE 28 • SUMMER 2017 27