On-line courses: Screen tests

An Internet college for early years education means people can train at home for a childcare career. Mary Evans meets its founder

Rosie Pressland was lying in her bath when she had a flash of inspiration that is set to revolutionise childcare training by delivering learning online. While her bathtime brainwave might not equate with the discovery of the Greek mathematician Archimedes, it could have a lasting impact on the early years sector.

As chairperson of her local early years partnership in the East Riding of Yorkshire, she was wrestling with the problem of how to encourage more people to access childcare training when it struck her: if people won't go to college then college must go to the people.

'I was in the bath. It is where I do most of my thinking as I can relax. I suddenly thought, we have to show people that training can be part and parcel of their lives. We have to bring the mountain to Mohammed.' She got the funding and set up a localised training unit, a mini-college, in the grounds of her Montessori school in the Yorkshire market town of Pocklington.

'People came and it worked,' she says. 'Then the idea developed and I thought, what we really need to do is take the mountain into people's homes. There are people who will not go to college. It is perhaps because they had a bad school experience or because of their family or work commitments. Some women, who have been out of the labour market and away from training for a time, have low self-esteem, lack confidence and cannot face going to college.'

The Internet College for Early Years Education (I-C-Eye) was launched in Yorkshire in May this year. Free training was offered to people from the Yorkshire region and already more than 300 people have enrolled on the Introduction to Childminding Practice course.

From the end of this month (September) the childcare cyber college expands its courses and goes national, if not international. It is offering the CACHE-approved course an Introduction to Childminding Practice, plus Developing Childminding Practice and Extending Childminding Practice, as well as an Early Years and Childcare Marketing Course and an Introduction to Montessori Education. There are plans to develop a playworkers' course, too.

'It is a universal college. Lots of people have been in touch. The Saudi police are interested in doing the child protection units online. We have had numerous calls via British Forces Posted Overseas (BFPO) from women whose husbands are posted abroad and they would like to train in childcare.

'It does not matter where you are. If you can access a computer you can enrol. It can be at a cyber cafe or you can get hold of a cheap, refurbished PC. You can study at night, first thing in the morning, whenever it suits you. You go at your own pace.'

Esther McLaughlin, CACHE deputy chief executive, says it is supporting the development because CACHE wants to encourage innovative ways of learning. 'We are just at the beginning of the e-learning curve. It is very challenging to what I call the Ab-Fab generation, to which I belong, because we learned with books, pens and paper and not with computer screens. But we accept the challenge.'

However, she stresses there would always be a need for face-to-face learning and practical experience in childcare training. 'The most important skills that childcare practitioners need to have are inter-personal skills and they have to be developed face-to-face and cannot be e-learned from a computer screen. Childcare training will always need to include face-to-face assessments,' she says.

While learning online can be cheaper and more flexible than attending college she says account must be taken of people's preferred learning styles. 'Not everybody is going to like learning on screen. Some people will be happy learning and working on screen but others like to hear someone speaking to them.

'We have to ensure we get the best outcome for the learners, their employers and for the parents who are going to use their services.' Rosie Pressland acknowledges the need for students to have personal support, and plans are in hand to recruit a national network of tutors who will work online and visit students at home or in the workplace. At the moment the college has a team of CACHE-approved tutors and each student is assigned to a tutor whom they can e-mail if they have a query or need help. An answer is guaranteed within 24 hours.

Each student is also given an enrolment number, and even when they have completed a course they can key in their personal number to go back through the units to refresh their memory. There is also a college common room, where the students can meet and share ideas in the form of an on-line chat room. Like any other college, I-C-Eye is providing access to library and information services so the students can research their subjects and keep up to date.

The fees for the courses range from 100 to 150, but I-C-Eye is an Individual Learning Account centre, so applicants can use their learning accounts towards meeting the costs. For computer novices there is a help desk staffed by IT specialists. The programs have been designed to take students back to the exact point they reached when they logged off.

The basic text of the courses has been brought to life by being translated from the printed page to interactive animations on screen. So the Montessori course has been designed as a virtual Montessori classroom. 'At a click of the mouse you walk in and all the Montessori equipment is on the shelves and you can get it down at the click of your mouse,' says Ms Pressland.

'The marketing course basically shows you how to market and promote your business. It provides you with the tools for good communications. There are templates for press releases, posters and leaflets that the student can just download and use.'

Ms Pressland, who has been described as a serial entrepreneur by an academic studying entrepreneurial behaviour, is behaving true to form with the development of I-C-Eye.

'In creating the courses we developed a piece of software that will allow any training course anywhere to be translated online. The software translates the text so it can be animated, interactive and sound can be added,' she says. 'Say you have a construction company and you need to train your manpower for health and safety. We can take the course and translate it online, and all you need are a couple of PCs. For us, it is just a case of seeing an opportunity and using it.'

Training update

Next step for NVQ standards

The Early Years National Training Organisation (NTO) is preparing to submit for approval details of its review of the national occupational standards. Its proposals outlining the work it wants to carry out and the timescale will go to the Project Standards Approvals Group (PSAG), a body representing the four curriculum authorities across the UK.

The submission is just part of the long process of reviewing all the standards currently used in early years care and education NVQs at levels 2 and 3. The new standards will come into force in 2003.

The aim of the review is to produce a set of standards that accurately reflect the changing face of childcare and the responsibilities and role of its workforce.

A large part of the review will involve 'plugging the gaps' in the level 2 and 3 standards, principally in management and business skills - omissions that are now all the more glaring in the light of the national occupational standards for NVQ level 4.

Significantly, it will be the first review to be carried out by an early years organisation. Reviews are conducted every five years, with the last one held before the implementation of the national childcare strategy, the introduction of a revised early years curriculum and the creation of an early years national training organisation. (The previous review was carried out by the Care Sector Consortium.)

'The current standards are entirely adequate, but they don't reflect the changes in childcare and in central Government thinking,' says NTO director Savita Ayling.

But the challenge is also to look to the future, she adds. 'When reviewing the standards, we need to take account of recent changes and anticipate changes over the next five years.'

Early years partnerships and colleges will be involved in the review and the NTO is also planning a number of focus groups. 'Hands-on' employers who may have identified gaps in the current standards and want to contribute to the review should contact the NTO on 01727 738300.

Excellence status for college

South Birmingham College has been named a Centre of Vocational Excellence (CoVE) for childcare, and details of how more colleges can apply are due out next week.

The CoVE initiative is run by the Learning and Skills Council scheme and aimed at promoting excellence in training across a range of sectors from engineering to computing and catering.

Under the scheme, South Birmingham College can apply for up to 300,000 development money to help it expand its training provision and its work with other organisations to meet the training needs of the local childcare sector.

Included in the college's bid will be proposals to provide better accommodation and to expand its curriculum resource centre, which it would then make available to local organisations and nurseries.

The college was invited to bid to become a centre of excellence following its Grade 1 Further Education Funding Council inspection. Head of department for early years care and public services, Jenny Isaacs, believes the college was then chosen on the strength of its retention and achievement figures over the past three years, 'which have been significantly above the sector average', its 'dedicated, keen and committed staff' and its strong links with other organisations.

'We're very honoured and very pleased,' she says. 'It's nice for the staff and the college to get that recognition.'

The LSC has set a goal for at least half of all general FE colleges in England to have at least one department with CoVE status by 2004. It is intended that the first round of CoVEs will have a role in helping new centres develop their training programmes.