GTCW Letter

Evidence from General Teaching Council for Wales – EUO 01

Dr Sian Phipps

Clerk, Enterprises and Business Committee

National Assembly for Wales

Cardiff Bay

CF 99 1NA

18^th December 2013

Dear Sian,

Inquiry into EU Funding Opportunities 2014-2020

The General Teaching Council for Wales (GTCW) is a one of seven partners in a European funded Lifelong Learning Programme project via the Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency (based in Brussels).

The objective of the project is to develop a “policy which advocates the introduction of a common EU e-portfolio for teachers and educators”. It is hoped that the policy, once developed can be used to encourage governments and key stakeholders from across Europe to embrace the use and benefits of an e-portfolio in helping teachers and educators to participate in life-long learning and to plan, record and reflect upon their professional development more systematically.

The project has a duration of approximately 18 months, running between 2012 and 2014.

Project partners

The partners in the project have been drawn from across Europe. The partners are:

The lead partner is the College of Teachers in London. The College, at 166 years is the UK’s oldest educational institute in the UK and has HRH the Duke of Edinburgh as its patron. The College’s Royal Charter allows it to award qualifications, working with Government and major bodies involved with education to promote standards in professional practice. The College has around 60,000 students at centres across the world, studying at undergraduate and postgraduate levels

The General Teaching Council for Wales (GTCW) is the independent self-regulating professional body for teachers in Wales

TEETCH Limited based in England provides corporate education to professionals across Europe, the US and the Middle East. Clients include retail and investment banks, accountants, law firms and management consultants

Ellinogermaniki Agogi is a training centre for primary and secondary teachers in Greece and is a well established research centre

The University of Economics and Innovation in Lublin, Poland is a leading University in Poland

The Intercultural Cooperation Foundation, Sofia, Bulgaria is a non-governmental, non-profit organisation. It is active in educational projects on a national and international level

The Latvia Culture College provides higher education programmes in arts and culture in Latvia.

GTCW was approached directly by the College of Teachers (lead partner) to participate in this project.

Financing

The European Community grant contribution is a maximum of 23,990 EURO per partner. In addition, each partner is expected to make a contribution of up to 7,997 EURO each. This contribution can be in the form of staff time rather than monies if necessary.

Progress to date

In line with European funding requirements, the partnership has a detailed, costed project plan which it must comply with. To date, four of the five project meetings have taken place (in Greece, Poland, Bulgaria and Latvia) and a number of the deliverables have been completed.

Each partner organisation has been required to involve two practising teachers

who have been trained as trainers(described as master teachers in the project), in the e-portfolio system over a three day period. On returning to their home county, each master teacher has trained up to 12 practising teachers to use the e-portfolio. The masterteachers have co-ordinated feedback to their respective home country partner during this period.

GTCW has disseminated details of the project to a range of stakeholders in Wales, including:

· Welsh Government officials

· Teacher trade unions

· GTCW Council

· Organisations with a role in teacher education and training in Wales, including initial teacher training centres, Estyn, the Higher Education Funding Council and UCET Cymru

The final project conference is scheduled to take place in London in March 2014.

General comments

This is the first time GTCW has been involved in a European funded project of this nature. It has found the opportunity for collaborative working with Educational partners from other EU countries to be to be extremely valuable and insightful. The opportunity to learn about the differing education systems and political challenges in different countries has been very useful.

The Council has experienced some learning points from the project, such as the importance of strong project management and the need for commitment to agreed timescales by all partners. These experiences have helped the Council to be better prepared should it decide to become involved in similar projects in the future.

I attach links to the project website and final conference agenda, which will assist in providing background information about the project.

http://peep.ea.gr/

http://www.collegeofteachers.ac.uk/content/eu-peep-conference-2014

I hope the information in this letter is helpful to your review. If I can be of further assistance, please do not hesitate to contact me at hayden.llewellyn@gtcw.org.uk or 029 2046 0099.

Yours sincerely

Hayden Llewellyn

Deputy Chief Executive