City of Plymouth

Learner 1
Learner 2
Learner 3
Learner 4
Learner 5
Learner 6
Annie Singer, Senior Adviser, Plymouth Local Authority
Jemma Garner, Society, Health and Development practitioner
Learner 7
Jared Baldwin, Society, Health and Development Co-ordinator
Learner 8
Andy Thompson, Police Community Support Officer
Keith Ballance, Principal, Tamarside Community College
Learner 9
Andy Sykes, Midas Homes
Ian Martin, Engineering Line Lead, City College
Justine Mason, Deputy Principal, Hele's School
Learner 10

Learner 1: Excellent!

Learner 2: Amazing!

Learner 3: Fun!

Learner 4: Immense!

Learner 5: Awesome!

Learner 6: When I leave school, I would like to be a Marine Engineer. I chose to do the Diploma because it opens up lots of new options for me.

Annie Singer, Senior Adviser, Plymouth Local Authority: My name is Annie Singer and I'm Senior Adviser for Secondary Education. My role includes the Strategic Lead for the implementation of the 14-19 reform. So this is how I am involved in the delivery of Diplomas. The Plymouth partnership comprises 16 secondary schools, three FE colleges and also we have, as part of the partnership, all the training providers in the city. In September 2008, we introduced three Diploma lines - Construction and the Built Environment, Engineering and Society, Health and Development.

If I'm a parent and I don't live in this area, how am I going to know where you are?

Jemma Garner, Society, Health and Development practitioner: Here in Plymouth, we call the Society, Health and Development Diploma, "SHD". In our cluster of schools we have two groups of SHD students - a higher and an advanced and they travel between five schools for the delivery of the programme.

Learner 7: I travel on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, I go by minibus and then on Wednesdays, I go by taxi.

Jared Baldwin, Society, Health and Development Co-ordinator: If you look at the Diploma, my personal feeling is that it's an excellent qualification rather than the old-fashioned way of giving them a fact, standing at the front, learn this. Teach to assessment is much more about giving the students ownership.

Learner 8: What I enjoy about working with employers is it gives you a real-life, hands-on experience and you learn a lot more than you'd do in normal lessons.

Andy Thompson, Police Community Support Officer: We do welfare checks on...

Learners are obviously... They're going to be the ones that take over from us and if we've got the opportunity to promote our work space, they might take an interest in our particular line of work and follow in our footsteps.

Keith Ballance, Principal, Tamarside Community College:  I'm very enthusiastic about the whole concept of the Diploma. We have quite a tradition of teaching construction here so for us, it was an easy evolution to take on the Diploma. Those youngsters have grabbed it so I can see real potential for ensuring that learners remain on track with learning and feel more engaged within society in the long term.

Learner 9: I'm in Year 10 and I'm doing the Construction and the Built Environment. To actually go to somewhere that's actually being reconstructed, it helps us a lot more. The person that we met up there was a Site Manager and he gave us a tour of his office where we had pictures of an architectural drawing and then a reconstruction drawing of the afterwards. So it would give us an idea of what would happen afterwards.

Andy Sykes, Midas Homes: Once they actually come onto site and learn from school, then hopefully by seeing everything going on on our site and how exciting it is to be involved in construction, then they'll want to further their careers in that.

Ian Martin, Engineering Line Lead, City College: The Diploma as a qualification is probably the best thing that's happened to education in the United Kingdom since 1972. The employers know what they want. They know what United Kingdom incorporated needs and it's on their information that this course has been developed.

Learner 2: The Diploma I'm doing is the Engineering Diploma. The course is more than what I was expecting because it's not just writing, it's practical work as well.

Justine Mason, Deputy Principal, Hele's School: I think it's absolutely vital that we all buy in to the city-wide timetabling model because of the long-term flexibility it offers for us as timetablers, but also for our learners because it's completely inclusive.

Learner 10: The Diploma helped me with my future career choices because two of the four sectors it specialises in are health and the children's workforce. And obviously we're learning things about both of them which gives me more of an insight to possible careers. And once I've finish the Diploma, I'm thinking of going to either Plymouth or Bristol University.