Tutor Zone
11th September 2008
MINUTES OF MEETING AT TUTOR SEMINAR HELD
ON 12th September 2008
AT THE ABBEY COMMUNITY CENTRE
34 GREAT SMITH STREET, LONDON, SW1P 3BU
Those Present
Anthony Wigram, Chris Garbett, Lisa Oram, Hong Le Vong, Debbie Brixey, Steve Collis, Boyko Grigorov, Barry Freedman, Mary Payne, Amjad Rehman, Aaron Ly, Quang Vong, Shahab Reza, James Benstead, Nilesh Shah, Daniel Gilson, Lien Vong, Rose de Larrabeiti, Andrew Smith, Manjit Bhogal, Pauline Dolling, Brook Asfaw, Fiona Syrett, Hazel Dudley, Phil Griller, Sabina Vitacca, Christina Barrett, Fitwi Kebede.
1. Reading of Previous Minutes
Anthony asked everyone to read over previous meeting minutes and asked if anyone had any questions.
Andrew Smith said that sometimes comments are missing from the refresher reports. Plus when copies of reports are received the answers do not always correspond with the questions.
Lisa said she will ask Carl (our webmaster) to have a look at it and see if he can fix it. However, she thinks that he is on holiday at the moment.
2. Apologies for Absence
Nina Johannessen, Susan Willoughby, Elizabeth Oldreive, Mike Peek, Sam Catling, Roy Westall, Chi Ho, Enitan Ajayi, Mark Pigden, Dennis Jablonski, Taher Ali, Tracey Fawthrop, Patricia Webb, Keith Penrose, Sheila Mackay, Gabriella Gatward, Wissam Koubeissi, Joe Paton.
3. Administration – Lisa Oram
New Annual reports and leaflets are at the back so please help yourself to them as you leave.
ECDL centre is almost ready, just confirming a few things with the auditors regarding some policies that needed to be rewritten. If tutors would like to do their ECDL, please contact LO to book a date. Also, if anyone would like software training please let her know.
AW asked how many tutors had the ECDL, only a handful of hands went up. AW said can tutors all please try to get this, or at least get modules 1, 2 and 7. Now we have got the centre, the tutors should make the most of it and it would be a pity to waste this opportunity.
LO said that the new student fees have started to kick in. If students can’t afford to pay in the full lump sum up front, we can take payments instalments. Please ask your students to contact the office and we will work something out with them.
With help from Debbie we have started to re-vamp the website. Lot’s of unnecessary information has been removed, and photo’s added etc. LO asked again if there is anything tutors would like to add to the tutor or student zones, please let her know.
We have also started to produce quarterly newsletters to give to our funders (which is also put on the website) so if anyone has any interesting student stories or would like to contribute content please let her know.
4. Outreach & Fundraising – Chris Garbett
Outreach
CG started by saying that if any tutors need more students, please inform Lisa and she will kick him into finding more.
Fundraising
So far this year we have raised just over £250,000, while expenditure is up by 11%. We have 6 months worth of money in our reserves which is good news.
Regarding new funders we are receiving more money from Corporate companies such as BAE Systems, Deutsche Bank and Land Securities.
We have also received funding from Henry Smiths Charity who have agreed to fund us for the next three years. Statutory money funding is coming from the LSC, local authorities, primary care trust and the Big Lottery Fund.
According to the Charity Commission figures, we are in the top 10% of charities earnings, however, the top 3% took 68% of income, so we have got a long way to go to reach the top!
CG noted that we have recently won a new Learning and Skills Contract to provide ITQ’s and employment. On the employment side, we will be using partners who are the RLSB and RNID.
5. ITQ Centre Update – Daniel Gilson
DG started by congratulating U Can Do I.T. for winning the bid. We are now an accredited centre with the BCS. He is running through testing procedures with Hong Le and Nina in the office so that things will be clearer when the contract starts.
Work is assessed against a standard requirement, the student does not fail or pass, they either achieve or don’t achieve. When the work does not meet the standard, the student can re-do the work and re-submit until it meets the standard requirements.
The ITQ is made up of 4 to 5 units plus a mandatory unit and has various levels, as part of this contract we will be offering levels 1 and 2. It is very flexible and work is submitted online through CASy, no exam is required. Appointed assessors check the students work, the Internal Verifier then checks the assessors work. Everything is then externally verified by the BCS.
Nilesh asked how many tutorials will be given for students to do ITQ?
It depends on each individual student and we would need the help of the tutors to assess the student’s level and capability at assessment, but most of our graduates who completed the course can most likely achieve a level 2.
AW added that in 12 lessons the students should be able to get level 1 and about 20 lessons for level 2. If we get this right we are most likely to win more contracts. We are very lucky to have got this contract and we should be very enthusiastic and want to do this.
Steve Collis asked if we should nominate students. AW said yes. LO said she will email all the tutors and let them know more details and to ask if they know of any suitable students.
AW said hopefully we would be able to get graduates and new students onto this scheme and the main thing is getting the right type of students to on go this project. When tutors are doing assessments and they come across a student they think can do the ITQ, they should nominate him/her. Majority of disabled students have limited ambitions and they need all the encouragement they can get, tutors should motivate and give all the information to the students so they are fully aware of what is on offer.
Barry Freedman asked if students using Jaws can take part in this project. AW said yes most definitely because this project is available only for visually or hearing impairment students.
James Benstead asked would there be any penalties if the student failed to get a job at the end of the project, how would that effect U Can Do I.T.?
AW replied that we are paid as the contract progresses. UCDIT’s main concern is achieving ITQ’s. Out of 100 students, 48 of them need to get employment, it is a high order but the partners say they can do it. Once the student has got a certificate from their employer, LSC will release the money.
If we fail to get all 48 employment we probably won’t get another contract with the LSC, but it doesn’t matter because the LSC are being dis-banded in two years!!
6. Chairman’s Report – Anthony Wigram
AW thanked Amjad in getting Steven Timms to join one of his tutorials - this resulted in Steven Timms sponsoring an event for us in the House of Commons. We have invited representatives from Local Authorities, Learning & Skills Councils, Primary Care Trusts, commercial companies and charities. The event is taking place on the 14th October 4pm in Portcullis House. I hope you can all attend.
Also on the political front AW has a met with David Lammy (Minister for Skills in the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills). We were also joined by Stephen Jackson (conference call) at which time Mr Lammy said he was very supportive of UCDIT and wanted to help. We talked about how our service could be provided on a wider scale and how it could be funded. He was very sympathetic to UCDIT and hopefully he will be able to help us in some way.
We are also try to meet with Boris Johnson, his mother was one of our students, but obviously he is very busy and we have not yet heard from him. However, we do have a meeting scheduled with David Morris who is the Senior Policy Adviser to the Mayor of London – Disability & Deaf Issues.
7. Any Other Business
Pauline said she has seen the e-petition on our website has ended, and wondered if there was any progress with it.
Debbie replied not yet. She is awaiting a reply from the Prime Minister, however, it was worth doing because it gave us a chance to contact other charities and to show them we are doing something.
AW asked if there was anything else. No replies. AW thanked the tutors for coming
End of Minutes
