Distance Learning

Everybody in Britain is being encouraged to develop knowledge and skills throughout their lives that, with experience and practice, will build up a personal record of achievement. Everyone should achieve as much as they can. These achievements are as much to do with personal satisfaction and developing interests and hobbies as with improving job prospects. Lifelong learning is about far more than job-related training. All learning includes one or more elements in the following five categories.

1. competence – practical ability including techniques and processes
2. catalogue – knowledge of facts and reference material
3. concept – ideas, theories and insights
4. contact – relationships, networks and people
5. context – environment in which the learning takes place.

Two types of qualification build up this development record: academic and vocational. Most qualifications include both elements, but they tend to be classified by whether the majority of the work to get them is done in one form or the other. They can be gained in a number of ways, and nowadays people can also study using distance learning.

Everybody is expected to have Basic and Key Skills.

Basic Skills are the ability to read, write and speak English and use maths at a level necessary to function and progress at work and in society in general.

Key Skills are the elements of knowledge that everyone needs to get on in the world:

• communication
• application of number
• information technology
• working with others
• improving own learning and performance
• problem solving.

Academic qualifications

Academic qualifications include theoretical study, with qualifications gained through exams or coursework, or a combination of both. They can cover anything from computing to languages and from art to music. Some, like nursing and teaching, include considerable practical experience.

GCSEs, A-levels (AS and A2) and Scottish Highers are academic qualifications taken in schools and colleges, and elsewhere, to show a level of learning achieved in a particular subject. Degrees (both undergraduate and Master’s) are academic qualifications that indicate a (largely theoretical) level of knowledge in a particular area. Two-year Foundation Degrees involve a course that is both academic and vocational, with the emphasis on the academic content, in more specific subjects than undergraduate degrees. They provide 240 credits towards the 360 needed for an undergraduate degree and may lead into the latter.

Vocational skills

Vocational skills are learned and proved in the workplace. They consist of a series of modules that show an individual’s competence, and are usually assessed ‘on the job’ by a supervisor.

National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs) and Scottish Vocational Qualifications (SVQs) are made up of a series of units based on workplace standards.

Apprenticeships are work-based programmes that include the Key Skills and an NVQ at Level 3 for an Advanced Apprenticeship (usually two years and including a technical certificate) and at Level 2 for an Apprenticeship (usually one year and in most cases including a technical certificate). They are generally for people aged between 18 and 25.

Vocational A-levels (or Advanced Vocational Certificates of Education) and General National Vocational Qualifications (GNVQs) at Intermediate and Foundation levels combine academic and vocational elements, and are studied at a college.

National Certificates (NCs) and National Diplomas (NDs) consist of a series of units that are usually taken by people through college courses lasting about two years, and which can be full- or part-time.

Higher National Certificates (HNCs) and Higher National Diplomas (HNDs) are taken in a similar way to NCs and NDs. An HND (equating to a Foundation Degree) requires more units than an HNC.

Distance learning

Distance learning involves people studying while separated geographically from the institution providing the learning. Readers will come across terms like ‘open learning’ and ‘distance supported learning’. There are no hard-and-fast rules, but open learning includes more face-to-face classes than distance learning, while support indicates tutors and physical material available to help students.

Distance learning includes short courses of even as little as a few hours, and also degrees and postgraduate qualifications that may take several years’ study. So-called short courses typically last days or weeks as opposed to months or years. Even subjects with a strong practical element often have modules that are appropriate for distance learning.

Learning materials and support may be provided by books, pamphlets, telephone, fax, videos, DVDs, CD-ROMs, e-mail, the Internet, or any combination of these elements. Some courses make extensive use of the web. Other learning involves tutor groups, which may meet regularly, and summer camps of a few weeks for classroom education on top of regular, directed coursework at a distance.

The choice of course and learning provider is huge and changing daily. In choosing a course, training provider and learning method people should consider the learning tools they will be able to access as well as their individual preferred learning styles. Someone in an environment where IT availability is limited should select a course where it is possible for them to use paper and telephone, at least for a limited period.

Most Service training courses and jobs contain elements that will improve personal development. Some courses have civilian qualifications attached to them, while others take students part of the way towards a civilian qualification and they will have to take some extra modules in order to complete it. This is usually worth the extra effort involved since the qualification earned is valuable. Increasingly, Service people will take distance learning modules as part of the training that produces their career progression.

The difference between higher education (HE) and further education (FE) is not always easy to define, and in some cases, like Foundation Degrees, both are involved. Many qualifications can be earned through students completing modules, often ones they choose themselves. Credits gained from a selection of courses can be added together to gain degrees and other HE qualifications, and it is not always necessary to have an undergraduate degree to gain a Master’s, and certainly not necessary for many professional qualifications.

Many learning providers are neither HE nor FE institutions, although they may have links of varying strengths with one or more colleges or universities. Many companies run large training departments. There are also many commercial organisations that provide training to paying clients. Much of the training they deliver is of excellent quality and targeted carefully at the needs of civilian employers in a specific market sector.

Many commercial businesses offering training use the premises of academic institutions to deliver courses and have contracts with employment agencies to help their students find work.

Two terms to be aware of are Accreditation of Prior Learning (APL) and the Credit Accumulation and Transfer Scheme (CATS). Both allow a teaching organisation to give credit to learning obtained elsewhere and relevant experience at work in the subject concerned. Potential students should always ask about APL and CATS to avoid repeating things they have already done.

Advice sources

The first person an individual should ask is themselves: what they want to do and why. Is their priority to choose a course that will help them in their current career or are they preparing for the next? Do they want to develop a hobby or find a new interest? They can also get help from people who know them well. An individual’s immediate superior is very important. They can help or hinder, give time off or impose extra duties, and often they have to approve the learning being proposed.

Service education and training staff, both within the unit and specialists, often provide the best advice about what individuals want and what it is actually possible for them to achieve. They can also provide access to money available to support study, and recommend subjects the individual should be encouraged to pursue. Increasing numbers of learning and education centres and personal learning advisers also have access to new e-learning opportunities. There is also a Forces Distance Learning Scheme in place; further details are available at education centres.

The government helpline, learndirect (details in ‘Factfile’), can provide information about courses; learndirect also runs its own courses and learning centres with tutor support, where people can undertake online learning, and that use ICT systems to enable users to access learning.

Other information sources include the Internet, a written prospectus, or somebody who has first-hand experience of a course or a training provider.

Funding

Course costs vary enormously, and it is very important to discover all the costs of a course before embarking on it, including hidden extras like revision courses, exam fees, materials used and ‘subscriptions’. Service people should also recognise that they should expect to pay for at least some of their personal development – including distance learning courses – themselves. After all, it is they who will benefit in the long term, and civilians certainly expect at least to contribute towards their own learning.

See ‘Factfile’ for information about:

• Standard Learning Credits
• Enhanced Learning Credits
• Career Development Loans.

Service people may also be able to recover travel and subsistence allowances if the training has some military value.