Are we ready for the Green Economy Edexcel

‘Are we ready for the Green Economy’ Edexcel Perspective John Fincham Slide 1 Training from Edexcel

History – 2005/2006 – Awareness raising • London Sustainability Exchange – an audit of colleges around London • Interview principals/heads of curriculum about sustainability in the curriculum and their college sustainability plans • Results were that there were few units in courses with the title of sustainability eg construction; no sustainability qualifications and not many principals/facility managers implementing sustainability measures or aware that they were doing so • No real progress at Edexcel at this time on sustainability courses – started to raise awareness

Need for Sustainability in the curriculum • Integration into all courses • Sector Skills Councils approval (government pressure –vocational courses)– work with Cogent, SEMTA, Construction Skills etc • Need for vocationally related sustainability courses – to meet the needs of employers FE colleges/schools started to contact Edexcel about four/five years ago – for courses that concentrated on different aspects of sustainability and jobs in sustainability for example - Sussex had a consortium of schools, South Stafford FE College, Cambridge FE College, City and Islington College etc

Developments – Sustainability Courses BTEC Sustainability Skills suites of qualifications at Entry Level, Level 1 and Level 2 – 42 units BTEC National Suite of qualifications in Environmental Sustainability – 27 units Worked with Cogent on their Sustainability Skills suite of qualifications – QCF readiness GCE Chemistry – section on Green Chemistry – insistence by the RSC to include – otherwise no support Sustainability units in a large number of vocationally related qualifications Slide 4 Training from Edexcel

Delivery and Assessment • 100% internal assessment – vocationally related assignment/ project driven – criterion referenced – learners provide evidence – BTEC approach to enable learners to gain ownership and develop as independent learners

Support Materials • Edexcel website – large number of assignments – working with British Gas, Woodland Trust, Water Aid etc • GCE AS equivalent materials available soon based on project within the BTEC National in Environmental Sustainability Slide 6 Training from Edexcel

Edexcel Curriculum • Good Awareness in Qualification Development and many Business Managers • Sustainability courses one of the fastest growing suites – dedicated staff • Still require a rationale for each new qualification projected number of learners • Edexcel/Pearson Stand Slide 7 Training from Edexcel