Remote Education

Resumption of Face-to-Face Teaching

Update: 26 February 2021

Following the announcement by the Prime Minister on Monday, schools and further education providers including BET have been given the go ahead to resume face-to-face teaching for apprentices from Monday 8 March.

Over the past few days, BET staff have reviewed apprentices progress with online learning and assessed our timetable for the academic year, considering the outstanding units that apprentices have missed or had disrupted since the beginning of the pandemic.

Following this review, we have detailed below our plan for the coming weeks and months to all apprentices.

We will be asking that all Apprentices continue online learning until at least Friday 5 March, after this date, as detailed below, some apprentices will return to college from Monday 8 March onwards, others will be required to continue online learning for a short period until Friday 26 March, enabling us to pick up face-to-face teaching more easily after Easter.

All Apprentices that were due to attend college between April and August 2021 will receive new attendance dates for the coming months within the next week.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank all apprentices and employers for their interaction and support over the past 6 weeks. We have had 85% apprentice attendance during this period, which is well above our expected engagement level.

Day Release – 1st & 2nd Years

All Day Release Groups will return to college from Monday 8 March onwards and will revert to their original college day prior to learning moving online.

1st Year Block Release

• BET/N/20 – will be required to attend BET from 15 March, as detailed in our original attendance plan, but for 3 weeks. They will be then issued new dates for the rest of the year.

All other first year block release, will need to continue online learning until Friday 26 March. Prior to this, new college dates will be issued to employers and apprentices for the rest of the academic year.

2nd Year Block Release

• BET/H/19 – will be required to attend BET for 1 week on Monday 8 March as detailed in our original attendance plan. New dates will be issued for the rest of the academic year.

3rd Year & 4th Year Apprentices
• New college dates will be issued for their college attendance for the rest of the academic year.

There are a small group of both 1st and 2nd Year Apprentices that have either not engaged with the online learning or have been unable to due to employer work commitments, BET staff are aware of this and will be contacting apprentices and employers to discuss their options.

Part of the Prime Minister’s announcement was that Independent Training Providers such as BET will be able to access Home Testing (Lateral Flow) Kits for apprentices and staff from the end of March. It is our intention to use these for our staff, and also where we can, for our apprentices. Once we have further information, we will communicate this.

As many apprentices and employers will also be aware that our training officers have been undertaking telephone reviews and not attending site for 12 months. With the availability of testing, it is our intention from the late March (earlier if possible) our Training Officers will be able to resume onsite reviews and assessments for apprentices (pending employer and site approval).

If any apprentice or employer has any questions regarding the contents of this email, please contact our office on 0121 616 0700 or email info@betltd.co.uk.

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BET Online & Remote Learning Plan, January – March 2021

Update: 13 January 2021

Following the National Lockdown announcement on 5 January 2021 and the closure of Education Settings for face-to-face teaching, training Independent Training Providers such as BET are unable to open to apprentices during this time. BET have now finalised an online and remote learning plan for apprentices in their 1st and 2nd years, due to attend college. Through online lessons over the coming weeks, this will enable apprentices to continue their off-the-job training.

From Monday 18 January 2021, BET will launch online and remote learning for our electrical apprentices. Online lessons will be provided by our team of tutors via Microsoft Teams whilst using our online learning system, Its Learning. This plan, detailed below, has been developed with apprentices and employers needs in mind, taking into account logistical and practical barriers to learning. These changes, may not be ideal or suitable for all apprentices, but we would ask for support and engagement for employers and learners during this time.

We expect that remote learning will take place one-day-a-week from 18 January, until mid-to-late March. In anticipation of this, we have had to make adjustments to the lesson content and brought in-line teaching across different year groups and allow us to restart face-to-face teaching in April for the rest of the academic year.

Each apprentice and employer will be sent details of remote learning plans for the weeks ahead, including session information, resources etc. They will then be sent a link and password ahead of their teaching commencing next week.

To fully engage in online learning, apprentices will either need an appropriate environment at home, along with access to a compatible device such as a laptop or tablet. If apprentices do not have suitable environments at home to learn in, we would ask employers that have offices, whether suitable spaces can be used to support their apprentices remote teaching.

BET expect apprentices to engage in all elements of the remote education. Live lessons will be in place of face-to-face teaching which would have taken place during this time. Whilst there may be catch-up sessions on their return, they will not re-run all elements of remote learning when face-to-face learning returns.

All teaching sessions will be recorded and uploaded to our online learning system. This will enable apprentices, who for any reason, miss a session, to be able to watch lessons in their own time. Apprentice attendance will be monitored in both online sessions and catch-up recordings watched at a later date. Recordings are not a replacement for this online learning, apprentices are expected to attend these sessions and employers will be expected to allow their apprentices to undertake these sessions, in-line with funding rules and their signed Apprenticeship Agreement.

We have detailed below our confirmed Remote Learning Plan for 1st and 2nd year apprentices. Further details for 3rd and 4th years will be released when further guidance is received from the Department of Education.

All learning will take place either on a Monday or a Friday following a sample consultation with employers. Lessons will take place between 8:30am and 3:30pm, matching normal college hours.

DAY RELEASE
1st Year Apprentices: 103 Science & Principles Unit
• BET/L/20 (Monday Day Release) will undertake remote teaching on MONDAYS each week from Monday 18 January.
• BET/P/20 (Wednesday Day Release) will undertake remote teaching on MONDAYS each week from Monday 18 January.

2nd Year Apprentices – 104 Design Unit
• BET/D/19 – (Tuesday Day Release) will undertake remote teaching on MONDAYS each week from Monday 18 January.
• BET/G/19 – (Thursday Day Release) will undertake remote teaching on MONDAYS each week from Monday 18 January.

BLOCK RELEASE
1st Year Apprentices: 103 Science & Principles Unit
• BET/N/20 – will undertake remote teaching on MONDAYS each week from Monday 18 January.
• BET/M/20 and BET/K/20 will undertake remote learning on FRIDAYS every week from Friday 22 January onwards.

2nd Year Apprentices: 104 Design Unit
• BET/H/19 will undertake remote teaching on MONDAYS each week from Monday 18 January.
• BET/C/19, BET/E/19 and BET/F/20 will undertake remote learning on FRIDAYS every week from Friday 22 January onwards.

Support for Apprentices
If any apprentice does not have appropriate devices, connectivity, or a suitable environment for learning, they should contact our Office Staff on 0121 616 0700 to discuss their concerns. BET will put in place provisions to ensure that no apprentice is disadvantaged in their learning, due to the remote education plan in place. We recognise every apprentice has a different and unique situation to one another and if any apprentice has any concerns at all, please contact us.

Support of Employers
We ask employers to endeavour to assist BET in enabling their apprentices to complete the online learning lessons details above, ensuring that they are not behind with their apprenticeship and that they can continue to make progress during this time.

Further Information
If you require any further information, please don’t hesitate to contact our office on 0121 616 0700 or e-mail info@betltd.co.uk.