The Workplace as Classroom
By Beck Crowhurst
The two fundamental principles of our new Foundation Degree are that it has to work for everyone in the children’s workforce, and it has to have immediate and tangible impact on their day to day practice.
Following on from this post, we tackle the second principle: How can we make assessment that is rooted in the workplace, improving practice from day one?
Applications for our new Foundation Degree are now open, and we expect many of our participants to have been out of formal education for a while, and for the majority to hold full-time child-facing roles.
Therefore, when designing this programme, we wanted to bridge the ‘traditional’ academic theory of a university course, with hands-on application. We want our participants and their colleagues to see the impact of this course on their day-to-day practice immediately, and we want to make it an option that is possible to achieve alongside full-time work and busy lives.
We know that many people in the children’s workforce might feel ‘imposter syndrome’ when they think about university. But the experience that they already have - in the classroom, the nursery or the youth centre - are a huge form of expertise. We don’t want to teach participants how to work; we want to provide the academic language to describe the incredible work they’re already doing, and explore the theories that underpin this.
We know that for practitioners to truly flourish in a long-term, sustainable career, they require more than just a certificate - they require a space for critical reflection and engagement with what it means to be a child or young person in 21st century Britain, and their role in supporting those journeys. We will be supporting participants to explore the challenges facing the children that they are working with right now: digital safety in the world of AI algorithms, the post-pandemic social gap, and mental-health resilience.
This principle became a catalyst for our curriculum. Designed not just to teach, but to transform, this curriculum serves as a robust framework for those dedicated to the development, protection, and empowerment of children. The children that they work with right now.
The Foundation Degree is unusual because it values the workplace as a classroom. We have filled the course with opportunities to assess our participants through their daily interactions with children. We know that degrees can often be associated with written essays, but we also know that the day to day job of most people within the children’s workforce doesn’t rely on essay writing skills. It relies on the ability to differentiate communication styles, demonstrate leadership, speak and present confidently, and plan for a range of audiences and purposes.
We have built in assessments that won’t feel like assessments - they will feel like preparation for a future role, offering the opportunity to learn the theory and then apply it to real life situations. A traditional degree might have asked for a 3,000 word essay on the history of attachment theory, but we will be asking for a ‘Settling-In’ guide for a specific foster family based on attachment principles. A traditional degree might have asked for a presentation in a university lecture hall to peers, but we will be asking for a briefing for current colleagues on a new piece of safeguarding protocol. A traditional degree might have asked for an exam on child development milestones, but we will be asking for an observation-based report that identifies a developmental gap in a specific child and proposes a play-based intervention.
As a result of this, the ‘workplace-as-a-classroom’ isn’t just convenient for the participant, it’s also an injection of high-level, up-to-date training for the whole setting. When one person from a setting joins the course, there is a space for the whole team’s practice to level up because the assignments are happening in the staffroom, on the playground, and through relationships.
By building a truly ambitious and rigorous curriculum, we are investing in the academic depth of the workforce. This isn’t about adding to a CV, it’s about improving the life chances of the children that they serve.
To learn more, have a look at our Foundation Degree.
