Additional Information Request
I would like to discuss how amazing my GTP mentor was. Anna Savva has supported me throughout my training and I can't thank her enough for all of the constructive feedback and motivation she installed in me to be my best in becoming a great teacher which led me to achieve QTS.
e-Qualitas is an outstanding training provider for anyone who is looking at starting their journey into becoming a teacher. They provide their trainees with support via email and telephone, and direct you to lots of helpful resources which help trainees to reflect on their daily practice and become a better teacher.
I am pleased with all the aspects of the course including booking as well as the cost of the course. E-learning modules were easy to follow which explained clearly with examples. The course provided an opportunity to update my subject knowledge in maths and equip me to take on more responsibility in teaching.
I recently engaged in the 12 week SKE Maths course delivered by e-Qualitas. Successful completion of this course was a condition of taking up a place on a PGCE degree course. I initially felt that this was a stressful proposition, but I should not have worried as e-Qualitas make the process very simple.
Everyone I have come in contact with from e-Qualitas has been extremely helpful, so I have had an excellent experience so far. I have taken part in two zoom meetings discussing e-track and the Pre-ITT activities, the meetings were informative and put my mind at ease so I could get on with the work I needed to complete. I look forward to continuing my apprenticeship journey with e-Qualitas.
I have found Rose to be very helpful as a consultant. She always responds very quickly and is always able to answer any questions or queries I have. The communications with the team at the Teaching Apprenticeship programme, in general, have been great. The webinars have been particularly useful and informative.
Rose was absolutely fantastic in every step of the way when dealing with both my school and myself, every question was answered quickly and the zoom consultation she held with my school was really the reason why my school went ahead with taking me on in the first place. I also would not be training to be a teacher right now if she had not sent an email to my school offering the courses.
Rose as a consultant - extremely helpful. She provides you with everything you need to know and more. Rose will put you in contact with the correct people if she does not know the answer to your question. If it was not for Rose, I wouldn’t be where I am now on this course.
You have been extremely helpful and very efficient at responding to an email which has made the application process easier. You have been very friendly and have managed to answer all questions I have asked. You are a credit to the company.
Rose has been a friendly and extremely helpful consultant who has gone out of her way to help me choose the right route to train as a teacher. She has been prompt in replying to my emails and has been reliable when I have asked for more information. I am excited to start my training this September and feel confident that Rose will still be there to support me if I need her.
The candidates that have been put forward are all of a very high calibre. There is obviously a sound and robust selection process before they reach me which makes the whole process much easier and purposeful. The candidates have been so superior to other candidates from other training providers that we have stopped using the other providers where possible. We aim to continue to work with TAP and EQ to this end.
I have to say that my tutor Sean was absolutely amazing at helping me plan. He got me to understand how important it was to know my students. My plans were quite basic at first but Sean really helped me develop this and I feel really confident about my planning now as it meets the needs of all my pupils. I think that the course with eQ was absolutely fantastic. At first, I thought this is just so much work but now I absolutely see the benefit of doing all of that work
I would rate the overall eQ experience with regards to the Teaching Apprenticeship 10 out of 10. The reason it would be a definite 10 is because accessing the programme is really simple. The training materials are such high quality and the bits that we really like with eQ are the fact that Mentors and Tutors from eQ are very knowledgeable and often they're very black and white, so it's really clear if somebody's making progress, so we really like that transparency.
eQ was fantastic and very helpful with regards to helping us access the Teaching Apprenticeship Levy funding. Previous to a couple of years ago we haven't had to access the salary grants and working with Suraj and eQ made that process really, really simple, and really straightforward.
The benefits of the Teaching Apprenticeship Programme for us are that the trainees can start at any point during the year, so it allows us to be flexible. One of the other benefits is that the programme is so well put together. That means that any of our graduates get a really positive experience of teacher training, and they're trained to the best standard and the way that we want them to be trained.
We first became aware of the Teaching Apprenticeship Programme at a Bolton Headteachers meeting two years ago now and the Teaching Apprenticeship Programme team came and presented and I was really interested. I reached out and as a result of that started making links and here we are today with multiple TAP trainees.
eQ was phenomenally helpful in finding us, suitable graduates. They helped us recruit the best possible candidates from across the country. Actually, we're right in the South East of England, so our catchment for graduates is quite small. Some of our teacher training candidates came from further afield. One came from York and another came from Essex, so it enabled us to get the best possible candidates.
There are many benefits to the TAP Programme on many levels. First and foremost, obviously we can tap into the apprenticeship levy so there's a financial incentive for the school. It gives us an opportunity to grow our own, which I'm really passionate about.
So this year, in particular, we've found some members of staff that have joined us as Teaching Assistants or in pastoral roles who have just fit in with the school ethos so well that we really didn't want to lose them and those members of staff expressed an interest very early in the career that they wanted to become a teacher. So we found that with the Teaching Apprenticeship Programme we were able to retain those staff, grow those staff and turn them into the teachers that they want to be without losing them for PGCE programme. So it really has been absolutely critical for us this year in terms of retention for those members of staff and we really believe it's about the person.
e-Qualitas has been very good in terms of helping and directing our Trainees, Tutors and with me as a Lead Trainer in terms of providing the service that quality we want and really filtering down that vision that e-Qualitas have in terms of their handbook, in terms of their ITT curriculum, and ensuring that all parties are clear on our common goal for each individual trainee.
So, in science, we're really lucky to have our Teaching Apprentice this academic year, and an ITT student and I find that both of them coming in have bought new ideas to the department. They're both keen, enthusiastic. They want to learn and take all the information. They've not got any preconceived ideas. They're not jaded by the system as it were. They do work really, really well with enthusiasm. I love having trainee teachers, it's good fun!
I think what TAP has done has provided more in situ trainees that are literally immersed in teaching and learning, and as long as the Mentors are handpicked by us, which they are, we've got an excellent foundation to foster and develop high-quality trainees. We have some wonderful Mentors and the external support provided by TAP is good quality. I think it's better for trainees to learn on the job.
Well, in the Humanities faculty here, we've got several teachers who are currently teaching here who trained here through the TAP programme. They understand our students. They understand the way we want to teach, and it's really great talent. It's like when they become an NQT they’re not really an NQT because they already know the kids. They already know us and they’re already trained and ready to go!
I'm Head of Faculty here at Essa Academy for Humanities, mentoring two TAP students at the moment. So I think the benefits of the Teaching Apprenticeship Programme is that they're launched straight in and of course, we've made sure their timetable is slowly laddered up, so the initial part of teaching might be a 10 minute plenary or introduction the lesson and then obviously the timetable allocation is increasing each week. But the idea of getting stuck in straight away and picking up good practice straight away from colleagues and that being specific to the school that you're in, I think has been really really useful. So the idea that you can get started really quickly and hit the ground running I think has really benefited the trainee we've got, and it suits their personality to get stuck in nice and quickly.
So the best element of the Teaching Apprenticeship Programme is seeing staff with potential having a vehicle to move forward to teaching and learning. A lot of the trainees that have come through from being TA's within the school, and it's great to see that they have a pathway into the teaching profession. There's a lot in the news now in terms of retention figures and actually to get really good quality staff who have the relevant qualifications and for our Head and for our school to support that, has been one of the greatest achievements to see staff develop people who will stay within the teaching profession and will be really proficient. And lastly, I'd just like to thank Jane Embury for all the support over this period. She answers the phone at any time and and really supports each individual teacher and is a credit to e-Qualitas.
The quality and delivery of learning through the TAP programme is excellent. It's very thorough on e-track, which is the e-Qualitas online learning portal which is where the trainees and mentors record all of the evidence and the observations and the learning that's happened. There's a very thorough programme on there, quite a complete curriculum which links really nicely to teacher standards and is quite comparable and equivalent to other training providers with what they expect. So the support has been good. There's been Webinars available for Mentors and it's a complete training package, so there's been no complaints at all, and it's quite an easy route to follow, I think, for the school, for the Mentor and for the Trainee as well.
The process of getting started on the TAP Programme is really straightforward. For us, accessing the salary grant was really helpful and really easy and the relationship we had with eQ made that happen. eQ delivers all the teacher training elements of the programme and also help provide training courses for our Mentors so that we know that the programme being delivered is the best possible programme that we could have.
The Teaching Apprenticeship route will absolutely be a part of our longer term recruitment strategy for our school. The the fact that we are able to recruit nationally, the fact that we get quality candidates through from eQ, means that the process is infinitely easier for us. Our recruitment going forward will be quite heavily based around teaching apprenticeships.