Transcript

Rebecca: Okay, so we're going to talk a little bit more about career-related studies and more specifically BTEC. Now, CP schools around the world do lots of different career-related studies, BTEC is very popular and we have a lot of questions about BTEC. So we thought we'd talk a little bit about this. So in your context, Stephanie, in terms of how you have contextualized BTEC, could you tell us a little bit about how you have managed that process?

Stephanie: Yes. We decided to go with BTEC for our career- related study course offerings because they have a breadth of different courses that we can choose from to support our students in what their goals are. But in addition, with the different levels of their qualification, going from the BTEC certificate of 180 guided learning hours all the way up to the Extended Diploma, which is 1080 guided learning hours, it's a really customizable program for the different learners that would be in that program. So that's the main reason that we chose to go with BTEC for our career-related study course.

As for the courses themselves that we chose, we had gone back to some historical data and looked at for past graduates, students who weren't necessarily as successful as they could have been in the Diploma Program since that was the only pathway to graduation we had outside of the US High School diploma - we looked at students who were in the diploma program because that was the only choice. If they hadn't been in that program and they had been in the IBCP, where did they go? What would benefit those students? And those were really the students that we were looking to target. And so based off of that historical data of our own past graduates, that's how we ended up choosing the particular career-related study courses themselves. So we ended up starting out with offering Art and Design, Hospitality and BTEC Sport as our three career-related studies courses. Then we went to what level of qualification, so what's the size we would want, and because we wanted it to be still comparable to students in the Diploma Program, we went with the BTEC Diploma level, so that's 720 guided learning hours.

And then within our timetable, we run a block schedule so three of our blocks running as an HL course is the equivalent of 720 guided learning hours over the two years. So in our block scheduling system, we have four blocks per day on one day. Three of those are dedicated to BTEC. And so students really have that a immersive experience in their BTEC study; if they want to do visits within our community, it's very easy for them to travel off timetable and not miss any of the other academic subjects because they've got that really self-contained day of that study around their BTEC coursework where they get to specialize in that thing they're really passionate about.

Rebecca: And you've talked about starting from where the students are at, at that moment, you know, and creating the course for them. Is there an element also of thinking about where they want to go [after their CP] and using BTEC for that and the size of course?

Stephanie: Absolutely. So we have shifted our different BTEC offerings throughout the time that we've been running BTEC courses; we have added Business, we're authorized to bring in some other subject areas as well, such as Applied Science, Engineering, Creative Media. And so we're constantly looking at where our students are planning to go, what they're interested in doing, speaking with students in grades 9 and 10 just before they would enter the last two years of high school and asking them what they're interested in - is there something that we would want to modify and start running as a program?

Additionally, if a student starts out at a Diploma level and they leave our school before necessarily finishing a full two years, what's nice is we can then still offer them a BTEC - say - subsidiary diploma, or if a student comes in a little bit later, they can also still get a subsidiary diploma or an extended diploma or perhaps just a certificate. If they're coming in and they only can do one of the three blocks, we can register them for that certificate and they still will complete that career-related study component, and so they can still earn that IBCP qualification. In addition to that BTEC qualification.

Rebecca: And in terms of university as well, how have you found how BTEC has been received in the different universities that students go to as one of the pathways they can choose?

Stephanie: It really varies quite greatly by universities, and it does take a fair bit of additional effort, on the part of families, on the part of our counselling team to make sure that all of those different components are well-recognized. When the BTEC diploma is housed within an IB career-related program qualification, that's, uh, more recognizable for universities. If a student has the BTEC Extended Diploma, that of itself is widely recognized by universities even outside of the IB Career-related Program diploma.

Rebecca: I'm thinking in particular from the UK context and how BTEC is received and thinking about how you use Higher levels as well in conjunction with your career-related studies. And certain universities, as well, will see that as a indication of a very thorough and academic course. We are not saying that's the only way in any shape or form, but we are very much thinking about the student, where they're at, where they want to go, and making sure that they have those choices. It can be a situation where schools don't push their students to take on a larger career-related studies or a Higher level, and it's just really thinking about, okay, well what are their levels of aspiration? What could they do?

Stephanie: Yeah, what we've actually done with our students who are taking the BTEC level three diploma as part of their career-related program, we actually say four – minimum two - diploma subjects; one needs to be at a Higher level and the other can be at a Standard level simply because in the UK that translation of the BTEC level three diploma is two A levels, and then a Higher level subject from the IB would also be recognized as an a A level.

So they'd have their three A levels and hence be more comparable to that A level system in the UK and have a better match in terms of recognizing similar qualifications, even though they're different programs.

Rebecca:  That certainly reflects how it's developed over the last 10 years with the CP. And it's, it's good to mention the UK context because I know that it is a popular destination for a lot of students and it's because they've had such a lot of CP students in the UK. It's really interesting using that evidence and it has a knock-on effect around the world. So that's great. Thank you.

Rebecca: So one of the things that we get asked a lot is about the paperwork involved with BTEC  and, and how different schools cope with that and process that. So obviously this is very much a subjective response. Stephanie, from your experience, and you've been doing this quite a long time, but are there any, things that you have found have helped, in your process?

Stephanie: I hope so. I found them helpful. My team has found 'em helpful. Hopefully other people will too! We started the BTEC program at a very interesting time, and that was right when Covid came into our lives and in-person visits suddenly were forced to become remote visits. So it took years before I ever had an in-person visit. So that starting to have to track everything electronically was quite natural for us. And I would say the thing that we found extremely helpful was most of the paperwork, in fact, all of the paperwork, we converted into Google documents and Google Sheets so that students would have access to everything.

As anyone who's in the BTEC program is aware (and if you're not, get ready). So every piece of work that students submit, they have to complete something called an ‘assessment record sheet’ where they authenticate that it is their work. They also reflect on their own work and their learning to justify their marks, and then it goes to the teacher for their marking. And so all of those are now done electronically and for that interaction to happen between students and teacher, to have those as Google Docs makes it great. Everybody can share in that document. And then I can also access that document to then get it ready to be shared with our ‘standards verifier’, which can then be done electronically.

Additionally, we've got our students doing presentations through slides, again, writing essays through Google Documents. For our students who are in our ‘art and design’ course they do have their physical portfolio as well as the work that they'll do electronically and physical portfolios. We do then scan and get those uploaded so that we've got electronic copies of all student work. Then we just keep everything housed, within their different courses for the units and the students.

And then of course on the teacher side of things BTEC asks us to document when we sit down to do moderation when we're planning our units during the units and as student work comes in to make sure that the teachers are moderating together. So again, we've put all of those forms as Google documents. As the leader, the coordinator for our BTEC team, I've made templates for everything. So everyone on my team can then access the templates, uh, and use them accordingly with each of their units and tasks as they go

Rebecca: A lot! Quite a lot, then.

Stephanie: It is a fair amount of paperwork!

But I would say the biggest thing is, and it sounds silly, but make sure that you've got naming conventions that make sense to you and your team, that you have the students naming all of their work consistently, however, again, works best in your system and that you start getting your folders organized right away. So then when you've got your verification visit scheduled, it's really easy to locate all of that documentation and share it with your ‘standards verifier’.

Rebecca: And in terms of your ‘IV’ [independent verifier] correct me if I'm wrong, is that somebody in-house?

Stephanie: So yes, IVs are in-house, right? And then we have the standards verifier who will come from Pearson to moderate the work overall. So the internal verification forms, again, I've taken the templates that BTEC produces because they'll share out Word documents and spreadsheets and I have simply uploaded them into Google and then formatted them so that they're synonymous but more portable as a Google document or as a Google sheet, when creating the overall assessment plan for the two year program. And then when we sit down and do moderation of student work; when we do the internal verification of the assignment briefs all of that is now done through the power of Google and templates.

Rebecca: And it's a nice way to end because it is the 25th anniversary of Google today. There we go. Oh, Google. Yep.

Stephanie: Huge fan of Google.

Rebecca: Other platforms are available. There we go. Thank you very much.