#FEMidlandsETF: Practice Development Groups (PDGs)

***New! Honorarium payment of up to £400 for Practice Development Group Facilitators now available***

Everyone at touchconsulting Ltd gave a big cheer today, as we launched #FEMidlandsETF, a brand new networking collaboration in the East and West Midlands. #FEMidlandsETF is part of the Education and Training Foundation’s new Professional Development Groups programme, which follows on from the sterling work done by the PENs (or Professional Exchange Networks) over the past three years.

We’re excited because it’s so close to home. touchconsulting Ltd is based in Burton-on-Trent not far from the border, so we’re invested in both regions. Delighted, too, to be able to extend our experience of the #APConnect (Advanced Practitioners) programme into the #FEMidlands. In the first two years of #APConnect, we pushed against the ‘fourth wall’ of organisations, propelling Advanced Practitioners (APs) onto the national stage with their stories of how they were transforming cultures in FE. Those very same APs are the very people we are hoping will ignite the Professional Development Groups, bringing FE practitioners together across organisations, cultures and settings in diverse FE.

We’ll be kicking off #FEMidlandsETF in early September (with another round starting in January 2021) and we’re looking for eight Group Facilitators in each region, over the lifetime of the project. You absolutely don’t have to be an Advanced Practitioner, by the way! Someone who loves bringing people together for collaborative events is just perfect, whatever role you’re in. We’ve got a small budget for refreshments, a one-off honorarium payment for PDG facilitators (up to £400) and we’ll be offering lots of support, training and back up to help you feel confident about putting on engaging and stimulating events.

We are also looking for practitioners who want to join a PDG, especially if you’ve got an interest in learning from and sharing with others outside the organisation. These are likely to be virtual events so you don’t even have to travel!

The difference between these events and the PEN groups is that they are practitioner-led, facilitated and inspired and this is what is so exciting from our point of view. We *are* the experts in our own practice and #FEMidlandsETF is us getting out there are doing it for ourselves, rather than waiting for the ‘drive by’ facilitator to come and tell us some stuff. We can’t wait to see what you make of this new opportunity.

To apply click here. And follow us on Twitter @touchcons_FE #FEMidlandsETF.  We’d love to hear more from you about how you’d like to shape up this opportunity to bring people together into a vibrant space.