Revamping Practice Tutor Induction: A Collaborative Journey in the Faculty of Business and Law
In the context of higher education, particularly within The Open University’s Faculty of Business and Law (FBL), practice tutors (PTs) play a crucial role in supporting our apprentices and professional programmes. However, equipping these tutors with the right tools and training through a comprehensive induction programme is vital to their success. This article explores the findings from a qualitative study on PT induction needs and outlines a co-design approach to redesigning the induction process.
The PT role within FBL incorporates the lecturer role with practice tuition. This practice tuition is linked to the additional requirements of apprenticeships and professional programmes, many are linked to rules around the funding used and various compliance expectations. These include building relationships with the student/apprentice and the employer while navigating the programme's various regulatory requirements.
Understanding What Practice Tutors Need
In 2022, I embarked on qualitative research to understand the perspectives of practice tutors and their line managers about the induction process. The focus was on whether the current practices for traditional teaching roles were enough for PTs, who play a unique and critical role in supporting apprentices and what they wanted from induction to the role and organisation.
What Was Discovered
Through engaging focus groups with PTs and their line managers, I uncovered some critical insights.
1. Building Connections and Culture: Our PTs expressed a need for better ways to connect and immerse themselves in our organisational culture, especially given the predominantly online work environment. Feeling isolated was common, with some tutors feeling like they did not know their full role for months.
2. Customised Induction Programmes: One-size-fits-all doesn’t work here. Induction programmes should be tailored to account for new staff's existing knowledge and skills while addressing their specific needs and the organisation's requirements.
3. Extended Induction Time: Four weeks just isn’t enough. Both tutors and managers agreed that induction activities should stretch beyond the standard induction period to avoid overwhelming new tutors and to provide information as needed.
4. Stronger Mentorship: Mentorship is crucial but needs more structure for practice tutors. Tutors need mentors to guide them and help them integrate into the PT community and provide support on the various processes and systems used as part of the delivery and support of the apprenticeship and professional programmes.
5. Timely and Relevant Content: It’s all about giving the right information at the right time. We need to align training and tools with what tutors actually need, when they need it. This takes into account the learning elimination curve and how people learn and ensuring they have the resources to hand when they need it.
Redesigning Induction with a Co-design Approach
With these insights in hand, a colleague and I launched a project funded by the SCiLAB Scholarship Seedcorn Funding scheme to revamp the PT induction for our Senior Leader (SLA) and Chartered Manager (CMDA) apprenticeship programmes. This project used a co-design approach, bringing tutors directly into the design process.
The Co-design Process in Action
Our co-design process was dynamic and involved several stages and was based on a similar process used by Jackman et al when designing their induction for doctoral researchers:
1. Initial Face-to-Face Session (stage 1): We kicked things off by bringing PTs together in person to discuss their roles and share experiences. This was also a chance for them to get to know each other as they are all remote workers across England. Using their experiences, they constructed a timeline of training and CPD activities, which helped build rapport and gather valuable feedback.
2. Online Focus Groups (stage 2 – 4): We then held several online sessions, during which tutors reviewed and refined the proposed induction structure. These discussions helped us flesh out the content for each training session, ensuring it was comprehensive and practical.
Figure 1: Overview of stages used in the co-design process
The Final Product
After several iterations and plenty of feedback, we developed a final induction structure and content outline. The line managers and the Associate Lecturer Support and Professional Development (ALSPD) team reviewed this to ensure all needs were met. It has also been shared with other faculties within the Open University who have PTs to showcase the various activities and their timings.
The redesigned induction programme is in production on a VLE page for new PTs. This page also serves as a resource for existing tutors, ensuring they have ongoing support and professional development opportunities. One of the fundamental features we wanted to include was the ability to update the materials and notify all tutors of the changes simultaneously.
Conclusion
Our journey to overhaul the PT induction programme has been eye-opening and incredibly rewarding. By involving tutors in the design process and addressing their specific needs, we’ve created a programme that truly supports them in their roles. This collaborative approach not only enhances the induction experience but also sets our tutors up for success, which in turn benefits our apprentices.
We’re excited about the positive changes this will bring and hope this approach can serve as a model for other institutions looking to improve their induction programmes.
