A new professional development initiative has been launched by software-enabled education services provider, TES Global.
TES Develop offers schools a single point of access to hundreds of online courses, in combinations that can be individually tailored.
“Schools are usually faced with a plethora of CPD offerings from a multitude of providers and have to invest time picking and choosing, often with no sure way of knowing which course will meet their needs and deliver real impact,” said TES Global’s chief operating officer, Steve Pinches.
“TES Develop is designed to remove the time, cost and guesswork from this process, giving schools access to a comprehensive range of quality-assured CPD and peer-to-peer learning that covers all teaching stages.”
Backed by an online collaborative platform, the service offers training in three key areas – professional studies, core subject knowledge and safeguarding – with each course varying in length between one and five hours.
“We believe school leaders now have an appetite for using online services in many aspects of school life” – Steve Pinches, TES Global
The benefits of CPD are increasingly recognised, with a 2020 report by the Education Policy Institute finding that it has a greater impact on pupil attainment than other measures such as implementing performance-related pay for teachers or lengthening the school day.
Nevertheless, according to research published in 2016 by the Teacher Development Trust, schools direct only 1% of their annual budget to CPD.
With remote learning pushing to the fore during lockdown, Pinches says that now is the moment for online CPD to become more widely adopted by education providers.
“We believe school leaders now have an appetite for using online services in many aspects of school life, not least to help reduce the risk of infection to staff and students,” he said.
“This reinforces our belief that TES Develop is the right solution for post-COVID professional development.”
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