Schedule of Opportunities 2008 - 2009
Education & Children's Services is committed to raising standards of attainment and achievement for all our young people.
It recognises the importance of continuing professional development for all staff in achieving this objective.
This schedule of development opportunities focuses on activities in relation to the Business Management and Improvement Plan, and will be delivered between August 2008 and June 2009. To meet the differing needs of staff, courses are offered in the schedule at different times with activities taking place during the day, at the end of the day, in the evenings and occasionally on Saturdays and holidays. It is the clear intention that the four areas of the Service work closely together and are mutually supportive.
In the spirit of this integrated approach courses are open to all members of staff across the Service as appropriate to individual needs as well as the needs of the whole Service. The Schedule of Opportunities contains courses under the following headings:
Information Across the Service [pdf 64KB] provides information regarding training and development across the whole Service: from Early Years, Networks, Leadership, Additional Support Needs, Corporate Training to Pre-Retirement. Please take a moment to read how the Service is continuing to develop its training portfolio.
The following assumptions should be made about courses running within the Schedule of Opportunities:
- There will be no charge for courses unless otherwise stated within the description for each course
- Lunch will be provided unless otherwise stated
- Supply cover and travel costs will be incurred by the attendee's establishment
- A penalty charge of £50 will be made for non attendance
Booking Arrangements
Applications for places on all courses should be made on CPD1 forms [pdf 44KB]. These are available from this site and also from your Staff Development Co-ordinator or supervisor. Once completed, they should be submitted - following approval from your line manager - to the Training and Development Unit, Pullar House, Perth. Please ensure that you return your CPD1 form in plenty of time to ensure you are successful in obtaining a place on your chosen course. You will be notified directly whether you have been successful in obtaining a place or have been placed on a waiting list.
Registration
A register is taken at each training event based on people signing in. Individual training records are updated based on those registers.
Procedures for processing and running courses
The process for deciding whether a course will run is as follows:
- A month prior to the course a decision is made to run or not, based on the course being more than half full
- Courses that are not viable are cancelled at this stage so that a cancellation cost is not incurred
- People will be informed that they have a place at least a month in advance of the course running
A penalty charge for non attendance of £50 will be made.
However there will be no charge if:
- people cannot attend and indicate this, at least a month in advance of the course/training running
- if the establishment sends another person in their place
It is understandable that due to unforeseen circumstances people may be unable to attend. In these cases it is essential that people notify the Training and Development Unit as soon as this is known so that the place can be allocated to others or the course cancelled if there are insufficient numbers.
We understand that there are good reasons and pressures which make attendance difficult or impossible but the course still runs and provider and venue/catering costs still need to be funded.
Should people not inform the Training and Development Unit of their intention not to attend their establishment will be charged to ensure that additional costs are not incurred in running courses.
Course Evaluations
Evaluation forms should be submitted to the organiser at the end of the course. It is vital that your evaluation is honest as decisions are made about future courses based on the feedback recieved.
Enquiries
General enquiries should be directed to the Training & Development Unit e-mail account: tdu@pkc.gov.uk
