Guidance for staff working with disabled learners Friday, June 18, 2010 - 15:05

The application guides - Teaching disabled learners and Learning support for disabled learners - were developed by NIACE through consultations with stakeholders, teachers and learning support staff working with disabled learners. The documents define the skills, knowledge and understanding that staff need in order to support the skills development of disabled learners.

Staff can use the guidance to:

• identify their continuing professional development (CPD) needs;
• plan the acquisition of new knowledge and skills; and
• develop existing skills to meet the needs of learners.

Viv Berkeley, Programme Director at NIACE, said:

"NIACE was delighted to be commissioned by LLUK to write guidance for staff working with disabled learners. The documents have many uses, one of which was to support the development of a Level 5 specialist teaching qualification and a Level 3 Certificate in Learning Support (Disabled Learners)."

"The sector has been asking for this for a long time and it was also the vision set out in Learning for Living and Work (LSC, 2007) and Progression through Partnership (HMG, 2007). The consultation events we held gave providers the opportunity to inform the documents and we are very grateful to them. I feel sure they will see their thinking reflected in the final publications."

"NIACE looks forward to seeing the next stage of the process - the guidance for the awarding bodies which will set out the content of the newly devised qualifications."