Post Qualification Pathway (P.Q.P)
for Alexander Teachers
Residential and self-study course leading to 225 credits at Level 4 & 5 awarded by the Open College Network.
A STAT Continuing Professional Development (CPD) opportunity to gain Open College Network (OCN) accreditation.
Course Outline:
The course is both experiential and academic. You will be doing Alexander work including hands on work, working alone and in small groups. There will be some group tasks and discussions. It is a workshop style with different elements interacting with each other. You will produce a portfolio of evidence of practical work for presentation to an academic board to be convened in October 2011. Costs:
Conference Fees: £1300 This includes tuition, OCN registration, project mentoring, work books and academic board fees
Facilities Fees: £80 This includes venue hire, refreshments and 2 course lunch in the hotel pub restaurant on Sat & Sun. Lunch will offer a choice of a starter and a main dish or main dish and pudding. Special diets can be catered for if known in advance. Tea & coffee breaks include herbal choices and extremely nice biscuits.
TOTAL £1380.00 not including accommodation. Please make cheques out to STAT.
Accommodation: BOOK DIRECTLY! We have a special conference price of £65 per night for B&B (single room, subject to early booking). The Hotel is lovely and the food first rate. We have run the PQP at this venue before and it was very popular, particularly their Sunday roasts. If you wish to bring a partner, they are welcome to join us for lunch (extra) and there is plenty to explore in and around Rottingdean. Please note you are responsible for booking your accommodation; if you wish to stay elsewhere please do so.
Conditions of enrolment.
The course is in two stages and you need to attend both. If you can’t attend part 2 because of illness then you will be eligible to attend part two of any future PQP course. Please note that the course runs approximately once a year.
Payment of fees: the full fees of £1380 are payable to STAT upon enrolment of the course. This includes both tuition and facilities hire for both sections of the course. Please note that in the event of you being unable to attend part 2 of the course, tuition fees cannot be refunded, but part of the facilities fees (£20) is refundable.
Upon payment of fees you will receive a PDF document with the record and evidence sheets containing the full programme. You should print this out assemble in a folder and bring it with you the course. The PDF also contains other information about the units that you may print out if you wish, but can also be read on screen.
ABOUT OCNSER and NOCN
OCNSER has accredited this course and this will be its 4th run. OCNSER is part of a national accrediting body www.ocnser.org.uk.
The National Open College Network is owned by the 10 OCNs operating in England and Northern Ireland. Collectively, they are the leading credit-based Awarding Body in the UK, offering high quality, flexible, credit-based qualifications recognised by the Regulatory Authorities in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
There are more than 2500 centres nationally offering NOCN qualifications and/or OCN accredited provision, of which STAT is one. They currently have almost 100 qualifications on both the National Qualification Framework (NQF) and the Qualifications and Credit Framework (QCF).
NOCN qualifications and OCN accredited provision, are delivered through further education and sixth form colleges, universities and higher education institutions, trade unions, TUC education, employers, local education authorities and training organisations, adult and community education centres, and voluntary and community organisations. All OCNs support the delivery of NOCN qualifications. Full details are available at: http://www.nocn.org.uk/
About Credits and Levels What Level 4 & 5 means
Learning accredited at this level will reflect the ability to:
Develop a rigorous approach to the acquisition of a broad knowledge base;
Employ a range of specialised skills;
Evaluate information using it to plan and develop investigative strategies and to determine solutions to a variety of unpredictable problems;
Operate in a range of varied and specific contexts, taking responsibility for the nature and quality of outputs.
Generate ideas through the analysis of concepts at an abstract level, with a command of specialised skills and the formulation of responses to well defined and abstract problems;
Accept responsibility for determining and achieving personal and/or group outcomes.
What the credits mean
Most academic qualifications are counted in credits. For example to obtain an undergraduate degree you need 360 credits at levels 4,5 & 6, a Masters degree is also 360 credits, (although universities do occasionally change how they count credits,) but at a higher level (6/7/8).
Credits are gained by attending various modules, known as units. The units are ‘valued’ in credits at the relevant level. In our case the level is 4 & 5, equivalent to HE levels 1 & 2, the first two years of an undergraduate degree. Each credit is awarded for 10 hours study or learning. This is usually made up of both practical experience and self-study, so it would include reading, note taking etc.
OCN will award a certificate for the Post Qualification Pathway for Alexander Technique Teachers if you acquire 225 credits at levels 4 & 5. You will be able to use these credits as ‘currency’ in a HE situation. Universities offering MAs by work based learning will recognise these credits. Please be aware that each university course is different in how much Accreditation of Prior Learning (APL) it will accept for a particular course.
What Units we are we studying? Stage 1 & 2
The 2 stageswill cover five units:
UNIT TITLE
LEVEL
CREDIT VALUE
Using Alexander Technique teaching skills with individual pupils.
Five
10
Reflective practice skills for Alexander Technique teachers.
Five
10
Small Business and Marketing Skills in a professional environment.
Four
5
Health and Safety for Alexander Technique teaching.
Four
5
Self directed Alexander Technique Research Project.
Five
30
Accreditation of prior learning (APL)
You have already acquired 165 credits at level 4 for your STAT certificate and this course will gain you the extra credits necessary for certification. These credits relate to units (modules) about particular aspects of Alexander Technique. During the course you learn how to work with all aspects of the units. Please note that these credits are only awarded when you undertake the PQP.
TOTAL PQP Credits 60
APL for STAT cert & membership 165
Total Credits awarded 225
…and don’t forget, there will be work to complete in between the two stages, mostly your individual project.
About the project.
This is a 30 credit unit-so it’s quite sizable and the biggest unit you do on the PQP. It’s a chance to explore an aspect of the technique that fascinates you. Past projects have included the exploration of Alexander Touch, application to Violin playing, exploring and reflecting your own individual AT journey (The Uncomfortable Place) and Hands on the Back of the Chair! For most people this is the most exciting part of the PQP-and a chance to flex those little grey cells.
Academic Board
An academic Board is convened for the award of credit and is chaired by the OCN moderator Cathy Childs. Cathy is a Principal Lecturer at the University of Chichester and Head of the BA and MA programmes in Dance. She is an external examiner for several universities including Surrey and Leeds; Erasmus exchange co-ordinator with theatre Academy, Helsinki and Danshogskolan, Stockholm. She also examines and dances internationally-she is a keen supporter of the Alexander Technique and a very helpful and insightful moderator.
Other board members are Carolyn Nicholls and Astrid Holm. Carolyn developed the PQP programme with Jan Mulreany, OCN’s development officer. Carolyn is responsible to OCNSER for ensuring the quality and standard of work presented to board and has tutored three PQP’s as well as the full programme for the past 5 years.
Astrid Holm has tutored the OCN programme for 3 yrs and was a participant in the first PQP course. Both Carolyn & Astrid have been trained for their roles. OCN occasionally includes another board members to ensure continued quality. The board assesses the project as an individual item, and the overall portfolio.
Board awards are: fail (that has never happened!), pass, merit and distinction. At our most recent board, one project was awarded distinction and two others merit. The certificate doesn’t record these levels, but you will receive a short written comment from Cathy Childs about your project and portfolio.
Submission. Your work should be completed and ready for board prior to October 2011 and you will be advised of the date for collection of portfolios, which must be posted at your own expense to the STAT office (they will be returned). If you are unable to complete your portfolio in time for presentation to the board in Oct 2011, you may submit work to the next academic board. This is liable to be a year later. If you fail to submit for 2 successive boards you may be ineligible for submission. The board will use its discretion in this event but no awards of credit can be made without portfolio presentation.
The Venue
White Horse Hotel, High Street, Rottingdean, Brighton, East Sussex, BN2 7HR Telephone: 01273 300301.
This is a hotel/pub right on the sea front with bracing walks along the promenade and wonderful views along the coast line. You can get evening meals here or at any number of excellent pubs and restaurants in Rottingdean. It’s approximately 5 miles from Brighton and a typical Sussex village complete with village green and duck pond.
