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Qualification

DTAP was originally set up as a major strategic initiative aiming to bring together the key national organisations in the youth and education dance sector, to overcome a significant barrier to increased access and participation in dance for young people.

For a number of years, a major issue for the increase of dance participation across the youth dance and education sector has been the lack of well-trained and accredited dance teachers. This has long been recognised, and was identified at the Department for Culture Media and Sports (DCMS) Dance Health Seminar held at Laban in December 2004, as key to the success of future development.

History

In early 2007, with the support of Nike, Arts and Business and Youth Dance England, Laban initiated a national project to investigate and develop appropriate training and accreditation models for dance teachers to work with young people across diverse dance styles and cultural traditions within informal educational settings. DTAP commissioned Susanne Burns to research and make recommend actions for addressing this issue. The report: Dance Training and Accreditation
Project: Research Phase Report. January 2008 was discussed at seminars in 2008 and received strong sectoral backing to take forwards the recommendations. (The report is available as a download on this website.)

As a result of this research, funding was secured by DTAP from Arts Council England (awarded April 2009) to commission Trinity College London (TCL) to produce a qualification: Diploma in Dance Teaching and Learning (Children and young people) Level 6 on the QCF, in full consultation with DTAP. It is planned that the qualification will be submitted for accreditation in January 2010. YDE is leading on the development of this qualification for dance practitioners on behalf of the DTAP.

How will the qualification work?

In simple terms the qualification produced by TCL is similar to the driving test. They have set the indicative course content, standards, assessment modes and criteria and will examine the performance of the candidates. All the support services that are delivered by driving schools to help people prepare to take the test have to be created to assist people prepare to take the Qualification and it is this area that DTAP is now considering how to support.

The qualification is designed to be flexible to meet the needs of practitioners who will be at different stages in careers. Overall the aims of the Qualification state:

This qualification requires candidates to demonstrate professional competence in dance teaching and learning for children and young people, the ability to refine and use understanding, methods and skills in teaching and learning practice, to demonstrate the ability to create high quality, safe and informed teaching and learning practice in a range of formal and informal settings (e.g. community dance, youth dance, after school clubs, dance projects within curriculum time, youth clubs, youth justice work, sports centres) and the ability to work autonomously and with professionalism. Candidates are encouraged to be reflective practitioners applying theory to practice in teaching and learning contexts.

The Qualification can be taken in two ways:

1. Experienced practitioners who want to enter assessment materials directly to TCL with limited intervention, probably in the form of course guidance and mentoring
2. Less experienced practitioners who will need to access training courses in order to acquire the skills needed to take the qualification.

When will the qualification be available?

Elements of the delivery of the Qualification are being tested out from September to December 2009 by various organisations across England to inform the final writing of the Qualification. It is expected that the Qualification will be accredited by April 2010. At that point it will be publicly available and it is planned that training providers will be able to start offering training & mentoring programmes later in 2010/11.

How does the qualification relate to the rest of DTAP’s work?

The grant awarded to DTAP by ACE also provided support for interrelated projects including the development of a set of Professional Standards, which we aim to have approved as National Occupational Standards (NOS, led by Foundation for Community Dance) and work towards a long term aim of the development of a Regulatory Framework for the dance sector (led by the whole of DTAP). The most direct relevance of these other strands to the development of the Qualification is the creation of Professional /National Occupational Standards. The development of these for CYP’s work will be in the first phase of work led by FCD.

How will the Qualification impact upon dance?

The impact of the sector wide DTAP working on the Qualification, will be:

• A better skilled workforce, with increased capacity to meet demand
• Better understanding of children and young people’s participatory dance by employers and the ever-growing market for dance professionals
• Increased quality control of CPD provision in the informal sector
• Increased influence on initial training / Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) to develop a more ‘employment-ready’ workforce