Qualifications

PJC has considerable experience designing and developing teaching, learning, and assessment policies and practices (from entry level through to Level 7 Degree Apprenticeships), and understand how these elements are combined effectively in qualification development and delivery (and monitoring and evaluation) to support learner appeal, engagement, performance, achievement, accessibility, and successful outcomes.

This work requires: expertise in quality, standards, and regulation; insights into national policy formulation, development processes, and diverse delivery contexts; targeted research, testing, and modelling; and a willingness to respond to emerging evidence and actual learner experiences.

PJC’s expertise in qualification design, implementation, and improvement has supported and delivered some of the most widely taken, innovative, and highly regarded qualifications in the UK.

It is only through the genuine investigation and analysis of a qualification’s intended purposes, learner and wider user needs, education and training contexts, and delivery requirements (supported by evidence and the modelling of potential options, risks, and technical solutions), which enables high-quality, engaging, and enduring teaching, learning, and assessment programmes to be developed and implemented.

Next – Assessment

Assessment

Paul is an assessment specialist.

His expertise in the technical aspects of assessment design ensures secure, valid, and reliable performance measurement for defined purposes, specific contexts, and conditions (across the full assessment cycle), while always being attentive to the particular needs of the full range of learners (and wider qualification users).

PJC helps clients to recognise, understand, and respond effectively to the complex interplay of factors which affect validity and reliability in assessment methods and materials, the challenges associated with delivery, manageability, efficiency, and security of assessment, and the – at times – inadequately addressed assessment factors which profoundly affect learner experience, motivation, performance, achievement, and accessibility.

PJC appreciates that assessment is not a purely technical process but – equally – a human one.  

Assessment should not measure performance only in an instant, too narrowly, outside of relevant or purposeful media and contexts, or arbitrarily. It should accurately evidence genuine capabilities and provide learners with reasonable and appropriate opportunities (and meaningful options) in assessment requirements, contexts, and conditions, to confirm their various, often complex range of aptitudes, insights, and skills proficiencies, to reliably recognise attainment and achievement, and to provide a platform for higher achievement, advancement, and aspiration (with motivating second chances, wherever possible).

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Standards

Almost all policies and practices in national education and training (academic, technical, vocational, and professional) relate to the perennial project of seeking to “raise standards”.  But “standards” are a surprisingly elastic, and elusive, concept in education and training.

We might agree on needing to aspire towards, and trying to achieve, “high standards”, but understanding what this means precisely, how it might be measured (accurately), how changes to standards have multiple, often unintended consequences, identifying who changes are likely to benefit (and how), and even where these standards reside, is where the real work begins.

Adding an extra hurdle (or extra half metre to its height): does this raise standards? Or do many learners just keep careening, or lumbering, down their assigned pathway without clearing the newly raised bar, with each intimidating, additional attempt, eroding confidence, increasing exhaustion, and raising reasonable questions about value and purpose in education and training?

PJC works with clients to investigate and confirm appropriate methods, processes, and measures for confirming how standards can be defined, secured, maintained, and improved. This collaborative approach is underpinned by evidence and data, focussing not only on the most obvious and easily measured outcomes, but on actual learner experience, engagement, and interest, on fairness, accessibility, and inclusion, and on the delivery and recognition of empowering knowledge and enduring skill sets, which enable learners to flourish, whatever their interests, aptitudes, particular needs, and ambitions.

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Quality

Quality is everyone’s responsibility in education and training (at every stage in design, development, teaching, learning, delivery, assessment, and beyond). 

It secures validity and reliability, enhances confidence, credibility, and appeal, and supports equality, fairness, and opportunity for learners, and other qualification users, across successful education and training programmes (and their support systems and processes).

PJC have expertise in quality assurance, quality control, and quality improvement relevant to all education, training, and skills development settings. We support clients by:

• applying established principles and proven methods for embedding quality and compliance across organisational processes and practices
• anticipating and identifying, modelling and testing, and effectively managing and addressing potential risks to quality and associated technical issues
• ensuring that all staff can contribute to shared objectives and secure standards through high-quality processes and outcomes.

PJC empowers individuals, teams, organisations, businesses, and industry to secure quality in everything that they do, as standard practice, end-to-end.

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Regulation

Regulation is often poorly understood and, sometimes, anxiety inducing. This shouldn’t be the case.

Regulation is essentially about embedding quality and securing standards in everyday processes and practices (supported by evidence and data) so that organisations can be confident about their value, benefits, suitability, and likely outcomes.

Regulation (and regulatory compliance) should be an enabling process, where quality expectations and performance standards can be collectively established, defined, and monitored (and appropriately resourced at each stage and all levels). This ensures that relevant checks, evidence, and support needs are clearly understood and achievable, and everyone is empowered to make their contribution.

Paul has worked on the regulation of quality and standards across diverse qualification and assessment programmes since his role in Qualification and Skills at the Qualification and Curriculum Authority (QCA), when it was both the UK’s national regulator and an expert development agency. Paul was involved with the work to establish its successor, Ofqual, and has continued to work closely with regulatory colleagues on high-profile and high-stakes programmes and projects ever since.

Effective regulation is about being confident that you are in control.

It provides an evidence-based framework and processes which enable management, teams, and staff to establish, manage, monitor, and maintain quality and standards in all aspects of their operations and outcomes.

PJC works with clients to effectively navigate regulatory requirements, to anticipate, prepare for, and respond appropriately to policy and regulatory changes, to ensure compliance, and crucially, to regulate quality and standards across organisational policies, processes, and practices (internally and externally). We help to demystify regulation.

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Policy

Paul has worked with government, and its partner agencies, in a senior advisory capacity for nearly two decades on policy formulation, research and evaluation, development and implementation, quality assurance, sector engagement, and stakeholder management, in support of a wide variety of policy initiatives, reforms, and quality improvement programmes.

This has provided invaluable insights into the challenging process of turning policy into practice, and a deep understanding of the key risks and potential pitfalls when seeking to secure measurable and enduring improvements to standards, performance, and outcomes in challenging delivery contexts, with diverse stakeholders (often with competing agendas), and complex learner and user needs, interests, and aspirations.

Paul was a senior UK civil servant prior to establishing his consultancy practice, with responsibility for various high-profile and high-stakes national education and training programmes, qualifications, and assessment. He had considerable success in developing engaging and accessible educational programmes that have endured, delivering enormous gains across the sector, in contrast to some initiatives which emerged in the same period, in an environment where these types of changes can appear to be short-lived, cyclical, or even circular.

Central to our success is a willingness to challenge policy assumptions, meaningfully model options, and accurately apply experience and evidence to provide clients with confidence about their decisions, objectives, and priorities, and the quality, security, and success of the agreed outcomes.

PJC understands policy design, development, and implementation, and the importance of its engagement with, and direct application to, real-life contexts, challenges, improvement practices, and outcomes (for learners, practitioners, employers, other qualification and assessment users, partners in government, and wider clients).

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Development and implementation

Development, reform, and improvement projects and programmes are often initiated with great ambition and enthusiasm, and based on good intentions (e.g. the desire to address identified issues or weaknesses), reasonable principles (e.g. plausible options based on experience), and an extraordinary amount of effort, investment, and resources. Yet they are often far less successful, sustainable, and widely supported than at first envisaged, once implemented.

This is understandable, if somewhat demoralising. The process of translating ideas and aspirations into coherent, effective programmes, practices, qualifications, and assessments is extraordinarily complex and demanding (and iterative).

One common flaw is imagining (or hoping) that the entire solution can be determined at the outset, and largely through sheer force of will, enthusiasm, financial resources, and unflagging commitment, will prove immediately popular, effective, and successful with learners (or other customers, clients, or partners) upon implementation.

Development and implementation work requires continual (and clear-eyed) critique, evidence gathering, testing, and refinement, the genuine investigation of issues, implications, and interdependencies, and recognition of diverse and dynamic needs across delivery contexts and conditions.

Clear objectives and sound principles should be established at the outset but these must be amenable to challenge and change, and responsive to actual experience and accumulating evidence (at every stage).

We must have the courage to listen, to learn, to adapt, and to improve.

This is not the same as lacking ambition, dramatically changing course, jettisoning fundamental features, or losing faith in our objectives at the first sign of difficulty or resistance.

Development and improvement processes must accommodate essential, deliberative stages, maintaining a meaningful “dialogue” between initial objectives (and intentions) and actual effects (and consequences) to guarantee secure standards, genuine user value, widespread appeal, and high-quality outcomes.

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Research and evaluation

Paul has been carrying out wide-ranging consultations, research, piloting, and evaluation projects for government, key partner agencies, awarding organisations, professional bodies, employers and industry, and other specialist and representative groups (including disability and access agencies) across education, training, learning, and development for close to twenty years.

PJC understands the extraordinary value of detailed research and evaluation work to inform public and commercial policy and practices for education and training (nationally and internationally). We also recognise that, at times, research, evidence, and data need to be precisely targeted, accessible, and available to support decision-making quickly, providing confidence in key judgements, and informing strategy, planning and resources, within pressured timeframes.

At times, research, evidence, and data need to be precisely targeted, accessible, and available to support decision-making quickly, providing confidence in key judgements, and informing strategy, planning and resources, within pressured timeframes.

We provide genuine insights, incisive analysis, and sound evidence, rigorously investigating and testing options to support illuminating findings, practical recommendations, and enduring solutions (with sufficient detail to support organisational requirements, contexts and conditions). In each case, we make sure that our insights and evidence are clearly presented, visually engaging, informative, and accessible to all relevant audiences.

PJC deliver actionable research, valuable evidence, and viable solutions across complex areas of education, training, and assessment. We ensure clients are highly informed, and projects and programmes adequately trialled and tested, so that they are able to anticipate and address potential risks and challenges, evolving policy and regulatory requirements, rapidly changing social, economic, and technological demands, and crucially, diverse learner (and other user) objectives, needs, interests, and aspirations.

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Equality, diversity, access, and inclusion

Equality, diversity, access, and inclusion (and the fairness, equity, and improved outcomes these produce) are central to all of PJC’s work.

Paul is proud of his achievements in national skills delivery (across crucial English, mathematics, and digital “skills proficiency” programmes), which delivered pioneering qualification and assessment design features that significantly improved participation, motivation, performance, access, attainment, achievement, and outcomes, based on consultation and engagement with learners, practitioners, and other specialists, supported by comprehensive research, piloting, and evaluation activities.

Successfully addressing these complex issues ensures fairness and opportunity for all.

These crucial areas of focus ensure that diverse talents, interests, and aptitudes are recognised and properly utilised across all areas of human endeavour, creativity, and progress, with individuals, teams, management, and whole organisations benefiting enormously from unique perspectives, varied performance profiles, and diverse strengths, experiences, and insights (at all levels).

Successful practices in these areas help to challenge and minimise risks relating to “group-think”, conformity, and uncritical engagement with established ideas, underwhelming options, and easy approaches. They ensure that more responsive, empathetic, and constructive cultures can flourish (with critical thinking and meaningful analysis), and where assumptions and established practices are properly tested, potential issues more likely to be anticipated, and creativity, inspiration, and innovation genuinely encouraged.

It is only by addressing these issues that assessment instruments can be accurate and reliable in their performance measurement. And only by addressing these issues that we can accurately measure and confirm the extent to which qualifications are fulfilling their purposes and delivering genuine improvements.

The value of teaching and learning programmes, and validity of assessments, can only be reliably evidenced where these issues and weaknesses have been resolved.

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Education and training solutions

PJC are learner, client, and solutions-focussed. 

Our methods and practices are detailed, deliberative, and evidence-based, underpinned by careful analysis, modelling, and testing, and informed by a genuine depth of expertise, insight, and experience spanning many years, policy cycles, reform initiatives, and improvement programmes.

We recognise the importance – and challenge – of organisational learning at all levels in these shifting contexts, and that the comprehensive critique and genuine evaluation of assumptions, proposals, options, actions, and outcomes are essential at every stage, to secure quality, raise standards, protect learner interests, and support continuous improvement. 

These are practices often espoused but not always adequately embedded within complex national systems and organisational processes; where policy and delivery timeframes, project, programme, and commercial pressures, and complex interdependencies can, at times, limit awareness, engagement, and responsiveness to potential issues, emerging evidence, and learner (and other user) experiences.

PJC has a proven record of delivering highly successful policy initiatives, projects, and programmes for government and diverse public and private clients (in the UK and internationally), which have produced significant benefits for learners, educational institutions, employers, and industry. We work collaboratively to produce measurable improvements in: quality and standards; motivation, participation, and accessibility; performance, attainment, and achievement; and progression, policy reach, and overall outcomes. 

PJC has a history of accurately identifying and advising on likely risks, technical issues, and wider challenges posed by initiatives and reforms (not all of which have been heeded) from the earliest stages of policy formulation, covering development options, performance measurement methods, delivery processes, and sector-based practices, which have proven to be prescient. This is based on a thoroughness of process, a commitment to genuine modelling, analysis, and evidence, access to wide-ranging and cumulative expertise, experience, and organisational learning, and a deep understanding of the issues which affect teaching, learning, skills acquisition, delivery, and assessment, in combination, with their complex interactions and interdependencies.

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