Crossing campuses: Level 3 tutor visits and vocational progression

This article focuses on a Western Vocational Lifelong Learning Network (WVLLN) initiative aimed at supporting Level 3 vocational tutors in further education (FE) who have moved into a teaching career via professional experience rather than through higher education (HE), but who play a significant role in advising young people about progression to HE. In early 2008, it was decided to pilot informal visits whereby small groups of Level 3 FE tutors were invited by departments of WVLLN partner institutions, to visit campuses, to meet with first-year lecturers, faculty admissions tutors and students and to sit in on a typical teaching session. While not originally conceived as a research project, the systematic collection of participant feedback and recording of changes to practice as a result of the visits reflect an action research approach. The article considers the challenges presented by this deceptively simplistic formula. It reviews the inter- and intra-institutional and cross-sector collaborative process required to initiate and sustain the programme and evaluate the feedback received. It outlines ways in which insights arising from the programme are feeding into practice around vocational progression to HE including continuing professional development and enhanced collaboration.