ILM level 4 award in Leadership and Management?

[Bluebell]

eek - has anyone done this? I attended the course over some sessions in March/April/June and have finally submitted my second /final assignment! I really struggled with personal examples relating it to childminding as don't lead anyone! I have just taken on an assistant but can't really say I've had any motivation issues I've had to deal with!!
I did find out that I have passed my first assignment but I spent hours on it and felt it was good as had good feedback from the tutor. The second one had cryptic feedback and said relate more to your circumstances which I couldn't so I adjusted a bit but didn't have a lot of time I could spend on it so hope I did enough!

Has anyone passed it? Was a free course supplied by my LA last year and I just got onto it. Needless to say with funding cuts they are no longer supplying it so I feel quite lucky to have attended it and hope I can get the qualification to go with it to make it all worthwhile!

[Simona]

eek - has anyone done this? I attended the course over some sessions in March/April/June and have finally submitted my second /final assignment! I really struggled with personal examples relating it to childminding as don't lead anyone! I have just taken on an assistant but can't really say I've had any motivation issues I've had to deal with!!
I did find out that I have passed my first assignment but I spent hours on it and felt it was good as had good feedback from the tutor. The second one had cryptic feedback and said relate more to your circumstances which I couldn't so I adjusted a bit but didn't have a lot of time I could spend on it so hope I did enough!

Has anyone passed it? Was a free course supplied by my LA last year and I just got onto it. Needless to say with funding cuts they are no longer supplying it so I feel quite lucky to have attended it and hope I can get the qualification to go with it to make it all worthwhile!

You do lead your practice and manage it...even though you are a lone worker...Leadership and Management is covered in the Foundation Degree for Cms too

You take decisions that lead you to making connections with other professionals about your children and families.
you manage your setting because you ARE the manager of all things...documentation, running your business and following regulation and legislation and are accountable to the Inspectorate

if you have an assistant then you must be managing her, doing appraisals and leading the way she works with you...think again!

[Bluebell]

oh yes - sorry I didn't explain that very well! It was a motivation one so it was specifically about how to keep your staff motivated, to examine some theories and then put one theory into practice and then evaluate it's effectiveness.

I didn't have an assistant when I wrote it - I used examples from a work placement I had last year but she was very unmotivated - I used it to example why theories work and dont work and it was actually a really good example but he said i needed to follow it up with a positive example - which I didn't have lol!! It's submitted now so I guess I will find out eventually - thanks for your advice

[Simona]

oh yes - sorry I didn't explain that very well! It was a motivation one so it was specifically about how to keep your staff motivated, to examine some theories and then put one theory into practice and then evaluate it's effectiveness.

I didn't have an assistant when I wrote it - I used examples from a work placement I had last year but she was very unmotivated - I used it to example why theories work and dont work and it was actually a really good example but he said i needed to follow it up with a positive example - which I didn't have lol!! It's submitted now so I guess I will find out eventually - thanks for your advice

Please do keep us informed...I would be interested to know what they say on your essay...how did you manage to do without any staff and what theory did you choose?

[blue bear]

I did a nvq level 4 in order to sign up you had to have an assistant or voluntary work somewhere you lead a team. I based my experience on Scouts, I can't see how you could complete it without having personal experience of leading.

[The Juggler]

i did the L &M module on my third year of my BA childhood studies. They way the set it up for us was that we had to interview someone at another setting - a manager and then analyse how we would use theory to improve their staff morale, issues, motivation - either through appraisal or other things.

I suppose failing that we could always make up motivation issues we are experiencing with our assistants. My L&M was mainly through being a support minder and I ran a few training/workshops for other minders at the children's centre. I guess that links to motivation of sorts.

Hon, if you are doing an MA, I am absolutely sure you will fly through a Level 4 assignment!

[Bluebell]

The theories I did were Vroom’s ‘Expectancy model of motivation’ and McGregor’s ‘Theory X’ and ‘Theory Y’

I did it on a student I had last year - her motivation was appalling - failing to turn up, late, always an excuse to go to dr or dentist. but i identified that her motivation was to get a reference and experience to lead to a job and once she had that job ( she did secure a p/t job with potential f/t hours) she completely lost interest. this linked directly to the expectancy model of motivation in that she was motivated while she had an outcome that was to her interest but once that outcome was not required she lost motivation. The theory x and theory y examined my attitudes towards her and how that could have affected her behaviour.
It was quite negative because i identified failings and how i could rectify them. the tutor advised i found additional evidence that was more positive. I think I used the theory to hypothesis on what was happening with the staff at the pre-school I am on management committee on - so training and recognition and thanks can lead to staff feeling valued and motivated and so on. It was a very brief addition (!)

My first assignment was pretty good and very in depth I was really pleased with it. I got good feedback from the tutor and passed it. I am worried about the second one because as you say it is hard to pass something like this without actually having staff (!) Also I was determined not to spend so much time on it as the first - I spent hours on it and went way over the word count (which is very flexible) but I just felt I didn't want to spend time on it like the first and the tutor fed back saying I should try and meet the criteria more and that he was unsure of the requirements because the markers had started failing people and had seemed to change the goalposts. I added a bit to it but had so much else going on I just sent it off and I've got my fingers crossed!

[Bluebell]

oh and i used to be front of house manager of a restaurant so I did base a teeny bit on that and pretended it was early years!