Government outlines how technology can benefit further education
16 Jun 2014 04:12 PM
Matthew Hancock has
announced government plans to boost technology in order to improve further
education.
Skills and Enterprise Minister
Matthew Hancock has announced how the government plans to boost technology in
order to improve further education. This includes a £5 million fund to
upgrade the broadband network in colleges in 2014 to 2015, allowing them to
introduce ‘cloud’ sharing technologies.
Speaking at The Spectator’s Skills Forum, he outlined
the government response to a report published
by FELTAG (Further Education Learning Technology Action
Group).
Matthew Hancock
said:
Technology is set to transform
education over the next decade as much as it has revolutionised the rest of our
lives in the past decade. It has huge potential to engage more learners and
improve the learning experience.
The FELTAG report
shows how we can tackle the obstacles which prevent providers from being able
to take full advantage of the technology on offer. As a government, we will do
all we can to remove these obstacles and our response highlights this. However,
it is for everyone to take ownership of new technology - schools, colleges, and
teachers.
I hope that this response will
encourage others to develop a vision for the future which exploits the
tremendous potential technology can offer to enhance learning. We can harness
the power of technology to improve standards of education, and with it realise
the potential of millions.
FELTAG made a number of
recommendations that included the suggestion that policy makers, principals,
teachers and governors need to keep abreast of technological developments. This
is something the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) welcomes
and will support.
BIS also recognises the
need for an agile procurement policy which is able to react to fast-changing
technologies. Although the final decisions on expenditure are made by
individual colleges, BIS can support them where possible to upgrade
their infrastructure. Further to this, any plans for new buildings will have to
include ‘industrial-strength’ technological infrastructure in
project plans.
FELTAG stated that
currently, learners are not utilised for their knowledge and expertise in
technology. BIS has asked the Education and Learning Foundation to
develop digital leaders in colleges to support others. Specialist organisations
will also be approached to assist other learners to improve their digital
skills.
FELTAG also found that
there was a need for significant investment in the knowledge, skills and
understanding of learning technology’s potential among principals,
managers, teachers and support staff working in further education providers.
This will be supported by the Education Learning Foundation who will develop
learning technologies resources and materials to increase staff
training.
Finally, it was found that links
between further education providers and employers need to become
stronger. BIS will encourage the Education and Training Foundation to
work with Local Enterprise Partnerships to develop better partnerships between
providers and new and emerging digital technology industries, especially small
businesses, in order to share learning and experiences.
In addition to
the FELTAG response, the Minister also laid out a research report on
the use of MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) with school pupils
aged 11 to 19 years. The research, funded by the Department for Education,
shows how MOOCs are of particular value to post-16 year-old students
who want to combine education with work - such as those studying
apprenticeships.
The findings from the research
will be used by the Education Technology Action Group (ETAG) who are
investigating ways to remove barriers to the effective use of online learning
in education.
Matthew Hancock
added:
MOOCs are transforming the
world of education, opening world-leading courses at highly prestigious
universities - previously, only available to a privileged few - to anyone in
the world.
This research shows they are
also of particular benefit to further education where students are combining
work and study.
We will carefully consider the
findings to see how we can use MOOCs to make further improvements to
post-16 year-old study.
Notes to
Editors:
- The
government’s FELTAG response is available at Further Education
Learning Technology Action Group (FELTAG) recommendations: government
response.
- FELTAG was convened by
Matthew Hancock, Skills and Enterprise Minister. The aim
of FELTAG was to identify the structural and cultural inhibitors to
innovation in the use of technology to enhance learning and to improve learning
outcomes.
- Government is already developing
a significant agenda for learning technology. In the Department for Business,
Innovation and Skills (BIS) we are piloting technology to deliver English and
maths training and sponsoring assistive technology. The Department for
Communities and Local Government recently ran a £6
million ESOL competition to support new and innovative
community-based projects using technology to improve the English language
skills of some of our hardest to reach communities.
- The 6 winning projects are now
running programmes across priority areas of England aimed at those with the
lowest levels of English. BIS, the Department for Work and Pensions, the
Department of Health and the Post Office are working closely with the
Government Digital Service to develop programs to improve digital skills and to
support the assisted digital delivery of public services.