WIREDGOV

On 21st September Ken Ingram, National School of Government’s Head of e-Learning, spoke at the Public Sector Workforce Skills conference, at the QEII Conference Centre in central London.

Gathered was an audience of more than 300 people from across central and local government and the wider public sector.

The main focus of the conference was to facilitate the raising of standards in the delivery of skills in government. However, given the current pressures, there was an emphasis on providing quality learning and development within budget constraints.

Other speakers included:
Paula McDonald, Deputy Director, Efficiency and Reform Group, Cabinet Office
Zoe Guhn, Director, Learning, Institute for Government
Michael Davis, Director of Strategy and Performance, UKCES
Jonathan Lindley, Change Programme Integration Director, DWP

Ingram spoke about how on-line learning can provide great savings by bringing together organisations to build and share programmes that have impact across a large audience (such as with the Protecting Information programme, launched in January 2009).

Ingram suggested that in the past organisations may have been guilty of ‘wheel reinvention’ and emphasised the need to be smarter about the way we work together in future. However, he warned that e-learning was not a panacea and, in many cases, would need to be used as part of a blended solution to make it sufficiently specific to be useful. He also argued that “in the future we will need to embrace interventions based around social media applications”. Ingram also warned of the “possible tension caused between the freedom afforded by these informal learning opportunities and the increasing wish by organisations to be assured of compliance.

“When information is used effectively it can help our organisation to run smoothly, achieve our aims and be instrumental in improving people’s lives. But what happens when information fails to be properly protected? The National School of Government’s Protecting Information e-learning course provides clients with a comprehensive guide to why information is so important, the risks to its safety, and what can be done to protect it.” Protecting Information is free to all Uk government workers and can be accessed now at:
http://virtual.nationalschool.gov.uk/eLearning/Pages/ProtectingInformation.aspx

As budgets become ever tighter, e-learning can provide a really cost effective way of meeting your organisation’s learning needs. Ken Ingram’s team at the National School of Government can help in any number of ways - from giving advice on implementing a blended learning strategy to building highly interactive and powerful on-line learning solutions.

If you would like to discuss e-learning please contact
Ken Ingram
01344 634324
ken.ingram@nationalschool.gsi.gov.uk

Rash Mistry
01344 634479
rash.mistry@nationalschool.gsi.gov.uk

The protecting information project stemmed from the final report of the ‘Data Handling Review’, published by the Cabinet Office in June 2008, which required that all civil servants with access to protected personal data are trained in information risk awareness. Information is vital to all of us in our work and we are all responsible for protecting the information that we use. This e-learning will help you think about some of the situations you may face, and how you must take responsibility for using information safely.

Enquiries

Ann Hall, Head of Communications & Marketing
Telephone: 01344 634 818
Email: ann.hall@nationalschool.gsi.gov.uk, tel: 01344 634 818

Notes to Editors:

The National School of Government
As the Government’s centre of excellence for learning and development, the National School of Government became a government department in January 2007. Under the leadership of Rod Clark, it strives to ensure the highest professional and academic standards in public service organisational and people development.