Literacy Outcomes and the Networked Teacher

Interesting and pleasing to see that literacy outcomes include new media. Ewan captures these well here. I hope most teachers will embrace these quickly. At this end we can still see a skills deficit. A lot of the appointees from across the sectors we work with cannot cope with new technology and if in doubt try to fall back on the exam and test route to measuring attainment rather than making use of methods that reflect the skills and knowledge they want their candidates to develop. Which is how we do it in the vocational space.

There are not enough practitioners like the one in the diagram below. ( maybe it's the threat from the two ended spears pointing at the teacher ) It would be useful to see some more advanced outcomes like these embraced through teacher training , chartered teacher, TQFE , Assessor and Verifier Awards and other mechanisms that could grow the number of staff who positively embrace the new in their delivery. There is some serious staff development needed if we are going to make the most of these new Literacy Outcomes in ways that are meaningful to learners. There is also more we could do to allow learners to choose how they present their evidence of learning - which may be radical but would speed up change.

Interesting and challenging to see the Guardian readerships reaction to these developments too . I read blogs and interpret and filter information from a wide range of sources all the time - I still read books too. The spears are certainly out in some of the comments here.

Reflections on Blogging

I have been keeping a blog again for almost a year. I am mainly doing this to keep my own staff in touch with my movements and musings. I was surprised at the weekend to hear that some of my friends from the non educational world have been looking in on this too. I think that can only be good - too many have an opinion but no knowledge of what actually goes on inside the education system. I think this is education's loss -  it's not really rocket science but we do bury our aims and objectives in so much jargon that real world people - even parents - are instantly switched off. Guess the problem is that we can't agree what education is really all about ;-)

I was touched too  in last week or so to be listed here in such illustrious company. It looks like those on the inside appreciate some of this babble too.

I was sorry not to be able to make Teachmeet in Perth but good to see that it was such a
success and some great sessions you can pick up on the Wiki.

If you google Teachmeet Northern Edition you will find some great stuff.

Good to see too that Scotedublogs is growing its appeal. The fact that this community is growing and growing can only be good for education and for the forging of links beyond the school gates – which is what I think  learning is all about.

I have to make a special mention of this posting on Don Ledingham's Blog it is  great to see a new Director of Education with such a clear and innovative vision prepared to make it public.

I hope in all these ways we are widening and deepening the education debate in a way that changes things where it matters,  for the learners.

Blogged with Flock

Law, Social Care , McDonalds and Brussels

Usual running around but three big things in last two weeks which are the result of some pretty hard graft over the last year or so.

We launched the regulatory qualifications for Paralegals with the Scottish Paralegal Association and The Law Society for Scotland. This is a really significant development for Paralegals across Scotland and will lead to more formal recognition from the Law Society. Some coverage in Legal Press and the press.

We launched the Practice Learning Qualification for Social Workers and those working in Social Care with Andy Kerr Minister for Health .

Both these developments involve SQA qualifications forming part of the licence to practice as is the case in many other vocational areas.

On Friday I did a whistle stop visit to Brussels to speak to the Belgian equivalent of our job centres. In Belgium they are responsible for the training of job seekers as well as matching them to job opportunities. They are interested in the model we have adopted around the Microsoft Digital Literacy curriculum materials . We have wrapped them in three SQA units at SCQF 3 to boost IT , Literacy and Numeracy Skills. http://www.sqa.org.uk/sqa/27604.html

I am delighted to say this has been a big success. We were first country in world to get access to these materials mainly thanks to the fact the the Microsoft Government Leaders Forum was held in Edinburgh at the same time as this curriculum was being launched.

It was interesting to hear what the Belgians thought about the recent UK announcements about giving recognition to McDonalds' training and qualifications. It reinforced to me how far our thinking is advanced in Scotland around the SCQF and vocational competencies.

The press coverage of this and the level of ignorance exposed by the press is almost unbelievable. There was a lot of pap in the UK press but some closer to home too

It used to be the case that to own a McDonalds Franchise you had to go to the McDonald’s University and complete the equivalent of an MBA. There was much talk ten years or so ago about the rise of the corporate universities as Motorola and many others customised their own masters programmes. Mike Haggerty's comments in these articles are spot on we have been doing work like this giving recognition for high level vocational training in Scotland for many years.

The prejudice is palpable though. – I wonder if learners in schools will learn that there is a paralegal route to law, that there are numerous routes other than the degree route into Social Work , Accountancy and many other professions and vocations or when they’ll find the Digital Literacy materials or tell pupils heaven forefend that they’ll learn a lot about teamwork and a range of other skills by working in McDonalds or taking equivalent employment. A lot of this ties into some postings on John Connel's Blog on the purpose and relevance of schools.

What I do

I was a guest at the Colquhan Dinner in Glasgow's Trade House on Friday night. It was a great night and twice I was challenged on what do you actually do as Business Manager at SQA. In a way that only those at the sharp bit of the private sector ever do.

Here is a snapshot

• I lead a team of Qualification Managers and Officers and collectively we are responsible for the maintenance of half of Scotland's vocational portfolio of qualifications.
• In product terms this means we look after (maintain and create) Higher National Qualifications, Scottish Vocational Qualifications, Professional Development Awards, National Certificate Awards , National Progression Awards (SCQF 3-6)
• In customer terms we work with Schools , Colleges, Training Providers , Employers, Sector Skills Councils, Higher Education, Professional Bodies and other relevant partners in the public and private sectors.
• Some of the sectors we look after include - Computing , Finance, Accounting, Business Administration, Learning and Teaching, Assessment and Verification, Training , Customer Service, Call Centres, Telecoms, Social Sciences, Journalism, Languages, Social Care , Health Care , Law, Legal Studies, Enterprise, British Sign Language, English for Speakers of Other Languages ( this is a sample)
• Guiding principles - that awards are fit for purpose, to ensure that there are no barriers for learning and that there is appropriate recognition and progression routes available in all vocational sectors.
• In some specific sectors our qualifications effectively form the licence to practice.

It is a fantastic job with some pretty specific demands in all the sectors we work in and with. As we do all of the above we are always on look out for ways we can modernise our processes through roll on roll off online assessment, the introduction of e-portfolios, or creative ways we can use technology to widen the critical consultation processes that are involved in qualifications design. We also do a fair bit of work to source support materials from a range of partners to support our centres and their learners.

That was a week that was.

Only third week into new year and I got to spend it all in Scotland.

On Monday I met with the Scottish Funding Council and reviewed their new statistical reporting tool for Colleges and looked at how it could support our development teams within SQA. Anniesland College’s Board of Management would get a lot from it too. With this information SQA will be able to target QA processes much more cost effectively and exactingly across the College sector. The Board at Anniesland will be able to benchmark the Colleges performance in number of areas.

Then went on to Edinburgh to meet the Scottish Chartered Institute of Bankers who we work closely with on a number of fronts I hope soon we will be working with schools in the same way we work in the vocational and college spaces.

Tuesday was meeting with the Scottish Training Federation ( STF Members who are employers and training providers deliver 80% of all SVQs in Scotland) . We work closely with them and we were bracing ourselves for Gordon Brown’s announcement this week. The Herald almost got it right. We have done all this and more in Scotland for a lot of years. McDonalds Degrees are not new things I know a few leading entrepreneurs who have them. They needed them to run the early franchises as they arrived in Scotland. We need to fix this gulf in understanding between academic and vocational systems. The misplaced arrogance on the academic side could do long term economic damage to our economy.

Wednesday a meeting with Scottish Government on the National Certificate and National Progression Awards and then on to an evening meeting related to what comes next in vocational computing with some well informed overseas visitors. Always a hot topic.

Thursday I hooked up with the Scottish Further Education Unit to review some joint work and then completed some of our internal Performance Management Review meetings. It is that time of year and everyone’s hit all our targets and more.

Friday was a wet drive to Dunfermline to first conference on roll out of new National Certificates. Very heartening presence of a large number of local authorities at this I think we may find that these are taken up in Schools and Colleges. These developments will drive on vocational education in Colleges but are very accessible for schools and then back through the rain to meet Learn Direct Scotland to review some joint programmes.

Fitting for 25^th of January and Burns Night

“The best laid schemes o' mice an' men
Gang aft agley”

I then came down with a Fungus the Bogey Man sized cold. If you catch it you’ll know. I have been a human slug for four days. I even had to forego my haggis and have a curry with my dram but I hope to see my desk tomorrow .

Thanks to Paulus Maximus for Red Rabbie

The National Education Network

I took a photo of this graphic when I was down in London at BETT and meant to have a look at some of the resources behind the different front doors. I have linked it to snazzy flash map on the home page of the NEN I shared a platform in November 2006 with Jimmy Stewart the Chief Executive of C2K at the Microsoft Global Schools for the Future Summit and was particularly impressed by progress in Northern Ireland .

It's worth looking at the services on offer in different parts of UK . It is four years since I arrived at SQA and stopped following the developments across what was then the National Grid for Learning - some of the regions still have names that echo this - but the services seem to have moved on in many of these regions. At least from evidence on the front doors. Some could be all fur coats and nae .. as we say in the West , but you can see why a few of the regions are interested in the Internet Safety Award.. Internet Safety and resources for this feature on almost all of these portals

clipped from www.nen.gov.uk The NEN is the UK collaborative network for education, providing schools with a safe, secure and reliable learning environment and direct access to a growing range of online services and content. More... News

SQA DIVA , World Economic Forum , UNESCO and DAVOS

While I was on my travels this arrived

The World Economic Forum and UNESCO have created the Partnerships for Education Initiative, which is designed to share understandings of Multi-Stakeholder Partnerships for Education, and to advocate for their wider implementation to help deliver the Education for All goals.

One of the outputs of Partnerships for Education is an interactive database of existing Multi-Stakeholder Partnerships for Education (MSPEs). This is intended to be a platform where knowledge about such initiatives can be shared, and where those interested in implementing future partnerships can glean relevant information about how best to deliver them.

This database will be launched at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos in January 2008, and we are currently populating it with examples of some of the most important existing MSPEs. Your DIVA Scotland initiative has been selected for inclusion within the database.

Great news for team and all our partners.

Emirates Palace Abu Dhabi

Emirates Palace
Originally uploaded by joecar80

On domestic front not the best way to start the new season with being away from home two nights last week and three nights this .In total I spent 36 Hours in United Arab Emirates and 20 in the air. It rained continuously for 30 of those I spent on the ground . I arrived with the first heavy rain they have had in the last two years. Made for a late arrival, my flight was initially diverted to Muscat - where I see thanks to John Connell, the weather was good - and then had a terrifying journey from Dubai to Abu Dhabi. I understand the norm is to drive at 80 miles an hour tail gateing the car in front, my driver refused to vary from this in the deeply inclement conditions ( wetter than a wet day in Argyll) - we passed four pile ups in our direction of travel and spotted at least two on other carriageway. Made for white knuckle ride.

Delay also meant I went straight from the Airport to conference

We have a number of centres in this region doing Oil and Gas related awards but my visit was as a guest at an Economist Conference on World Challenges in 2008 I stayed awake partly due to the splendid surroundings. The Emirates Palace is one of only two seven star hotels in the world but mainly due the the quality and relevance of the presentations.

I can only bullet these - but the main worry is the well documented ongoing world credit crisis, combined with threats of global inflation Oil was clearly highlighted but prices of staple goods in China and developing parts of world have risen by 40-70% in last year. Oil price also gives local economy challenge in way that would be envied around rest of world - oil as moved from $12 to $100 per barrel in short space of time. They are faced with what was described as an an investment challenge.

• On other fronts worries that Chinese economy is covering some economic challenges until post Olympics
• That next Google maybe in Bio Sciences
• That Sovereign Wealth Funds and other investors with surpluses are facing political protectionist challenges around the world ( globalisation needs global markets)
• One example - 3 years ago most commercial property in Germany was bought by Germans last year 80% was bought by international buyers. This model is replicated in many markets
• Global Shortage of business Leaders who understand business
• NATO presentation on danger of new conflicts over global resources at time where we particularly in west are wasting enormous amounts of energy and other inputs that still go into landfill.

At the end of day I slunk back to my more usual budget accommodation and managed a quick sweep around town on following morning before I started my return trip. Dubai and particularly Abu Dhabi are what can only be described as boom towns with all the lures and downsides of this process. I met many from around the world on the make and many fantastic Arabs who are the humblest of peoples.

We work hard to keep our vocational portfolio aligned with both UK and Global Demands. Would that more folks in Scottish Education were aware of the dramatic changes in Beijing and places like this . If you want to drive the world's tallest crane, hone your hospitality skills to the highest standards, develop businesses in very short time frames or memorably in Beijing give every street trader a basic on-line food hygiene programme in advance of Olympics you will learn these skills in the developing world not in our own backyards anymore. Education and Training is a global marketplace and I am glad we're out there.

BETT 2008 The UK Educational Technology Fair

I attended this with Bobby Elliott Qualifications Manager for Computing . We use this event as an opportunity to meet many of the senior US based managers of our vendor partners. We had some really useful meetings with Adobe and Microsoft and some others including some other awarding bodies and Financial Institutions as I was in the hood. A search for BETT 2008 Blog will turn up multiple reviews of this event.

While we spent most of our time in meetings here are some observations on the event. The audience for this event is schools and ICT advisors from English local authorities with a growing international presence - overseas teachers and ICT advisors. It is a larger version of Scottish SETT now the Scottish Learning Festival. Great to see Martin Jack ex LTScotland organising chunk of this as he successfully does for Scottish Learning Festival.

The Ministerial key note was message that schools in England are to give parents access to electronic reports both on progress and attendance. There were number of organisations present trying to sell systems like this to local authorities on the back of this announcement. Moving around stands many of them were devoted to School or local authority admin systems rather than teaching and learning. There were some organisations offering totally externally hosted admin and learning and teaching platforms - some very clever stuff. The Pupils have equivalent of very large data stick flash drive with their own files on this and it connects in school and at home to the remotely hosted services and software. This was probably main innovation I saw but I didn't see the price tag.

MIAP was being heavily promoted - through presentations and on stands. The new 14-18 Diplomas were too - The Scottish Candidate Number and Skills for Work are ahead of these projects in Scotland. But would be taken as whinging Jock to state this anywhere south of border.

Only thing I would have liked to play with was probably the Asus EePC / RM Minibook which is well reviewed well here by John Connell and Learning and Teaching Scotland.

Met with many colleagues and friends from over the years - but have to say there was not as much innovative stuff about as say five years ago. Mostly more of the same - real message may be in how offerings are joining up or being bought up.

On many fronts there was strong evidence of partnership working across suppliers of qualifications, electronic learning materials and more traditional text books and everywhere the slickest of marketing - interactive presentations , live demonstrations of web- based resources, on-line tests and much more. I know we do things differently in Scotland but we would do well to make more links with private and public sector partners around qualifications. It was good to meet Colleagues from LTScotland and Learndirect Scotland at event.

Sorry that we missed Teachmeet on Friday Night - looks like it was a great success. But not the best night even for this hardened traveller with two kids under five an extra Friday night in London just takes too many brownie points. You can catch it here on flash meeting if you have a look around at http://www.teachmeet.org.uk/

And we didn't win Bett Award for the Sports Store Game - but being shortlisted was some achievement real achievement is fantastic reception the game has had across Scotland and beyond,

I took some photographs of event. Incidentally camera was giveaway from the Pearson stand - given away as I sat through a presentation on their School Admin Software. Came in handy and I uploaded them on way back up road http://www.flickr.com/photos/joecar/ Would be good to have central Scottish repository for some of this stuff.

New Year Message

I have had a busy couple of weeks - either out of the office or back to back meetings with usual follow ups.

I have been watching a few postings with interest over the festive period. New Year seems either the time to cast an eye backwards to all things that have happened over the year or to look forward and make some predictions. There seem few Scots predicting the future mainly gazing back the way. Some notable blogs doing this though. Ewan McIntosh gives an excellent backward glance on his meteoric year on a personal and professional front.

In the mid 1990’s I predicted every Scottish Teacher would by 2000 have their own web page, their teaching materials would be swiftly transferred from their floppy disks (remember the big ones ) and they would be using these with learners who would be able to use this resource in a host of ways. Learners would start creating their own learning resources too and sharing these…

I started blogging in 2000 with a small group of enthusiasts. I thought too that this would sweep through education by 2001. I stopped blogging in 2003 and only started again in late 2006. This time I feel more part of a community thanks to Scotedublogs and there is a bit more of a critical mass, but the changes that I think are inevitable still seem further off than I would like in Scotland.

So given my terrible track record - here's how I see the vocational on-line learning world in Scotland.

I’d say the vocational sector have got it to some degree, Colleges are a bit behind but moving in right direction, Universities have got it in places but their faculties pull them in twenty directions at once and schools lag further behind in changing how we fundamentally do things . This could be metaphor for all things vocational but it seems in such sharp focus when you look at the adoption rate of technology to empower learners. I hope with GLOW this really changes this year. Would be good to see schools have standard access to Blogger and some other very relevant tools and I hope this happens this year too.

Predictions I like best are from an old friend Seb Schmoller -

1. Effective use of RSS by learners, teachers, and learning providers will become more normal. Meanwhile the off-line capabilities of browser-based applications like Google Reader will grow, making a big difference for users with only intermittent Internet access.
2. The hype surrounding social networking will abate, with a greater understanding developing about when social networking supports learning, and when it is a distraction.
3. Many more people will break free from Windows or OSX based systems, and begin to rely instead on cheaper, lighter, disk-free devices, with their "stuff" stored somewhere on the Internet rather than locally.

My personal prediction is that learning will just get better and better for those learners and teachers who are part of the connected world in Colleges, Training Providers, Schools , Libraries , Learning Centres and for those at home too.

Those who aren't connected will still feel there is some conspiracy going on. I couldn't live without bloglines and other tools to stay well informed. My blogroll is on side of this blog.

The Times Educational Supplement is still critical but increasingly a smaller part of my environmental scanning . And I worry that grumpy middle age is upon me as I have less and less time for those who aren't up to speed and getting in the way of change. I hope I am less grumpy next year ;-) and more people across Scottish Education have access to these tools. Happy New Year to all.

VCT - Virtual Classroom Tours

We have reached our first milestone of over 50 VCTs en route to our end of year target of approaching 100.

At moment they are bound for http://www.microsoft.com/education/pileurope.mspx, and will appear as "Scottish Qualification Authority VCT Bank" .They currently live at www.sqa.org.uk/vct and when we know how all of these resources will go into GLOW.
Related to previous posts we have achieved a lot with Microsoft Partners in Learning Funding.

Cisco Public Services Summit

John Connell has posted on Cisco Global Summit. I was fortunate enough to be a guest at this event in 2005. I suppose related to my previous post - We owe a massive debt to the Microsoft, Oracle’s and Cisco’s of this world. You could worry about their motivation which is undoubtedly rapacious capitalism and I know that this is the concern of those who have thrown the odd spanner in the works as we built the partnerships through DIVA but all these organisations are involved in bringing together global communities of those who work in the public and private sectors and delivering real tangible learning assets to those who matter most – the learners and our communities. Wonder what the critics would say if we developed without reference to some of the vendors in our vocational qualifications .

It’s good to see that increasingly key notes and talks are available from these gatherings and from sources like Ted (a not for profit organisation) which distributes electrifying presentations direct from those who are dreaming and shaping the future.

We need more dreamers and shapers of the future. Especially next year as this may be a tougher year for all of us in the public and private sectors globally.

SQA’s international brand extended into 25 countries this year, we delivered a wide range of projects from the simple export of qualifications (it’s never simple) to consultancy around designing vocational systems at national level. In addition we hosted internal visits from 30 other countries. The feedback on these internal visits went round SQA today – it is staggeringly good.

Good to see too that we have innovators of our own. You’ll find SQA products and support materials in Wiki Media and using where appropriate all things Web 2 and Bobby is just about to start doing this end to end for a qualification development. GLOW can’t come fast enough for qualifications development but great to see it coming – brings me back to John Connell again,

The Glow Father ;-)

SQA Elfs

It's panto season and the office night out season and in between times the vocational world rumbles on. I have been very fortunate to work in and with Secondary Schools, Adult Education, Further Education and Higher Education and know the mechanisms that are available to move on learning, understanding and vocational skills in Scotland and UK. It is about time that all of these sectors acknowledged that these are not discrete activities.

At the moment through the Leitch Review in England and Skills for Scotland, A Lifelong Skills Strategy the delivery bodies are being re-aligned a bit and the funding mechanisms are being refocused across the UK but essentially at the heart of our vocational qualifications are the National Occupational Standards from 25 Sector Skills Councils (SSCs). Each SSC is an employer-led, independent organisation that covers a specific sector across the UK. Their four key goals are:

• to reduce skills gaps and shortages
• improve productivity, business and public service performance
• increase opportunities to boost the skills and productivity of everyone in the sector's workforce
• improve learning supply including apprenticeships, higher education and National Occupational Standards (NOS)

It's not a secret that we use these NOS and follow them very closely when making SVQs and use them as starting off point for building National Certificates, HNs and other qualifications.
But as you mingle at this time of the year it’s amazing that many who should be better informed still think awards in the vocational portfolio are not structured around UK standards and informed by global changes in industry and developed with the relevant professional bodies.
Actually only kidding - they are made by elves ;-) Enjoy

Sports Store Game Shortisted for BETT Award

Over 250 Scottish Secondary Schools
15,000 Pupils
70,000 live games currently
50/50 mix of girls and boys playing
Most game playing and learning happening out with normal school hours.
Great to see we made it on to the short list and testament to all the Scottish Teachers and pupils who helped design this game.
We've brought games and the formal curriculum together.

Now we need to find someone to take forward all the lessons we have learned through this project.

The BETT Awards, which play a key role in identifying and rewarding innovative ICT products and services for use in education, received a very high standard of entries this year. The winner in each category will be announced at the BETT Awards ceremony on Wednesday 9 January 2008.

clipped from www.besa.org.uk

Scottish History

"The announcement that SQA is at long last prepared to introduce a compulsory Scottish element to the Higher history examination is welcome, if overdue..."

Will open up a fresh set of challenges. As a one time History and English Teacher who taught Scottish History and Scottish Literature I was aware that many of my colleagues did not include these options -but will compulsion make the teaching and learning of Scottish History better ?

I hope so ..
and why was this learning not happening anyway and from early on in the system ?
The Romans and The Dinosaurs - as I remember from my primary education in the last century and maybe 1066 and the Gunpowder Plot with no mention of James the Sixth being Scottish.

We were told at one point that the Scottish People wore kilts because they were poor which is part of an answer but it was left unqualified and as an answer it never squared with the world I knew where a kilt was a very very prized possession in more ways than money.

You'd think I was a nationalist rather than an internationalist

Partners in Learning and Internet Safety

Good to see some coverage of Microsoft Schools for the Future Conference in Helsinki in today's Herald Walter's piece links well to work we have done around internet safety and great too to see that we brought Emma Griffiths and East Lothian's excellent Extreme Learning on to a global stage. I know too that there has been lots of excellent work happening with parents and learners with Ollie Bray leading the charge. Would be good to see a piece that joined all the good work up.

Computing Crisis

Westminster E- Forum Keynote Seminar
Is there a UK IT Skills Gap – Some headlines

I summarise not all but some of what was said today at the Westminster E-Forum
The main panic in the system is the declining numbers of school pupils and students picking computing as a subject to study at A Level or University. There are been dip in Scotland too and the future of computing in schools was the subject of a recent successful conference in Scotland. Well summarised here

Shots fired at computing being boring in schools and also professional pathways and working conditions in the IT industry that turn off graduates and especially women.
The main industry challenge identified were in up-skilling those in work especially managers to get organisations making more productive use of IT and for the us collectively make a careers in IT more attractive.

This gives flavour of day – summary of all presentations will be published at later date through Westminster Forums Website.

Bobby Elliott Qualifications Manager for Computing was down with me - we didn't learn a lot that we are not already discussing with industry in Scotland. He has been down for a few days with CEOP and CompTia and blogs about this here.

Tim Boswell MP and Karen Price E-Skills UK

In UK only 2% of potential pensioners are applying on-line for their pension
Car mechanics need basic IT Skills to service cars
Post Office recently computerized postal walks and rolling out IT system - postal workers are challenged by basic devices deployed.
New terminal at Heathrow will only work if 80% of travelers check in on-line
Small Business’ may have website but don’t have IT productivity skills to drive on business.

Workplaces are not yet technologically enabled and most senior managers are not able to drive the changes that are needed as they lack the technological knowledge even to procure system changes that are required.

Its about schools a bit but 70% of workforce for next twenty years is really the issue.
The workforce of the future is with us now.
Those in work need upskilled.5- 15 year olds either formally or informally have got it.

Anne De Roek Council of Professors and Head of Computing

2001-2006 has seen a 46% decline in those entering IT degrees yet 72% of all job vacancies currently are for IT related vacancies.

Peter Butler Head of Learning BT

BT transforming from engineering to software services company.
Increasingly offshoring work to get right skills and cost base.
In UK 4 million owner managers in SME sector who need better understanding of how IT can help their business.
21 million use IT daily, 9/10 vacancies require basic IT Skills yet hardly anyone as entrants or in existing workforce have had any formal training in using a computer.


Jacqeline Crowley Cappgemini

China will overtake UK in IT in next five years.
76% of UK companies are currently delaying IT projects as the IT Skills are not available
At least 50% of workforce cannot perform basic tasks on computer
But we need more than basics we need high level skills in Java , C++ etc
The USA have relaxed immigration laws to import these skill sets from the developing world. Next wave needs high-level project management skills combined with understanding of the application of IT to business processes – we can do it this – but development and basic programming is moving offshore.

Emily Taylor – Nominet

Offshoring is fact of life and is driving down costs and services up for UK customers and and for rest of developed world while provding jobs in new economies.. But we need to train young people not just to be consumers but creators in this new world.
IT knowledge among general and senior managers is very low and the real challenge to our productivity.

Philip Virgo EURIM Secretary General
30 years ago did huge study which showed best indicator of success in new computing industry was the ability to parse sentences and do basic mathematical functions. He is not convinced this has really changed – technology changes all the time but core competences for successful career in IT industry don’t change.

We should be looking at how we use social networks in range of subjects to get our young people used to working across cultural and linguistic barriers. Global supply chains need this and this is where work will be in future in all industries. Skill is not so much in the IT which will continually change as in how we choose to use it.

Latif Horst Cisco Public Sector Manager

80% of pupils play games and use web2 applications 78% of teachers don’t
Information is changing so rapidly that already three year degree graduates are finding first year and half obsolete on graduation. By 2010 unique technical information will be doubling every 72 hours and systems and software will change hourly.

Big Portfolio Changes from Outside but we're winning

October has arrived and we are in the midst of finalising development plans for next year. HN Modernisation almost completed, new National Certificate Groups Awards under way, some more Skills for Work on horizon. Curriculum for Excellence and what happens to some Int1 and Int2 Courses still in the big policy mixing pot. Scottish Vocational Awards under spotlight through the Scottish Skills Strategy. Professional Development Awards and National Progression Awards providing smaller chunks of certificated learning are in demand across a number of sectors.

The Qualification teams are all involved in significant developments in our sector portfolios and as the thirst particularly in the post school sector continues for the Quality Assurance that SQA can bring to life long learning it looks like we will be busier than ever in the next financial year.

• Good to get Motherwell College on board as Auto Desk lead centre and AdamSmith College on board as Adobe lead centre for DIVA . Glad too for the support of staff like Colin Maxwell who is one of two 'Adobe education leaders' in Scotland, and one of only 15 in the UK overall. The Adobe 'education leader' programme has run successfully in the US for some time and opened up to the rest of the world in 2005.
  
• Great news too that Strathclyde Police have adopted the Internet Safety Unit as part of Police training programme.
  

I am off to Westminster tomorrow to hear I suspect that rest of UK should be doing what we have already done in Scottish Further Education around working with vendors and computing industry. We should really start exporting it south as well as to our overseas customers ;-)

Curriculum for Excellence

Attended an intriguing and challenging presentation from Brian Boyd on Tuesday night around some of the challenges emerging in considering the place of assessment in a curriculum for excellence.

Lots of the areas suggested as areas we could move towards are tools that we already employ in different sectors. I wish there was a greater awareness of the different kinds of assessment done in Colleges , workbased and adult learning. Brian was talking to the converted. The mind forged manicles that can exist in schools sector could be considered theirs to keep or cast off as they choose.

I hope we can in consultation find a way that frees up learning and assessment for the learners. There is some great initial research on comparative systems across the world on the sqa academy. Curriculum reform and how we assess learning is a very active global debate.

Lots of food for thought.

clipped from www.sqaacademy.com

My avatar in Scottish Learing Centre Pavillion
Originally uploaded by joecar80

A busy four day week involved a presentation to the new Scottish Industry Alliance for Jobs being led by Learn Direct Scotland . It links well to all the vendor work we have done in last three years.
A day in London at QCA to find out about the new Qualifications and Credit Framework this is being rolled out in England , Wales and Northern Ireland. I am so glad we have the SCQF. Though I sometimes wonder if we realise how well off we are.

A day in Edinburgh for our monthly senior management team meeting and a Friday packed with meetings but culminating in a the SQA Star Awards - always humbling to see the talent that Scotland produces. Then into the car to catch up with the rest of the family at the Seamill Hydro - and the sun shone til late Sunday.

In between times I have been popping in and out of Second Life to see the presentations arriving from the Scottish Learning Festival. I even bumped into Ewan McIntosh's mum in the wee sma hours - having a look around. I guess second life is just as small as the first one.