Monday, April 07, 2008

What Price National Assessment ?

We are in the middle of reviewing one part of our National Assessment system through a
Curriculum for Excellence . The new system will be based on what is best for learners . There is
an interesting debate in the following pieces from the BBC , the Guardian and The Times and
covered elsewhere in press on the escalating costs of the exam system south of the border.

It is worth looking south to see what the system becomes when there are multiple commercial companies selling exam services in the schools and vocational education space. Shouldn't this
mean that prices should be going down ? There will be a economist out there who can explain
this I am sure.

There is some irony that the regulator QCA had to do a study of this kind to get this data. We are
similarly in dark on prices for NVQs and VRQs that are being charged in the vocational sector -hope they do a study on prices in that sector next.

As a public servant involved in delivering this service I should probably be quaking in my boots
in the face of private money delivering the exam system south of the border. I'm not. There is
room for improvement but we don't have challenges on this scale. Privatisation does mean you
can make big profits on delivering services like this Mmmm? The Times . However, it is more
complex than Private Greed versus Public Good - food for thought.

Tuesday, April 01, 2008

Skills Development Scotland

Skills Development Scotland http://www.skillsdevelopmentscotland.co.uk/ Skills Development Scotland is formally launched today (Tuesday 1 April). The Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning, Fiona Hyslop MSP, announced in September 2007 that Careers Scotland, Scottish University for Industry, and key skills elements in Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise would be brought together to form a new single skills body to take forward and deliver on the vision set out in the Scottish Government's skills strategy 'Skills for Scotland'

This is big news for us and for the many learners and training providers in workbased learning.We have always managed to maintain a sensible approach to life long learning in Scotland . To date we have managed to avoid the chaos that is happening south of the border -remarkable given the very open market in Scotland . We have managed to develop a uniform unitised system with clear progression routes in most vocational areas.

Reflected well in these pieces from the Guardian "Government to axe City and Guild courses " , " Hundreds of qualifications for teenagers likely to go in vocational diploma reforms "

The official announcement is here

Saturday, March 29, 2008

Where has March gone ?

A criticism that can often justifiably be made of any non-departmental public body is that we are too preoccupied with our own bureaucracy and answering up the way and that we lose touch with realities on the ground , in our case the centres and learners that we are there to serve.

March is always the month when we tend to be most inward looking as we do all the chasing and finalising of projects and budgets - a flurry of invoicing and making sure we have squeezed every penny from the budget to get best value for the public purse. There has been much of that this month and a lot going on in the policy sphere.

Internally we finally commissioned and e-assessment platform that will be used across the SQA.
We devoted a lot of time to planning SQA's new structure which like the e-assessment platform will be unveiled over next few months. We did a lot of work with staff around new modes of assessment , unit and the design of arrangements in preparation for work around Curriculum for Excellence and the ongoing development of the national qualifications portfolio. We have had input from Dylan Williams and range of gurus from Scotland , UK and abroad.

Externally in policy terms we finally had the green light to move ahead with the consultation on what may be new courses at SCQF 4 and 5. We have also been asked to look at potential of some baccalaureates and Literacy and Numeracy Tests. The parliamentary debate is here.
We watched the formation of the new agency Skills Development Scotland - which starts operation in April and I attended the last meeting of the Sector Skills Development Agency in Scotland to update on the last sector skills agreements.

I did manage to get out to present the inaugural Youth Worker of the Year Awards at Murrayfield , present at an excellent event at Cardonald College for School , College and ETP Microsoft Centres and present at a Parliamentary Reception for the centres that are working with the Industry Alliance for Jobs.

Away from day job I fufilled some commitments as a Board Member at Anniesland College (new build is going to be a credit to the City of Glasgow). Managed an escape with Anne to sunny Rome for the Scotland Italy Rugby Match and had a great easter weekend with the family.

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

When will education start working

From Today's Herald - I fully acknowledge it is not all about qualifications and worry about a system that makes so much of statistics and does not see the people behind these - published today I acknowledge too that there is much good news - most young people do move on to Education , Employment and Training and there are not big skills gaps being reported in Scotland .

However, today's Herald Article makes grim reading - are these young people getting access to the right kind of stimulation in schools ?

One in 10 Scottish school-leavers went straight on to the dole last year
raising fresh fears over the education of some of the country's most vulnerable
children. Scottish Government figures show that of the 51,000 young people who
left school in 2006-07, more than 5000 were registered as unemployed. Statistics
also showed the proportion of pupils leaving school with no Standard Grades has
remained static in the past three years at around 4% of the total. By the age of
21, a young man from the Neet group - now referred to by the Scottish Government
as More Choice More Chances - is three times more likely than average to have
mental health issues, five times more likely to have a criminal record and six
times less likely to have any qualifications. Nearly half of this group also go
on to long-term unemployment.

Saturday, March 08, 2008

Scotedublogs


John Johnstone , Robert Jones and Peter Liddle have been updating the platform that Scotedublogs sits on .They are stars and I was glad that SQA could provide some support for this . Think my comment says it all.

Well done guys – sponsorship is just small recognition for all of your hard work . I hope SQA and LT Scotland can do more to support work like this in the future.
Let me know if there is anything else we can do.

I and colleagues at SQA make regular use of the RSS Feed on Scotedublogs. It is a fantastic barometer of activity across Scotland – The new Times Ed ;-)
There is a lot more we could do to promote Scotedublogs as a means to link up bloggers in Schools to those in Further Education and Workbased Learning.

Remember if If you are a Scots Educational blogger you can do your bit to support ScotEduBlogs too:
  • Make sure your blog is listed.
  • Make sure the tags on your listing describe your blog.
  • Link from your blog to ScotEduBlogs (there are some images and help on the wiki).
  • You might want to help out by designing a new graphic or in other ways, see the wiki again.
If you check out my sidebar and you can see ScotEduBlog Logo

Wednesday, March 05, 2008

Curriculum for Excellence

We are getting close to looking at the what will, and how it will be assessed bit of a Curriculum for Excellence. This is worth a look and glad to see it is sitting on a Moodle Platform( a great example of disruptive change in the VLE market)

Some debate on Ewan's blog on what makes communities work . I have lived and worked through at least five major changes in this bit of Schools Curriculum and at least six in vocational area in a much shorter time span. Critical for learners and delivery that we get this right and that we get a model that allows rapid and continuous change once implemented.

Contentious and contended ground this but essential that a consensus is reached. I am sure this will make the GLOW groups glow with debate at some point. I wonder how good our community will be at forming a community of practice around this ? .

The Qualifications for the Future virtual space at SQA Academy is a resource for colleagues from schools, colleges, ETPs, the workplace and in the community seeking information on developments and latest thinking about qualifications and assessment. The virtual space includes DVD clips, on-line questionnaires, papers, think-pieces and letters, all of which provide ideas about the future of qualifications and assessment.

Information-giving is, however, only one purpose of this virtual space, albeit an important one. A further purpose is to encourage self-reflection and professional debate through an on-line forum which colleagues are encouraged to use to reflect on current practice and their hopes and wishes for future qualifications.
You want informed takes on where we can take assessment then there is some pretty good stuff here to get debate off and running. I'd make everyone look at Ewan McIntosh in full flow in New Zealand and see where we can use Web 2.0 to give the landscape here back to the learners a bit.

Thanks to Kate O' Hara for graphic

Monday, February 25, 2008

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

Saturday, February 09, 2008

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.

Tuesday, February 05, 2008

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.

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

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 25th 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


Wednesday, January 23, 2008

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



blog it

Sunday, January 20, 2008

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.

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

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.

Monday, December 17, 2007

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

Sunday, December 02, 2007

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
BESA News: BETT Awards 2008 shortlist announced
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Thursday, November 22, 2007

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

Tuesday, November 06, 2007

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.

Friday, October 26, 2007

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.

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

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 ;-)

Thursday, October 04, 2007

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
Moodle
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Tuesday, October 02, 2007

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.

Monday, September 24, 2007

Two weeks back from a glorious holiday in Sardinia - well done Ryanair for getting families of mortals to places like this ( I know global warming - the kids can get me at later date when we are living on multi occupancy houseboat near the summit of Ben Lomond).

I have since been battling with the inbox while attending and speaking at range of events - Scottish Training Federation at Crieff ( members deliver 80% of all Scottish Vocational Qualifications in Scotland) , presenting to a delegation from the Egyptian Government working with SQA on their vocational awarding system, launching formally the Sportstore game - 13,000 learners in Scotland, playing 80,000 games and counting and finally this week speaking at the Scottish Learning Festival and later attending Teachmeet07 at the Science Centre. Wow - what we can do in the classroom now . Due to demands back at base (annual planning cycle and Scottish Skills Strategy ) I did not get to spend as long as I would have liked at SLF good to catch up with few folks including Stephen Heppell ( his sister Pat taught in number of Scottish FE Colleges) and good to see that students on the HN Video Production Course from Jewel and Esk were providing some of the technical support.

Really nice to meet some of the Edubloggers at Teachmeet07. I met an old colleague Gerry Dougan from SFEU and we bemoaned the fact that many of the potential FE Bloggers - who are doing interesting things are all working away inside their College's virtual learning environments. We need to think of a way to get this community hooked in to the blogosphere - serendipity , as an the opportunity to sponsor ScotEdublogs for a year came from one of the presentations at Teachmeet - I hope that SQA can do this jointly with LTS and we can use this as a lever to get those in Colleges and beyond in the training sector involved.
Spent tonight having a look at SLF in 2nd Life - not many folks around but good to see presentations podcasts and videos arriving.

Saturday, August 18, 2007


The week ended well with a meeting with the Scottish Social Services Council and the promise of some additional resources to help with the Care and Social Care agenda. The Care Scotland team will really welcome this. I then had to scramble to get some letters out to centres in relation to more Diva developments with Adobe and to some new work with Learndirect Scotland.

In between times we spent a day on team planning for 2008/09 . We are working towards having our qualifications development part of this done by the 21st of September to pass on to our executive team .

We figured out all the things we still need to do for ESOL and debated a commercial publishing opportunity. Had a quick meeting with Glen Senior who flew in from New Zealand around the retail game and managed to drive up and back to Dunkeld on Tuesday evening in a monsoon to welcome a group of new External Verifiers. Had a chance too to get some of my staff involved in the next part of HOSCA our process review project , got involved in SQA's web development strategy, spent an hour looking and talking through commercial targets for the qualifications we deliver outwith Scotland and spent a morning with all the agencies that meet the Scottish Skills Development Agency looking at a number of Sector Skils Development Strategies. - Mainly Social Care and Financial Services this month.

One scary moment when we noticed that some inappropriate posts had appeared on the Internet Safety Wiki - We have shut it down for a day or two so the technical team can sort out the security policies.

Spotted this story about the German National Railway ensuring football fans travelling to a game had beer on tap on the train to and from their match. I bet the train ran on time and was confortable too. A great piece that challenges thinking and our own brand of Scottish/British conservatism and the cultural differences that co-exist across Europe. Made me smile.

Thursday, August 16, 2007


A different weekend.

How to confuse your partner - catch a Ryanair Flight from Prestwick to Weeze in Germany and jump in a taxi to Arcen in the Netherlands (16 euros) - a quiet village inside the national park. It has a nice square with restaurants , fantastic castle gardens, sits on a river you can travel across on wee ferries and has a spa with thermal baths when you get tired of cycling from village to village eating cake.

We stayed here and it was excellent

Hardest part is telling your pals in Scotland you went to Weeze and Arcen for the Weekend.
And a sure sign we are aging - ten years ago it would have been a 24hr rave in Amsterdam. Thanks to Ironmanix and flickr for photo

Sunday, August 12, 2007


In the mid 1980's I was teaching English and Communication and using a lot of video and other technologies - remember hypercard anyone ?. In the nineties the web arrived and I tried to get anyone who would listen to get their course on line and get their students to start helping making it better. Some folks thought this was a good idea and I got to evangelise across the sector for a few years.

By now I thought every teacher in the globe would have their stuff up on line and would be working in some collaborative way with their learners and their peers and the learning paradigm would have changed. The power in the system would have moved to the learners and those who guide them. Instead we still have quite a few closed communities and lots of pupils and teachers who are not engaging with this revolution as much as they could be. Burger King can Simpsonise Me but we haven't found the magic formula to engage teachers and learners with this stuff yet.

At least it is great to see that it has started in East Lothian This should be compulsory reading for anyone working in education public policy and our public bodies. If you get the chance , catch Ewan's session at the Scottish Learning Festival.

Wednesday, August 01, 2007


SFEU are working on their subject networks for Further Education Staff. Still hard to get all the right people to join the right on-line community and to get them to contribute - I guess this issue will either never go away or we will finally find a platform that everyone likes and joins. I guess you still can't beat a simple email address book with all your key contacts in it. At least the size of Scotland still makes this an easy exercise ;-) I hope GLOW delivers this for School Teachers and for all our qualification development staff who work with schools. We get our first look under the lid next Friday.

Bobby is having another go with a new platform for computing teachers and I see Ewan and Nick from LT Scotland have found Face book to promote the Scottish Learning Festival. I can already see a few familiar faces .

Interesting discussion with SFEU on Second Life - We will be there soon maybe with the Internet Safety Unit for big people and on another tack over 10,000 school pupils are playing our experimental sports store game its is now in more than 50% of all Scottish Secondary Schools. Should make for a good session at Scottish Learning Festival

And our British Sign Language Avatars assessing PC Passport in the deaf community are going down well and looking great. Interesting challenge in that there are not signs in BSL for many new technologies. There is definitely interesting cultural and linguistic study in this observation.

Monday, July 23, 2007

It should be a quieter time of the year as many of our customers in the College and School sector are on holiday. Yet, between finalising an e-portfolio system with learndirect Scotland , securing funding for some ESOL work from Executive , planning meetings with Social Services Sector Skills Council and attending a Parliamentary Reception while juggling some judging for learndirect and some marking of bids for JISC there has not been a dull moment.


It was nice to get out with some of the team for a glass of wine on Friday.

Sunday, July 08, 2007


Windy Four Days in New Quay
Originally uploaded by joecar80
Spent a windy week in Newquay - I love surfing - but the rain and the cold proved too much for me - but not my four year old who was in the sea every day. Not quite a week. As we had to get back to Glasgow for the dancing display - my first as a dresser. Reminded me a bit of Little Miss Sunshine. Still trying to get glitter spray off my shoes . The fairies were having a great time.

Two of Forty Fairies


IMG_0090
Originally uploaded by joecar80
You don't get the eye stinging hairspray, shrieks of excitement or glitter filled dressing room - a new experience for all

Saturday, July 07, 2007

Back to work with a great meeting of the Partners in Learning Steering Group. Success on all fronts the developments around the local authority challenge funds , individual teacher challenge funds and the game are all progressing at a rate of knots. Vanessa and Jaqueline are really managing this massive project well in addition to all they contribute to the team. Nice to see HMIE, GTC , Learning and Teaching Scotland , Microsoft and SQA among others all working to make these developments work for teachers and learners.

Spent the rest of week doing the tail chasing that is always needed when you get back from leave. Delighted to meet the new Sector Panel for Financial Services, spent some time with e-assessment project board reviewing developments across SQA, some time with Scottish Executive working on delivery of Scottish ESOL strategy and then finally at end of week a 5 hour drive to and from Llandudno to present the first canidates with their ICTL Certificates and Diplomas. North Wales was worth the journey if only for a few hours - sunshine and showers here too.
A week of working around and with Scottish Sector Skills Development Agency. It really is good to see all the sector skills councils beginning to work towards sector skills strategies and sector qualifications strategies. Would be good if they understood Scottish Qualifications Landscape a bit more - I suppose that is our job.

Ended week with a showcase event that reflected all that is good about the team. We have huge range of developments rolling out and underway in computing area. The team took on the task of coordinating an event at Hampden Park. A major undertaking which hit the mark in that it was heavily oversubscribed.

Also provided nice platform for Mike Jannetta to bow out. He has more that earned his new post at Glasgow Metropolitan College . We will miss his get up and go.

Friday, July 06, 2007

#WriteTimes and SQA

Demon has been updating my home page server and this looks like keeping these postings off -line for a week or two.

Spent a week in meetings and in recruiting staff. The organisation is going through that positive flex that any organisation goes through when a new chief executive arrives. We are both planning for next year and reviewing our current processes.

We recruited a new project manager to lead on English as a Second Language developments. A critical area for the Scottish economy currently.We have probably for the first time since the 1940's a large community of migrants who need to develop language skills quickly to work within the Scottish economy.

It was great to meet so many employers and training providers at the SQA Customer Conference on Thursday. It rolled well into SQA's celebration of 10 years with an event for current staff with 10 years service and for some of the staff who worked for SCOTVEC and the Scottish Examinations Board our predecessor bodies .

The organisation launched "Write Times" a celebration of all the great creative writing produced by candidates. The writers were present at the launch some really great and moving stuff in this modest publication.

Monday, June 18, 2007

Wkibooks and Interent Safety

We are already doing a lot around Wiki development to support learners through a number of specfic projects - looking at the tool as a way to collect assessment evidence and support learners. We are also using Wikis to support qualifications development.

A wee while ago we put the Internet Safety Qualification on a Wiki and asked schools and colleges in Scotland to update the award or make comments on it live on a Wiki. After much piloting the qualification finally launches on Wednesday and it is well supported with online resources from a host of agencies. I look forward to seeing it rolling out to Scotland and beyond. This model of development may be the shape of things to come.

It was great too to learn last week that the book supporting the Applications of ICT in Libraries ( The ICTL Diploma) has been recognised as a featured book. Quietly we are doing our bit for global learning and I am going down to Wales in July to present some of the first certificates to candidates. Grateful to the team and specifically Ted Hastings for leading on this.

"Books on featured on Wikibooks are of exceptionally high quality and which may serve as a
good example for other authors to follow may be labeled as a featured bookand advertised prominently. Featured books are listed at Wikibooks:Featured books , they may be listed on the main page, and they may appear in other places as well. Books can be nominated to be featured by making a proper nomination at Wikibooks:Featured books/Nominations , and the community will accept the nomination with a vote.Books on Wikibooks which are exceptionally high quality and which may serve as a good example for other authors to follow
may be labeled as a featured book and advertised prominently. Featured
books are listed at Wikibooks:Featured books , they may be listed on the main page,
and they may appear in other places as well. Books can be nominated to be
featured by making a proper nomination at Wikibooks:Featured books/Nominations , and the community will accept the nomination with a vote."

Sunday, June 10, 2007

Sport Shop Game and Gamification of Learning

The number of schools and teachers registering to play the sports store game is exceeding all expectations. We should have guessed this would be the case given the popularity of the pilot.
The team are working hard to make sure all schools and teachers are registered and that we know which subjects the game is being used to support. This is required to help us review impact of game at the end of next year. It also helps us dissuade pupils from picking inappropriate names when playing the game. Some things never change , we have moved on from aliases like Hugh Jarse but highlights some of the challenges involved.
Still trying to work out a funding package to get Colleges officially involved.

Tuesday, June 05, 2007

Family Life


IMG_0032
Originally uploaded by joecar80
Alexander's latest "learning to walk exercise" is to push Molly-Jean around on a trolley. MJ likes this too.

Test posting to see if I can still post in with Flickr Images

Wednesday, May 30, 2007

More awards tonight for Student College Journalists at Glasgow City Chambers. Great to hear how much our work in this area has been appreciated - the links between qualifications and the NUJ and the rest of the industry is testament to our great team working in this area and to all the work that Colleges have put in to modernising the qualifications in this area and in working with SQA to build strong industry relations across the sector.

Nice too to meet up with many old and not so old colleagues from Cardonald College and to see the students still doing so well .

Nice to meet another appreciative ex student who is now teaching at Cardonald. Reminds me how much I miss students .

This is just one of many success stories in this area - more work on British Sign Language and ESOL Qualifications at HN will start in earnest in next few weeks when we have recruited our lead consultants . These developments are much needed if we are to have more ESOL and BSL signers and tutors in Scotland

Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Started week talking to centres engaged with Partners in Learning good to see enthusiasm at all levels for the communities of practice, innovative teacher programme and the game we are rolling out across Scotland. I hope the sports store game really starts changing perceptions around how we think about assessment. It is great that we have built a partnership with the Small Business Company in New Zealand and the Scottish Premier League to deliver a product in to Scottish Schools. Microsoft have been more than a financial backer in all of this Bob McGonigall of Microsoft has been a star in supporting these projects has have the team in SQA.
There are some great tales to tell but not ones for this blog.


Planning evaluation of DIVA Project . We now have 12 global companies contributing in different ways to Scottish Education. It's been a long and hard journey from convincing policy makers that this was a positive direction to take Scottish Education in to speaking to corporates on other side of world and finally to building local partnerships with Colleges and schools to develop and deliver the programmes. The external evaluation will do the tough bit of seeing if all this effort added tangible benefits to centres and learners. Earlier post links to project web site.

Thursday, May 10, 2007

Started week by reading then judging entries for the Herald Scottish Student Journalism Awards. The SQA sponsor these and my team look after Journalism area .The judging took place at Mitchell Library in Glasgow. I have fond memories of sixth year studies in the Reading Room - I can remember some work taking place. Good to see clientele have not changed that much. They were all ages and all looked to be mixing fun and study in appropriate amounts. It is great testament to Glasgow that we have the largest public reference library in Europe. In my dotage I will spend some time in the Glasgow Room and pin down all my antecedent Glaswegians.

Did a presentation today on Leitch Review of Skills and the UK Vocational Reform Programme - lots of food for thought. Important that we don't lose what we already have in Scotland in all of this. Many of the solutions in Leitch and the UK Vocational Reform programme are addressed at problems which are not quite as apparent in Scottish System - large numbers of awarding bodies and lots of qualifications of indeterminate level . But important too that we adopt the best bits of these reforms which will be hugely significant for vocational learning in the future.

It is great to know that all of the Skills for Work courses have been developed in close conjunction with the relevant Sector Skills Councils already.

Ended day with an interesting offer to develop a European ICT qualification and tomorrow working on Scottish ESOL strategy with range of key stakeholders.

Thursday, May 03, 2007

Computing , Publishing and Scottish Social Services Council

I guess it is probably that time of the year. Lots of developments are now reaching their final stages . The computing team are putting the final touches to the mammoth task of renewing both the Higher National and the National Certificate portfolio . It really is an impressive list of new units - and all unveiled at Hampden in June . It is all on the SQA Computing Blog all linked to relevant Sector Skills Councils - vendor awards and the latest technologies.

Then into meetings with Leckie and Leckie who support developments with publications and finally at end of day really positive meeting with the Scottish Social Services Council we are working with them to regulate their sector with a professional development award that will be a practice learning qualfication for all the staff working in this sector.

Looking forward to finally seeing the sun and my family over the weekend.

Tuesday, May 01, 2007

Today was a good day beginning to see things really coming together. Moodle is up and running and powering what will be the consultation and shaping engine around SQA input to curriculum for excellence and Core Skills for the future. The rest of the site SQA Academy is being used to develop staff skills in assessment.

Assessment can be used as a dirty word until people actually realise how flexible and learner centred it can be. Interesting that school sector both seem to detest and cling on to exams and traditional forms of assessment while vocational sector are happy with portfolios and now e-portfolios. I wonder when the penny will drop and someone will realise that the SQA actually offers a very wide range of assessment strategies and can bring a depth of experience to all of this. It would be good to have more learner voices in all of this.

Please join the debate on Curriculum for Excellence and Core Skills for the Future

enrolment keys are "Excellence" and "Framework" respectively"

I had a meeting with Jane Richardson of Oracle who reported how well the Oracle Academy is rolling out in Scottish Schools and Colleges and how useful the link is between Higher Information Systems and the Oracle Programme - candidates getting dual certification and teachers being flown this year to Brussels for training. Last two cohorts went all the way to California for a week. Hey, the early adopters are the ones with the sun tans.

Marks high water mark on DIVA project we have successes to report like this with all the major vendors. School and College pupils have access to SQA Certification and Vendor Certification if they and the centres want this.

Also spotted a reassuring a reassuring school blog which I hope proves the new national certificate and National Progression awards are hitting the mark for school/college progression .

It feels like three years have passed in a blink of an eye on one level and then I look at my diary and see three years of very solid work quite scary really. The qualifications teams and all the staff from schools and colleges have done a power of work.

Is it a mirage - first time I have had chance to blog in three years too.