Thursday, August 14, 2008

Leadership and Management in UK

Some of the educational bloggers I follow have been blogging about management and leadership this week - must be that back to school week. see John and Don Leddingham

Meanwhile I have just been at meetings with industry and standards setting bodies who blame decline on education mmm is this Six Degrees of Separation or more likely they are already looking at the changes that need to come in management and leadership across industry.

A good place to look are the national occupational standards NOS in UK for management and leadership these are developed by the Management Standards Centre. We use these standards as basis for awards in Scotland and rest of UK and we work closely with the Chartered Management Institute to make sure our HN awards lead to Chartered Manager Status.

I attended a rather entertaining launch of some new standards in London on Wednesday here are the main points from the morning. Making UK Management and Leadership Skills World Class by 2020: Pioneering Change

In reverse order from twitter (slightly edited with other notes from day)

It started out in quite a focused way and by end - well it's all the fault of teachers and television.

But some useful nuggets - I've not checked these "facts"

On serious note we have some recognised serious shortcomings across the Scottish public and private sectors and we are going to see what else can be done about this and that was why my journey was necessary.

Joe Wilson
Television finally getting blame for promoting bullying and poor values The Apprentice and Devils Den and the swearing chefs not good role models
Joe Wilson lesson from this morning give people around you continual opportunities to step up and take risks manage challenges
Joe Wilson where do children learn to be leaders in todays schools ? not enough challenge
Joe Wilson leadership and management failures in UK being piled at education's doors. Grumpy corporate rotters or is this insight ??
Joe Wilson despite credit crunch stilll queues for private schools in london and across UK in Sweden money follows learner this drives up standards
Joe Wilson or driven by a lack of values and attitudes to learning there is no simple answer
Joe Wilson current school system (england) "only" fails 54pc of young people this is higher than anywhere in the developed world. A scandal and driven by academic snobbery
Joe Wilson do you do intense leadership coaching with all staff and offer rewards on how on well they develop the next leaders
Joe Wilson have you got staff who are able to "not take " or opt out of responsibility for what they do from beginning to end if so redesign work
Joe Wilson don't do top down plans they don't work
Joe Wilson good example of mindmaps rather than using business reports massive added value in large corporation over night
Joe Wilson still problem at policy level in UK we are too arrogant to look at rest of world
Joe Wilson UK low esteem and a lack of pride in achievement and too many managers who don't have proper values , aspirations or goals in private and public sector - ouch
Joe Wilson leadership and risk has to be in our industries context but we should all take more risk
Joe Wilson chinese best qualified managers and good at identifying their weaknesses deep understanding of skillsets required UK USA too complacent
Joe Wilson if you are not growing next leaders in your company or in your industry - serious problems with your leadership and your industry
Joe Wilson leaders need constant challenge and validation and should never be too busy to think - reflection should be regular
Joe Wilson we learn leadership by doing it and being open to challenges not through courses or qualifications How do you move staff around no comfort zones if you want to grow managers and leaders??
Joe Wilson There are no low tech industries but there are too many low tech organisations in the UK

Sunday, August 10, 2008

Web2 in China

As we do more business in China we realise how much we still have to learn about it.

This is an eye opening slideshare
I culled from Read Write Web. We successfully export qualifications to China's top vocational Universities . The speed of change in China is unbelievable I hope some of the predictions made at January's Economist Conference don't come true.
One I didn't mention is that the Yen is devalued to combat rampant inflation following the Olympics.

Handbook of Online China


Hao ! In the spirit of drilling down the dynamics of the Internet in China , We have published a data filled , action packed slideshow “Handbook of Online China” on the eve of Beijing Olympics inauguration . The report focus on three key themes - China as an online leader , China Insider - the competitive landscape in Search, Web 2.0 & Business in Online China - that are essentially key indicators of the ongoing development of the dynamic Internet market in China.




Wednesday, August 06, 2008

Dream Career Ahead For Former Roofer

Phew another results day and with the support of 11,000 Scottish teachers in the actual process all is well. Worth noting that in SQA most of our staff and all of our appointees come from Scottish schools and not from some other bureaucratic planet.

But story I liked best today was this one.

This is a great story and reflects what I see everyday in vocational learning. I still miss being in Colleges and working with learners. I am worried at moment that we have forgotten that education in is about helping folks earn a living and to help them find self fulfilment and these are not mutually exclusive.

Vocational applied things have been squeezed out of schools for too long. I guess barring a proper writing for media course many other vocational areas would involve too large health and safety risks and the challenges of having teaching staff who teach passed the theory of any area.
Schools will need to transform or work much more closely with Colleges if they are going to meet the aspirations of their customers.

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Popfly

Just had an email to ask
What do you think about the above as a resource in enabling the games element of the Curriculum for Excellence ? eg Should we use this in our classrooms in Scotland.
Specifically game creator module.
I'm passing around a few folks inside SQA but happy if anyone spots this on Scotedublogs for comment.

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

JISC Research on What Students do in UK HE

Headline links to some nice research on how ICT is being used in Higher Education
(count Colleges in this )

At a glance: key findings
80% of students use social networking sites regularly
73% use social networking sites to discuss coursework with other students
Of these, 75% think such sites are enhancing their learning
75% are able to use their own computer on all of their university's systems
87% feel university life is as, or better than, expected in terms of technology

Does our school system prepare learners for this environment ? - do they need preparation ?

Think there are still some doing academic research in some local authorities on why we should use this new fangled stuff with learners in schools - I guess the researchers will come from same universities where these changes are happening.

Thursday, July 03, 2008

Hunger


Hunger
Originally uploaded by Josh Sommers
Still working through emails piled up, some from before I took my annual leave and enjoying making my own musical mixes from seeqpod as I plough through stacks of work.

As we move to society where I can click to my favorite track on Internet - access videos when I want through i-player or others - and as I build a list of web sites and gizmo's that I couldn't live without .. starting with wireless access - and of course share all this wonderful stuff..

Our shame is that there are still families in this world living on a dollar a day and this week I see staple food prices have climbed above this . Puts a lot of our posturing on educational issues ..in a harsh light .. is education really about enlightenment and social justice ?

I was told this was going to happen at an economic conference in January

Hey I blogged about it ;-(
Do the starving blog ?

Thanks to Josh Summers for image

Wednesday, July 02, 2008

Myers Briggs Indicators


Myers Briggs Indicators
Originally uploaded by joecar80
I have done this exercise twice as a College Manager , once as a manager with the Scottish Further Education Unit and I used to teach the stuff. Earlier this year we profiled all the Business Managers in SQA.

Here are MyersBriggs indicators of all SQA Business Managers - have a look at how we all tick . A google for Myers Briggs and ENTJ or other factors give you some interesting statements on how we ought to operate.

Next time star signs ;-)

Tuesday, July 01, 2008