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A commitment to technological innovation forms a key tranche of the government’s post-Brexit strategy. A big pledge was made back in 2017 as a review of technology innovation across government was commissioned. This was part of a three-pronged strategy that aimed to: “drive the ongoing success of the UK digital tech sector; deliver a world-leading digital economy that works for everyone; ensure the UK continues to be recognised as an attractive location for digital and tech sector businesses.”
A report was then commissioned in February 2020 examining the overall health and competitiveness of the UK tech sector. It engaged with a wide range of UK tech sector stakeholders and its overarching conclusion was that “the UK tech sector was in good health and well placed to compete with global players, such as the US and China”.
The further education (FE) learning technologist role operates a critical position in the government’s drive towards encouraging leadership and innovation in the technological sphere by providing the next generation of leaders and innovators with the tools they need to succeed.
The ‘UK Tech Competitiveness Study’ policy paper sets out the government’s stall as it seeks to emerge from the Covid-19 pandemic: “It is imperative that the government acts urgently to ensure the UK is at the forefront of this digital transformation. If we get this right, we are incredibly optimistic that the UK will remain a global tech leader and secure its place in the world.”
Investment in UK start-ups reached a record high of £10.1bn in 2019, representing 44% year-on-year growth. The UK punches well above its weight in this regard having secured more investment than Germany and France combined. However, it’s not just about maintaining the UK’s position as a top destination for tech businesses, inventors and investors.
Learning technologists and others working in the digital and creative sector are key drivers of skills development among the population. Government understands this crucial role and is seeking to embed an embracing of new technology across FE and higher education as part of its future plans.
The ambition for the wider economy is to address the skills shortage head on. For the digital sector in particular, an additional 1.2m new workers are expected to enter its ranks between 2012 and 2022. Due to concerns over “the ability of the education system to supply the quantity and quality of workers needed for digital roles”, the FE sector is expected to come under the microscope in the coming years as to how it can facilitate a student’s journey to securing these roles.
It has been estimated by the UK Commission for Employment and Skills that around 518,000 extra workers will be required to fill the roles available for the “three highest skilled occupational groups in the digital sector by 2022”. Learning technologists will be critical drivers of ensuring students are equipped with the tools they need to enter the workforce in the best possible shape. This is a pressing issue for FE as a whole, given that the 518,000 additional roles needed by the UK economy represent a total that is “three times the number of computer science graduates this nation has produced in the past decade”.
The publication of Further Education Learning Technology Action Group (FELTAG)’s recommendations in 2014 proved to be something of a watershed moment for the FE learning technologist role. Harnessing the power of technology to transform FE is the main thrust of the proposals by acknowledging both the structural and cultural inhibitors at present and finding ways to overcome them.
It was FELTAG’s six key recommendations that heralded the programme run by Jisc aiming to deliver enhanced internet resilience for FE colleges. The Department for Communities and Local Government undertook a £6m ESOL competition, for instance, designed to “support new and innovative community-based projects using technology to improve the English language skills of some of our hardest to reach communities”.
FELTAG’s research undertakings, and the government’s response to them, may well change the learning technologist role fundamentally over the next few years given the political appetite to embrace the expertise of policy-makers, governors, chief executives, principals, senior and middle management, teachers and support staff.
In short, National Occupational Standards (NOS) were developed to reinforce the skills identified as being most critical to the UK economy. They are “statements of the standards of performance individuals must achieve to be competent when carrying out functions in the workplace, together with specifications of the underpinning knowledge and understanding”.
Every sector can benefit from the drive to upskill the UK workforce through targeted and strategic use of technology. Central to this drive are learning technologists, who can use their position in FE to act as catalysts in this drive. Nowhere is this more pertinent than in the NHS. Digital technology is transforming the way healthcare is being delivered at a time of unprecedented strain due to Covid-19.
The independent report published in 2021 entitled ‘Putting data, digital and tech at the heart of transforming the NHS’ states: “The pandemic has accelerated the shift to online and changed patient expectations and clinical willingness to adopt new ways of working. In addition, it facilitated new collaborations both in the centre of the NHS and wider local health and care systems. Together, these changes have enabled previously unimaginable progress in digitally enabled care pathways.”
FELTAG earlier stressed that “benchmarks should be established for initial teacher education/training and teachers’ continuing professional development (CPD) so that their ability to understand and optimise the use of learning technology can be enhanced and refreshed regularly”. Assistive technology has been highlighted as another key tool that should be utilised more in FE.
Practice is being transformed across the UK. Nowhere is this more apparent than at Grimsby Institute of Further & Higher Education where teaching practice has been adapted to help provide students with the requisite vocational skills to be valuable participants in the workforce of the future. The institute has used both augmented reality and virtual reality “to provide ‘real life’ work experiences to better prepare students for working life”. Learning technologists have been instrumental in this process and hopefully the example at Grimsby can be replicated at other colleges in the near future.
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