The new essential digital skills entitlement will enable adults aged 19+ with no or low digital skills to undertake ‘essential digital skills’ qualifications free of charge from 2020. The Education and Training Foundation (ETF) has been commissioned by the Department for Education to develop a significant CPD programme to support teachers and trainers in delivering the new entitlement, recognising that elements of the new provision will be very different to the current basic ICT skills curriculum.
The programme, which will be free to the sector, is being delivered by a team led by Sero Consulting with DESQ and will consist of:
The online training modules will be hosted on the Enhance Digital Teaching Platform, the ETF’s online training service to support development of teachers’ and trainers’ digital skills. The modules are being authored by Bob Powell and Geoff Rebbeck and being developed by the team at DESQ. Proposals for the modules been developed together with proposals for a set of scenarios to run alongside the modules with exemplars of practical and contextualised learning activity.
There will be three face-to-face training events and three webinars starting in January and delivered by Angela Sanders with Nick Jeans at Sero. Training will focus on helping teachers and trainers to deliver activities which research suggests are where there are the highest skills gaps for learners and the most challenges for teaching the new qualifications:
The communities of practice programme will encourage peer support and sharing of best practices in EDS teaching and training delivery. There will be two face-to-face events and two online webinars to help kick start the programme, again delivered by Angela and Nick. These events will provide an opportunity to focus on the different settings and pathways in which the EDS delivery will take place, notably ESOL, SEND, Preparation for Life and Work (PLW) and Offender Learning.
There will also be an online forum where practitioners can share ideas and provide mutual support. Consideration is currently being given to supporting groups around different pathways – so a group for ESOL practitioners, or those involved in Offender Learning for example.
A consultation group consisting of 15 practitioners and managers from across the sector met at the ETF on Wednesday 18th September to review and input to the programme. There were representatives working with ESOL and SEND provision as well as the prison service including those responsible for direct delivery. The first meeting was very fruitful and two further meetings will take place before Christmas to inform each step of the programme.
There will be an early opportunity to have sight of the training modules and to find out more about the training and communities of practice at the SET Conference on 6th November. You can find out more and book a place here.
Training will start in January and the full programme will be launched on 17th February.
Find out more about the EDS CPD programme on this website.
See the independent research that has helped to inform development of the programme.
Contact Sero Consulting to keep in touch with programme developments.