At Islington Adult Community Learning (ACL) Service, staff have launched their first Essential Digital Skills Qualification (EDSQ) Entry Level 3 course using the Gateway awarding body and are now preparing to deliver the Level 1 programme. They have also commissioned ESOL tutors to design and deliver introductory courses of four weeks with bespoke resources to help learners reach a level where they can access the Essential Digital Skills (EDS) courses. The ESOL tutors have designed two courses, one for Pre-Entry and Entry 1 learners, and one for Entry 2 and lower level Entry 3 learners.
We interviewed:
Staff in the Adult Community Learning team at Islington Borough Council were excited by the arrival of the Essential Digital Skills Framework in autumn of 2018 and the subsequent publication of the national standards in April 2019. They planned to introduce EDSQs at the earliest opportunity in September 2020 and had learners queuing up. A combination of the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and delays in awarding organisations being authorised by Ofqual for EDSQs slowed down introduction of new courses.
Due to the pandemic, ACL Service’s provision moved online from 23 March 2020. The Council’s Moodle virtual learning environment was upgraded and is now being used intensively alongside MS Teams/Zoom for online classes. Where previously there had been a lot of interest from learners in new Essential Digital Skills courses, it proved difficult to recruit to online EDSQs.
“It’s always been a passion of mine…” David Coleman, Quality Manager at Islington ACL, describes why he is passionate about introducing the new EDSQs
“… we had classes queuing up.” Sonja Rose, ICT Tutor at Islington ACL, describes the start of the Essential Digital Skills journey.
To prepare tutors for delivering EDSQs, Quality Manager, David Coleman, introduced staff to the ETF’s Enhance Digital Teaching Platform during an Inset day in April 2020. Further staff training sessions then followed in June and July. In order to foster collaboration and support for introduction of EDSQs across providers, David also helped to facilitate some bespoke courses run by the ETF’s EDS CPD programme for the network of Quality Managers across ACL Services in London.
“I then went back into the ETF CPD…” Sonja Rose, ICT Tutor at Islington ACL found the ETF resources useful.
“… 19 easy-to-learn skills” Sonja Rose, ICT Tutor at Islington ACL enjoys teaching EDSQs
A passion for digital literacy
Initial preparation steps
The ETF EDS Programme
Using the ETF EDS CPD resources
Five standards, 19 skills
The need to deliver EDSQs purely online was the biggest hurdle in the first instance. Sonja ran clinics where learners could bring their devices and get help to access the online learning platform. The ACL team was subsequently able to issue learners with Chromebooks and also laptops for those doing higher level courses which helped to overcome the initial problems of trying to support learners online with lots of different devices. Despite all the challenges, now that the Entry 3 EDSQ is up and running, ICT Tutor Sonja Rose feels that there have been instant rewards for learners.
“You wouldn’t give someone War and Peace” Quality Manager David Coleman explains how the ACL team helped to get learners with very low digital skills off the ground.
“There is an aspect of digital poverty within Islington” ICT Tutor Sonja Rose talks about the challenges teaching online across a range of devices.
“They [learners] feel empowered right from the word go…” Sonja Rose, Islington ACL Tutor, describes the instant impact of EDSQs on learners.
Scaffolding for learners
Tackling digital poverty
Empowering learners
The ACL Service is now experimenting with how to build the essential digital skills of ESOL learners to a point where they could realistically join EDSQ courses. Some of this has been focused on helping learners to access online learning during the pandemic, but it has mostly focused on making the language of digital skills courses more accessible to ESOL learners and addressing very low level digital skills and lack of confidence.
Two tutors in the Islington ESOL team have designed four-week introductory courses for two groups: Pre-Entry and Entry 1 learners, and Entry 2 and lower level Entry 3 learners, adapting material developed by ICT tutors. Petra Belikova has been working on the Entry 2/3 level course which covers:
ESOL learners who didn’t have the confidence to engage with digital skills courses before were persuaded to enrol on these introductory courses once Petra explained they were designed by ESOL tutors for ESOL learners.
“… wouldn’t understand 90% of the words on the page.” ESOL Tutor, Petra Belikova, describes the language challenges for ESOL learners learning essential digital skills.
Challenge of digital language
Another ICT Tutor is undertaking professional development in order to teach Level 1 EDSQ in the Summer term alongside the existing Entry 3 course. There are also plans to roll out EDSQ courses across Islington Council in order to support the digital skills development of the workforce. There will be a redesign of ICT Pre-Entry courses, so they are better aligned with EDSQs, enabling learners to progress smoothly from one to the other. The team is also looking at how to map the Essential Digital Skills framework more closely within all curriculum areas – especially maths, English and ESOL provision.
Islington is a borough of sharp contrasts, with areas of high deprivation as well as pockets of wealth. The Adult Community Learning Service operates from 18 community venues across the borough such as libraries, community centres and Arsenal Football Club. Courses are primarily aimed at supporting residents into work or better jobs and range from Entry level to Level 2 in maths, English, health and social care and IT. Most learners are at Entry 3 level and below. All courses are free for eligible Islington residents. The Service has a mix of approximately 35 full-time, part-time and sessional staff.