From education to employment

Career Colleges Trust wins contract to develop digital skills training courses

With its recognised team of digital experts, the Career Colleges Trust has been commissioned and funded by the Education and Training Foundation to develop four digital CPD courses.

The aim of the project, which will build on the resources of the ETF’s Learning Futures Project, is to help improve digital skills of teachers within the learning and skills sector, developing their ability to use technology confidently in the classroom.

Working in partnership with Ideas 4 Learning, Barking & Dagenham College and Coralesce Ltd, the Trust will develop this pioneering provision in the form of four online courses. Each course will focus on a specific area of digital development: Video learning; Social Media in Teaching and Learning; Online Assessment; Effective use of Online Meeting and Webinar Technologies.

Each five guided learning hour course will be supported by an online tutor and will be available from January 2017 via ETF Foundation Online Learning and enrolment will open week commencing 5th December.

On successful completion of one or more of the courses, learners will then be eligible for direct progression onto the nationally-accredited NCFE Level 4 Technology Enabled Educator award run by the Trust. 

Bev Jones, Director of Operations at the Career Colleges Trust, says:

“We are delighted to have been chosen by the ETF to develop much-needed digital skills CPD for the education sector.

“The Career Colleges Trust is well positioned to both develop and promote these online courses, with our network of colleges and our emphasis on digital technology within teaching and learning.

“We look forward to working with the ETF and helping to equip teachers with the skills and confidence to use digital technology effectively in and out of the classroom. This will be of huge benefit not only to teachers, but to the many students within the learning and skills sector.”

Dawn Buzzard of the Education and Training Foundation says:

“We are delighted to be working with the Careers College partnership and thrilled that the development programme will also engage students as video producers, adding something very different to their portfolios”.

“Digital skills development is one area that our sector consultations continues to show a need for, particularly for those getting started that want a non-accredited guided route.  Practitioners tell us they want a safe, peer supported environment to practice in where they can share their experiences.  These courses offer just that”.

Barking & Dagenham College’s Creative and Digital Career College students will be involved with the project. They will be producing videos to provide a student perspective on these specific digital areas to help assist with the development of the online courses.

In addition, the Trust will be developing a ‘Train the Trainer Pack’. This will support a cascade model of delivery to ensure institutions investing in the CPD will get maximum benefit for their organisations.

The ETF will be charging a small fee for enrolment onto each of the digital skills courses once they go live. However, to encourage take up of this valuable CPD, the Career Colleges Trust is offering a free digital skills analysis of staff (www.edtech-assess.com) for every organisation booking 20 places or more (worth around £2000).

This comprehensive training needs analysis will enable providers in the FE and Skills sector  to assess the digital expertise of its staff and identify exactly where specific CPD is needed.

The Career Colleges Trust will be running four consultation webinars to help inform development of the new digital skills courses. We are very keen to hear the sector’s views so we can ensure that the CPD addresses specific needs.

These will be taking place at the following times:

2.30-3.30pm, Thursday 8 December

12.00-1.00pm Friday 9 December

To register for one of these webinars, please visit:

December 8th: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/3272789097890074114

December 9th: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/648944236179423746

ENDS

For more information about the project or the consultation webinars, please contact Bev Jones on: [email protected]

For media information, please contact Sarah Newman on 07779 719199 or email [email protected]


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