IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

There has been plenty of recent trumpeting of the benefits of shared services in higher education. Ian Diamond of the Universities UK efficiency and modernisation task force stated that "shared services could save millions" while Steve Butcher, head of procurement and shared services at the Higher Education Funding Council for England (Hefce), was reported as predicting a "first wave" of shared services projects this summer.

Anne-Marie Imafidon describes herself as "one of those people who asks 'why?' a lot" – and it has served her well. At the age of 10 for instance, Imafidon was asking why one web page looked different from another. The answer was the HTML code behind it, which she learned to use and then built her own pages. She did her maths and IT GCSEs that year. By 15, she was at Oxford. Yet one question she didn't ask was why there were so few girls. "I was one of three girls in a class of 70 reading maths and computer science at Oxford. There's not that many of us around. It never really bothered me."

The existing ICT curriculum, which teaches students to use computing applications such as spreadsheets, is to be scrapped from September and replaced with one focused on computer science and programming in September 2014.

The Big Data Analytics: Adoption and Employment Trends study, conducted by technology skills council e-skills UK for business intelligence firm SAS, estimates that less than 0.2 percent of UK SMEs are using big data analytics, with a fifth of all businesses admitting they have "poor" or "very poor" understanding of the issues and technology surrounding big data.

Pennard primary pupils use computers and the internet for many purposes, including research, maths games, and recording and presenting information.

Now, following an assessment, the school has been awarded an ICT Mark.

A programme called Technoteach, which is funded by Welsh Government through the National Science Academy and run by the Technocamps programme based at Swansea University, is giving teachers in primary and secondary schools continuous professional development in Computer Science.

The government is keen to shake up the way ICT is taught in schools and introduce more programming skills into the curriculum - with education secretary Michael Gove branding the current setup a "roadblock".

However, according to the British Educational Suppliers Association (BESA), not all schools agree on the direction in which the government is taking ICT.

Last week's positive news about the ICT GCSE - a growth in entries of 38 percent for the full course, the first increase in eight years - provides much to celebrate. However, figures obtained by e-skills UK show that the picture for the more technology-oriented Computing course is much less rosy.

Last week’s it was revealed that ICT(Information Communication Technology) GCSE clocked a growth in entries of 38% for the full course, the first increase in eight years. However, figures obtained by e-skills UK show that the picture for the more technology-oriented Computing course is much less rosy.

A charge often levelled at Jersey and Guernsey when it comes to developing strong digital industries is that there’s a distinct lack of skilled workers in the islands. What is perhaps more worrying is that the right people don’t seem to be coming through the ranks. The failure of the British National Curriculum to effectively teach computer science and – perhaps more importantly – a passion for all things digital has resulted in a dearth of skilled employees for the IT industry across the board.

The new curriculum is set to be launched in schools next September and the consultation period on the document closed on Monday, having been open for just one week.

The Department for Education has asked the British Computer Society (BCS) and the Royal Academy of Engineering (RAEng) to manage the reform process and coordinate the development of the new IT programme of study (PoS).

Last week V3 revealed that the Department for Education had signed a memorandum of understanding in mid-September with the British Computer Society (BCS) and the Royal Academy of Engineering (RAEng) to co-ordinate the development of the new IT programme of study (PoS).

Conversations so far on the new PoS have taken place behind closed doors, with the bodies appearing to have little intention to consult teachers and IT stakeholders from around the country before the draft PoS was put together.

It's a while since I put pen to paper. I wrote weekly for seven years about IT in education. It barely seems possible that there was that much to say about the subject but, as is the way of things, eventually there was nothing left to say, and so I stopped.

The election of a Government with a working majority, however modest, reduces the pressure for narrow nationalism when it comes to skills policy but we should take good note of the difference between promises and reality and the pressure from voters to bridge the gap. A recurrent theme during the election was the need to address the pressures on housing, schools, the NHS and wages from "uncontrolled immigration". This was close coupled to pressures to better educate and train British workers rather than import supposedly skilled staff from overseas, whether from Eastern Europe or Asia. The Prime Minister began his post election speeches and letter of thanks to supporters with the promise of 3 million new apprenticeships by 2020. In the Queen's Speech the Government adopted the Labour pledge to make it an offence for businesses and recruitment agencies to hire from abroad without advertising in the UK and announced plans for higher visa charges for supposedly skilled workers.

A Blueprint setting out how the West Midlands can join forces to give residents the skills needed to boost the region’s digital economy has been launched.

The West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) has refreshed its Digital Roadmap, setting out how it will work with partners to digitally upskill residents, connect even more people and businesses to broadband, and drive better use of data and technology to improve public services and reduce the region’s carbon footprint.

Inmates OF 21 prisons centres in the country can now enjoy the luxury of learning Information and Communication Technology (ICT) as part of their reformative process.

This follows the establishment of computer centres at the 21 prisons outlets to enable inmates, especially those who willingly want to study computer and its related courses, to do so.

He said this would help promote quality teaching and learning in the country, since education was the bedrock of the nation's development.

"Teachers, who impart the needed knowledge to future leaders of the nation, should adequately be supplied with the needed teaching and learning materials, including computers, to enhance the teaching of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in schools," he said.

He said it was high time the country looked at other areas of educational training within, rather than sending Ghanaians abroad to be trained as oil and gas experts.

This is necessary to assure the nation’s youth that they are not left behind by globalization, he explained.

He was speaking at a seminar organized for heads of Senior High Schools (SHS), ICT coordinators and teachers in the region at the GNAT Hall in Kumasi of the Ashanti Region.

The beneficiary youth are drawn from all ten regions across the country. The training is a collaboration between NYEP and the Rlg Institute of Technology, a subsidiary of Rlg Communications.