Naace's response to the e-skills consultation on its 5-year strategic plan for England

Objective 1. Sector attractiveness
Inspire greater numbers of talented men and women to enter the sector by improving understanding of the diverse range of IT and Telecoms careers.
Proposed focus: young people; experienced workers; females.

Objective 2. Education
Ensure technology-related education in schools, colleges and universities supports the future needs of the UK in the global economy.
Proposed focus: GCSE & A-levels; IT Diploma implementation; degree programmes.

Objective 3. Workforce development
Encourage investment in the development of the IT & Telecoms workforce to achieve the skills mix needed for global leadership.''
Proposed focus: global vision and partnerships; qualifications reform; professional development programmes; smaller company support; government services and funding.

Objective 4. Business leaders
Improve the ability of organisations in all sectors to derive business benefit from technology by increasing the strategic technology skills of business leaders and managers.''
Proposed focus: online support for smaller companies; government funding; executive education.

Objective 5. IT user skills
Ensure all individuals can develop the IT user skills they need for employment and social inclusion.
Proposed focus: qualifications reform; learning provision; employer demand; skills planning tools; government support.

* Thinking of these five objectives as a whole, please identify which you believe will have the greatest impact for the UK?
* Are there any additional objectives that you believe should be included in the strategy?
* Do you have any further comments on the proposed objectives?

Naace members are particularly concerned with ICT in education, and will naturally attach great importance to Objective 2. At the same time, Naace recognises the importance of Objective 1, both for employers in the sector and the economy more generally, and also for the well-being and prosperity of the young people currently in our schools. We are especially concerned about the under-representation of young women in the sector, since girls generally outperform boys in ICT during their secondary education.

Naace would emphasise that the concerns of Objective 4 are also relevant to schools, where it has been demonstrated that those in leadership positions have a critical role to play in recognising that ICT is business-critical and ensuring the embedding of ICT in every aspect of a school's work.

We also note that teachers are included in the target group for Objective 5, and since development of the schools workforce is a major focus for Naace members we firmly endorse that focus.

Objective 1. Sector attractiveness

Challenges

a Lack of understanding and widespread misperceptions deter many suitable people from considering careers in IT & Telecoms.
b The gender imbalance means the sector is missing out on a large proportion of the talent pool. Attitudes formed during school days contribute significantly to this problem.
c The current technology-related curriculum in schools has a negative impact on the attractiveness of technology-related careers.
d Lack of professional status of IT & Telecoms careers disadvantages the sector.

* Which of these challenges do you think are the most important to address in the strategy and are there any that you believe should not be addressed?
* Are there any additional challenges in this area that you believe should be addressed?
* Do you have any further comments on this objective or the challenges we have identified?

Naace members are likely to identify with the first three of these challenges. At its best, ICT in schools offers young people huge opportunities to exercise their creativity and teamwork, as well as their powers of logical thinking, problem solving and research. This may not always be how it is perceived by students in our schools, and the curriculum challenge (b) is relevant here too. A skewed perception of working life in the sector may be reinforced by unimaginative or irrelevant course content. Recent developments in the National Curriculum requirements for ICT and new vocationally-focussed opportunities at 14-19 ought to make a difference and need to be publicised widely. There is doubtless a further link with the second challenge on gender imbalance, since girls statistically outperform boys in ICT during Key Stage 3 (11-14 years) but relatively few pursue ICT at GCSE and post-16, where it is often an optional subject. All of which suggests that there is an image problem for the IT sector and that it is appropriate to tackle it head on through this objective.

* e-skills UK has identified a variety of possible approaches to deliver on objective 1. How fully do you support each one?

a Young people: bring together employers and educators to promote the diversity of IT & Telecoms-related careers and education to young people in a coherent way.
Many educators themselves would benefit from opportunities to update their knowledge of the working lives of people in the IT and telecoms sector. This would feed through directly into:
- their choice of courses to put before students
- the contexts and contents they use in course and lesson planning
- their ability to engage with young people when discussing academic options and career choices.
Schools would certainly benefit from the presence of employers who could contribute to an up-to-date picture of the IT sector when careers are being discussed and when "real life" applications of ICT are being studied. They could help to provide authenticity and flair, and could reinforce the messages about the attractiveness and relevance of work in IT.

b Experienced workers: bring together employers to promote IT & Telecoms careers to experienced workers in other sectors.
N/A

c Computer Clubs: build on Computer Clubs for Girls (CC4G) to involve young people (particularly girls) with technology in ways that change attitudes towards technology-related careers.
Naace is aware of the impact which CC4G has had in schools up and down the country, particularly where it has been possible to provide schools with some additional support. We would hope that further funding might be channelled into the system to enable such support to continue. The key phrase here is "build on"; we would hope that the scheme could develop further. We applaud the efforts which have been made to meet the needs of girls and encourage them to use ICT in satisfying and exciting ways. We would like to see a similar initiative designed to harness the interests and energy of boys, partly to encourage them to achieve higher standards in schools, and partly to stimulate their thinking about qualifications and careers in the IT sector.

Young people of both sexes are predominantly voracious users of communications technologies and for many of them the IT and Telecoms sector ought to provide a natural vocational "home". Initiatives like CC4G successfully help young people to see a link between the activities which they regards as critical elements in their everyday lives and possible study and career routes.

Objective 2. Education

Challenges

a The IT-related GCSE and A-level curricula have not kept pace with changing student experience and needs, and the school curriculum does not differentiate appropriately between the needs of every individual to have skills in the use of IT ('functional skills') and the study of IT as relevant to academia and industry. This should be a central element of an increased focus on Technology within the government agenda for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics subjects.
b To deliver a relevant curriculum - in particular for the 14-19 Diploma - teaching staff in schools and colleges need:
- Constantly updated skills;
- Current, sector-endorsed teaching and learning materials;
- Ready access to employers who are well prepared to support delivery.

* Do you believe that either of these challenges is more important than the other, or should not be addressed as part of the strategy?
* Are there any additional challenges in this area that you believe should be addressed?

Many schools have difficulty recruiting subject specialists to teach ICT. While industry input could help to motivate, upskill and retain the ICT teachers currently in post, employers and their organisations could also develop strategies which encourage ICT professionals to consider spending at least a part of their career in teaching the subject in schools.

* Do you have any further comments on this objective or the challenges we have identified?

In the past, schools have received mixed messages about the value of specialised qualifications in ICT. There have been suggestions that courses in computing are not welcomed by higher education or industry because their content is out of date or inappropriate and that a general grounding in thinking and analytic skills is a better preparation. Specialist courses can be expensive to resource and difficult to staff, and a short focussed debate across the whole community could help to clarify what the real needs of the sector are and what the implications for schools would be. In particular, it would be helpful to know whether e-skills UK sees the new Diploma in IT as a way of addressing the perception that current courses do not meet the needs of universities, business and the students themselves.

For the successful implementation and ongoing development of the 14-19 Diploma, Naace endorses the view that all three identified components (skills, materials, access to employers) are needed for success and that partnership between business and education at local, regional and national level is essential to ensure that the programme is properly resourced.

* The following possible approaches are about actions in schools and colleges. How fully do you support each one?

a Enable employers and universities to have real influence in a root and branch review of technology-related education up to the age of 19.
b As above, with particular focus on transforming the ICT and Computing GCSE / A-level curricula;
c As above, with particular focus on addressing gender imbalance. d Establish effective support for the delivery of employer-backed curricula in schools and colleges, in particular the Diploma.

* Do you have any comments or additional suggestions on these approaches?

Naace wholeheartedly approves of any approaches which allow stakeholders to engage with the education process, whether it is involves debates about the curriculum at one level or supporting learners at another. As we indicated earlier, we feel that employers have a great deal to contribute, and we recognise that both higher education and the world of work depend upon knowledge and understanding gained by young people in school. We also value strategies which smooth the transition into work or ongoing education by preparing young people appropriately. At the same time, other agendas and other stakeholders have to be acknowledged. Ultimately, Naace hopes that the school system will produce people who take a delight in learning and will, as a result, thrive in higher education and in the workplace.

Objective 5. IT user skills

Challenges

a The current qualifications environment for IT user skills is too complex and not well understood by employers. The technology environment changes rapidly and existing qualifications can fail to keep pace.
b There is a need for particular focus on: (a) lower skilled workers and those seeking employment who may be lacking numeracy and literacy skills as well as IT user skills; (b) teachers and trainers of subjects other than IT, who need increasingly sophisticated IT skills to deliver learning; and (c) older workers who need increased levels of IT user skills to improve employability and productivity.
c Employers of all sizes need continually increasing levels of IT user skills to support improved productivity, but do not necessarily invest sufficiently in meeting these needs.
d IT user skills training in the workplace is often not recognised and does not contribute towards qualifications, even though IT user skills and qualifications are valuable in any employment context. e Public funding allocations and publicly-funded training provision for IT user skills development are not always aligned to the needs of employers and individuals.

* Which of these challenges do you think are the most important to address in the strategy and are there any that you believe should not be addressed?

(a) Many Naace members working in schools, local authorities and independent consultancies also face the challenge of a complex web of qualifications. Simply keeping track of what is available and forming a reliable judgement about which courses are suitable for specific groups of students can be a daunting task. Naace supports those who ask for the qualifications framework to be kept as straightforward as possible.

(b) Naace members understand the importance of equipping teachers and trainers across the whole curriculum with the capability to embed the use of ICT in their work with learners. This is partly necessary for the development of more effective teaching and learning; it is also essential if young people are not to ignore school-based education as irrelevant to their own technology-rich world. 

* Additional comments

Naace is the professional association for those who are concerned with advancing education through the appropriate use of information and communication technology (ICT). Naace was established in 1984 and has become the key influential professional association for those working in ICT in education. Its members include local authority advisers and inspectors, independent consultants and trainers, subject leaders in primary and secondary schools, and ICT in education specialists in government agencies and companies. Naace will be happy to work with e-skills as a partner in the development and implementation of relevant aspects of its strategy.