Pontydysgu staff are working from home during the Convid 19 crisis. In actuality we have been working from home for many years, initially using skype for meetings and more lately Zoom. We are trying to take as much of our research and project work online as well. Meantime then European Commission has pushed back the […]
Read moreI’ve had a lot of questions about the future of the Erasmus Plus programe in the UK. This follows the defeat of an amendment to the government Brexit Bill binding the UK to remain in the Erasmus Plus programme. I am sorry the amendment failed. But not all may be as it seems at first […]
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The DigiGen project is developing significant knowledge about how children and young people, a group growing up today often referred to as the Digital Generation, use and are affected by the technological transformations in their everyday lives. The research is uncovering both harmful and beneficial effects of technology in the everyday lives of children and young people. This includes a focus on educational institutions, the home, leisure time and children and young people’s civic participation. The project is developing effective social, educational, health and online safety policies and practices in collaboration with national and international stakeholders.
This video was made almost two years ago. It seems prophetic today.
I attended an excellent webinar on Thursday from the UK Centre for Cities. The webinar, presented by Elena Begini and entitled ‘How will the recession affect different parts of the country?’, provided an analysis of the latest labour market data, both around the numbers unemployed and those furloughed and receiving government funding. Elena explained that […]
There is an interesting article by Allison Dulin Salisbury in the Forbes magazine this morning. The article says that the Covid 19 pandemic is speeding the digital transformation of business, driven by AI and automation and quotes MIT Economist David Autor calling it an “automation forcing event.” The combined forces of automation and dramatically altered […]
As I expected there the flurry of reports on technology and learning in the lockdown is beginning to appear. Fosway is a company operating in the corporate learning market. In their report of a survey of HR professionals, among other things they find among other things: Traditional eLearning shows signs of waning both in terms […]
The Centre for London, a ‘think tank’ for the English capital, has released an interesting new report on further education in London. The report finds that further education in London is hampered because: It is underfunded: there are more learners in Further Education than in Higher Education in London, but spending on adult education, apprenticeships […]
Earlier this week we received the sad news that Kerstin Engraf, our friend and colleague from the Learning Layers project, had passed away. This was very shocking to us, because we had always learned to know her as a very lively and energetic person and we were expecting her to keep healthy. None of us […]
In my latest post on this blog I reported on the new Support pages for users of Learning Toolbox (LTB) and Demonstration page with brief introduction and a video presentation. At the end of the post I mentioned that the developers of the LTB had also published three new videos that present innovative use of […]
My recent posts on this blog have focused on the digital toolset Learning Toolbox (LTB) that was developed in the EU-funded Learning Layers (LL) project to support vocational and workplace learning. At this point it is worthwhile to mention that the developers of the LTB have made good use of the quiet period when they […]
In some of my recent posts I have discussed the impact of the corona crisis on education, training and learning as well as on conferences that are of interest to us. In my latest blogchat session with developers and promoters of the Learning Toolbox – Gilbert Peffer and Werner Müller – I was able to […]
Graduate Jobs
As reported by WONKHE, a survey of 1,200 final year students conducted by Prospects in the UK found that 29 per cent have lost their jobs, and 26 per cent have lost internships, while 28 per cent have had their graduate job offer deferred or rescinded. 47 per cent of finalists are considering postgraduate study, and 29 per cent are considering making a career change. Not surprisingly, the majority feel negative about their future careers, with 83 per cent reporting a loss of motivation and 82 per cent saying they feel disconnected from employers
Post-Covid ed-tech strategy
The UK Ufi VocTech Trust are supporting the Association of Colleges to ensure colleges are supported to collectively overcome challenges to delivering online provision at scale. Over the course of the next few months, AoC will carry out research into colleges’ current capacity to enable high quality distance learning. Findings from the research will be used to create a post-Covid ed-tech strategy for the college sector.
With colleges closed for most face-to-face delivery and almost 100% of provision now being delivered online, the Ufi says, learners will require online content and services that are sustainable, collective and accessible. To ensure no one is disadvantaged or left behind due to the crisis, this important work will contribute to supporting businesses to transform and upskilling and reskilling those out of work or furloughed.
Erasmus+
The European Commission has published an annual report of the Erasmus+ programme in 2018. During that time the programme funded more than 23,500 projects and supported the mobility of over 850,00 students, of which 28,247 were involved in UK higher education projects, though only one third of these were UK students studying abroad while the remainder were EU students studying in the UK. The UK also sent 3,439 HE staff to teach or train abroad and received 4,970 staff from elsewhere in the EU.
Skills Gaps
A new report by the Learning and Work Institute for the Local Government Association (LGA) finds that by 2030 there could be a deficit of 2.5 million highly-skilled workers. The report, Local Skills Deficits and Spare Capacity, models potential skills gaps in eight English localities, and forecasts an oversupply of low- and intermediate -skilled workers by 2030. The LGA is calling on the government to devolve the various national skills, retraining and employment schemes to local areas. (via WONKHE)
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We will be at Online Educa Berlin 2015. See the info above. The stream URL to play in your application is Stream URL or go to our new stream webpage here SoB Stream Page.