"We already had a broken system to begin with and digitised it and realised how disengaged students were."

Hi everyone, I hope you are hanging on in there. As we move into the Autumn and Winter months, a quick reflection on some of the episodes we've had out lately. I'll post here once a month with reminders of the best bits from our guests and to whet your appetite for some more listening in time, maybe on that daily walk you haven't taken yet? Keep reading below for posts on;

1. Contingency planning for remote learning
2. University student experience through COVID-19
3. Workforce training and what will become of the future of work?

Contingency planning for remote learning

With contingency planning for remote learning situations being a DFE requirement, much of our August and Early September episodes focused on schools building out their existing digital strategies. Section 5, of the DFE Contingency Planning Guidance For Full Opening: Schools states that by the end of September, schools have in place a remote learning plan...

".. access to high-quality remote education resources and online tools that will be consistently used across the school to allow interaction, assessment, and feedback and make sure staff are trained in their use.   (And provide printed resources, such as textbooks and workbooks, for pupils who do not have suitable online access.) 

(Hat-tip to Katy Potts for her continued great work across Islington schools and drawing attention to this, along with great resources).

Episodes discussing the nuances of a hybrid digital strategy for schools and colleges, and still relevant, are;

Call for evidence

As we come to the end of 2020, now is also the time for the gathering of intelligence on this great experiment to inform what goes next.

In that vein, the APPG for Edtech is calling for evidence on "what worked" during lockdown. Submit your thoughts here before the 5th October. I watched the APPG convening at work yesterday with some great demands on devices, data and learning spaces for remote learning success.

And, if you want to go beyond contingency planning, this episode looks at innovative ways out of the pandemic and into longer term changes in educational approach:

University student experience through COVID-19

I am currently working on our second episode on season two of our HigherEd series. This episode will be on student experience, currently blazing in the news due to quarantined students, calls for discounted fees in the absence of face to face teaching, and the arrival of security guards / bouncers on some campuses. The role of high quality online teaching and networking remains high. You can check out our new season trailer here;

Our first episode on campus reopening has lots on student experience in a lockdown scenario for those trying to work out the balance between student experience, safety, academia and wellbeing;

For some scenario planning, this report from Emerge Education and Jisc provides case studies of University institutions and their varied approaches to the pandemic and long-term planning.

"I can't see us going back to the old way now. I don't think students would let us actually."

Wrangles over the future of work and workforce training

The future of work is less than certain, with flexible working at once seeming like a "dead cert" in 2020, only to be replaced by a social obligation to buy coffee and be seated at one's office. Now, we are back at "work at home if you can", at least here in England. What's it like where you are? Behind all of this is a huge upheaval for every industry. There is no escaping the impact - negative, and sometimes positive - of COVID-19.

Retraining to meet the skills needed post-pandemic is very topical, with the Government this week announcing that adults in England without an A-level or equivalent qualification will be offered a fully-funded college course.

Funding for courses offering "skills valued by employers" will be made available from next April (2021), and a full list of the courses will be announced next month.

Whilst this is a welcome announcement, it must be remembered that the success of training and re-training will be dependent on how much programmes respect the values and communities already established through years of co-working. What is the transition plan from one working experience to another? This was discussed through the example of miners retraining to become coders in this episode with WorkingNation:

Simply expecting instant home and remote working didn't fly, as miners had worked alongside each other for years. Instead, space was created so they could work alongside one another once again, but in their new guise as coders, with the resultant outcome being much happier and more productive workers. In the same way, our recent episode on contextualising training showed how early years and further education colleges (two hugely challenged sectors during the pandemic) have adapted to pivot training to mobile and online, whilst also creating bilingual content for English and Welsh speakers;

Two interesting articles charting the reshuffle of the pack of cards as a result of COVID are:

1. Prospering in the pandemic: the top 100 companies via the FT

2. COVID-19 and the end of commuterland via the Economist

More recently we shared some "throwback" episodes to pre-COVID recordings (aaaaah! the sound of coherent society functioning nicely) on learning in the flow of work and simulation training for international development and hostile training purposes. Whilst "pre-COVID" they offer some lucid examples of how to use technology to deliver effective remote training and set ambitious personal goal setting. You'll hear from tech companies working alongside Uber and Deloitte, plus the tech advisor for NHS Health Education England and a major humanitarian aid operation.

If that's your bag, I definitely recommend making space for the Ufi-organised Week of Voctech, dates below.

We will be organising some podcast guest "huddles" and Q and As on Streamyard as part of the week, including on What’s next for Voctech and F.E?  A Live Recording for The Voctech Podcast with guest huddle, and Q and A and Investor Special: The Future of Work experiment Meet the guests from our investor episode of The Voctech Podcast. I hope we can have you along and taking part in November. Until then, take care!

Sophie

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