SC/15/17* Agenda item 10 27 August 2015 ICT Digital Skills Forum: This paper provides an update to the Committee on the output from the ICT Digital Skills Forum held in May 2015 and progress made since the Forum. Recommendations Note progress made
SC/15/17* Agenda item 10 27 August 2015 ICT Digital Skills Forum Purpose 1. This paper provides the Committee with an update for noting on the outputs from the Forum and progress made to date. Background 2. The Skills Investment Plan (SIP) for the ICT and Digital Technologies sector was launched in March 2014 supported by 6.6million of Digital Skills Business Excellence Partnership funding. The SIP provides a framework for the private sector, education and public sector to work together to collectively address these skills issues through a jointly agreed action plan. 3. The vision of the SIP is for to be viewed as a world-class location for ambitious ICT and digital technology businesses to be able to develop, invest and grow by having access to a talent pool with exceptional ICT and digital technology skills 4. To achieve this aim the SIP is structured around four key themes: o o o o Responding to the immediate need for ICT and digital technology skills Broadening the future talent pipeline for ICT and digital technology skills Working together to make the education system more responsive to the needs of employers Raising the profile of the ICT and digital technology sector and careers 5. The SFC is a key partner in Themes two and three: Broadening the future talent pipeline for ICT and digital technology skills and Working together to make the education system more responsive to the needs of employers. The objectives of theme two are as follows: o To encourage more young people to choose a career in the ICT and digital technologies sector. 1
o To arrest the decline in the number of individuals studying ICT and computer related qualifications at school, FE and HE. The objectives of theme three are: o Ensure the education system is aligned with the needs of businesses for ICT and digital technology skills. o Increase the number and relevance of graduates available to enter the ICT and digital technology sector o Improve the collaborations between industry and education. Digital Skills Forum 6. SFC hosted a Digital Skills Forum held on 19th May 2015. The Forum included representatives from industry, HE, FE, Skills Development (SDS), Education (ES), Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA), College Development Network, IS and Scottish Government. 7. The aims of the Forum were agreed as: o Bring together employers, sector representatives and College and Universities to discuss how the curriculum in ICT and Digital Technologies can be better aligned to industry needs. o Explore areas of innovation, growth and development within the sectors. o Consider how employers can better contribute to curriculum content and design. o Look at flexible and new models of delivery in collaboration with industry networks. 8. The Forum included presentations from Gerry Docherty, Chair of the ICT and Digital Technologies Skills Group; Maggie Morrison, Director, Business Development, Public Sector CGI ; Caroline Stuart, Director of Oracle Corporation Ltd; Polly Purvis, Chief Executive of IS; and Hilary Weir, Digital Literacy and Enhancement Manager at SQA. 9. Round table discussions produced a series of questions, suggestions and feedback for the Executive to consider and progress. 2
Output from Forum 10. Feedback from the Forum highlighted a number of key actions required including: o Questioning on the day highlighted a lack of knowledge amongst HE and FE sectors and industry partners of current initiatives to progress the SIP. There is a requirement to engage both sectors and industry to provide regular updates on current projects / initiatives. o Employers and Industry are keen to be involved in curriculum design and planning and in some cases delivery, however do not know how to progress this. A methodology is required to enable this to happen. o CPD requirement for Lecturers and Teachers partnerships with industry, use of interns in schools, industry swaps were all suggested. o Awareness raising is required for career influencers on the roles and diversity of the industry. o A simplified map of school / FE / HE provision is required for students and career influencers. o Develop a system where courses are Kite marked by industry. o Common consensus required on core course content. Actions relating to feedback 11. A number of the suggestions above have been actioned by SDS, SQA and SFC. 12. Participants were provided with information on current projects and initiatives highlighting lead agencies and current action being undertaken. In addition SFC provided links to relevant documentation and contact details of person / agency responsible. (Appendix 1). 13. The Forum was the first stage of SFC engaging with FE, HE and industry to progress the actions of the SIP. One of the ways in which SFC would seek to ensure that industry is involved at all stages of curriculum development is to develop a network of institutions whose curriculum has been endorsed by industry representatives. This endorsement and involvement with the network will be invaluable to ensuring the quality of the provision and subsequently to the success of this model. 14. A follow up meeting of representatives from HE, FE, SICSA, SDS and industry to develop this model of working has been agreed for 18th September 2015. 15. SFC aims to ensure that provision reflects industry needs and is of sufficient quality to enable graduates to gain employment in this sector. Recommendations 3
16. The committee is invited to note the information in this paper. Publication 17. This paper will be published online following the Committee meeting. Further information 18. Contact: Sharon Drysdale, Assistant Director Skills, SFC (direct line: 0131 313 6682; sdrysdale@sfc.ac.uk ) 4
Appendix 1. ICT Digital Skills Forum Feedback & Suggestions Comments/Suggestions from ICT/Digital Skills Forum Agency/Agencies Responsible? Current Action (if any) Further information including contact details of person / agency responsible Common understanding of CfE and the qualification system Education Education materials that should help with this at the links below http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/nationalqualificati ons/index.asp http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/learningandteachi ng/thecurriculum/whatiscurriculumforexcellence/learnin gthroughoutlife/highereducation/introduction.asp http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/keycfesupport/ind ex.asp http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/learningandteachi ng/thecurriculum/whatiscurriculumforexcellence/keydoc s/cfebriefings.asp http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/parentzone/lear ninginscotland/index.asp Provide a simplified map of school College curriculum for students/pupils / parents SQA Digital Pathways group established and work undertaken to complete mapping of CfE, College curriculum and vendor qualification. Digital representation of this diagram also being used by SDS (My World of Work website) Alastair McGregor SQA 1
Add digital skills to core responsibilities of primary teachers not just health, wellbeing, literacy and numeracy Every teacher should have IT skills Requirement for CPD for school teachers to upskill Use STEMNET ambassadors with teaching staff Education GTCS Education STEMnet The first meeting of the Curriculum, Learning, Teaching, Assessment and Support forum for Technologies was held on the 19 th June. This is the group that will be able to make such recommendations to the CfE implementation board who would make the final decision on issues involving curriculum change. http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/images/ctlas_fly er_v2_tcm4-844982.pdf This is built into the new standards for registration for any teacher. The standards for registration state that have secure knowledge and understanding of current guidance on the use of digital technologies in schools and know how to use digital technologies competently to enhance teaching and learning. Education in the process of firming up the plans for this in the year ahead. There are examples of this, such as STEMnet are partnering the BBC in raising awareness of the micro:bit which will be available to S1 from Autumn 2015. STEMNET will also facilitate support from STEM Ambassadors from business and industry to help bring the micro:bit to life in school sessions and inspire young people about careers in digital industries. This has been mentioned on a number of occasions CLTAS will discuss this in due course. 2
Industry involved in curriculum planning Revisit P1 S2 curriculum with industry representation SQA The Tech Partnership SDS Education http://www.stemnet.org.uk/stemnetsupporting-the-bbc-micro-bit-2/ Employers/SSC invited to participate in qualification developments as part Qualification Design Teams The IT MA frameworks are developed by Tech Partnership in collaboration with industry so employers will have had the opportunity to inform the current MA provision. Tech Partnership is currently exploring new IT MA frameworks and is looking at an employer consultation event at the end of August. In particular they are looking at input from employers around demand for MA in big data/data analytics. SDS is currently exploring the development of a foundation apprenticeship for IT to build on the current pilots - (www.skillsdevelopmentscotland.co.uk/ourservices/foundation-apprenticeships/). This is likely to be developed in partnership with Tech Partnership The CLTAS and the CfE implementation board would make the decisions around this happening. http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/images/ctlas_fly er_v2_tcm4-844982.pdf IT MAs Michael.Kowbel@thetechpartnership. com or Claire.gillespie@sds.co.uk IT MAs Michael.Kowbel@thetechpartnership. com or Claire.gillespie@sds.co.uk On the agenda for future meetings 3
Connecting course title / content with employer need SQA Qualification Design Teams (as above) and validation panels suggest and approve qualification titles Industry / Education swaps SDS Education The ICT and Digital Technologies Skills Investment Plan structure is based around a thematic work-stream approach, one of which addresses the education system. This suggestion has been fed back to this work-stream for them to consider how they could take this forward. If any colleges or universities are interested in informing the decisions of the work stream please contact Claire Gillespie. One suggestion is to try a pilot with one of the hubs that have been set up by the PLANC project. Claire.gillespie@sds.co.uk CDN Will have a role in this but still needs to be discussed with CDN CEO Better advertising / promotion of industry and roles in schools. SDS Big Ambition A key feature of the ICT/digital technologies Skills Investment Plan is to ensure that young people and their influencers have information on the wide range of exciting, and rewarding career opportunities in the ICT/digital sector. Currently this information can be accessed through existing resources such as www.myworldofwork.co.uk/the-it-industry and www.bigambitionscotland.com/, and SDS is Digital World - Claire.gillespie@sds.co.uk My World of Work Claire.gillespie@sds.co.uk Big Ambition - Michael.Kowbel@thetechpartnership. com 4
Partner Colleges with blue chip companies eg Oracle SDS Education building on this existing content by working with industry to deliver a multi channel marketing campaign to promote careers in the ICT/digital sector. The campaign which will be called Digital World will launch in Autumn 2015. SDS and industry hopes that this will be a campaign with FE and HE will support both in terms of promoting it, and working with SDS to codevelop content opportunities. Information has already begun to cascade information to partners about the campaign and further workshops and communications are planned over the coming months. Some of this is already happening, although informally and not wide. The ICT and Digital Technologies Skills Investment Plan structure is based around a thematic workstream approach, one of which addresses the education system. This suggestion has been fed back to this work-stream for them to consider how they could take this forward If any colleges or universities are interested in informing the decisions of the work stream please contact Claire Gillespie. Kirsty McFaul will raise at the next Industry/education and training group. Claire.gillespie@sds.co.uk 5
Is there an opportunity to share good practice? Need to focus on getting more girls/women into sector Education SFC Education having a review of the website over the summer and we plan to share practice from the PLANC project as well as other exemplification. SFC are eveloping a Gender Action Plan and are setting up employer engagement focus groups (first on 1 Oct) looking to address the gender imbalance in ICT, Engineering and Construction 6
Appendix 2 Other SFC Initiatives relating to the SIP SIP Theme Action SFC Response 1. Respond flexibly to undergraduate student demand for places in ICT in 2014 and beyond through the Outcome Agreement Process. Theme 2: Broadening the future talent pipeline for ICT and Digital Technology Skills Relaxation of consolidation limits for universities where they can demonstrate that they are responding to demand. Theme 3: Increase the number and relevance of graduates available to enter the ICT and digital technology and sector Innovation Centre 1. Deliver 750 work placements for HE/FE students through e- placement by 2016 Provide support ( 11.3m) for big data innovation centre. SFC Funded e-placement 622,000 over five years ends 2018. 297 created up to June 2015 1
Appendix 3 Students at the higher education institutions in whose subject(s) or course aim include a Computer Science subject, 2009-10 to 2013-14 (1) Level of Study 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 2012-13 (2) 2013-14 Research 531 557 592 609 590 Postgraduate Taught Postgraduate 2,078 2,221 1,975 1,690 1,635 First Degree 6,847 7,303 7,081 7,609 8,290 Other Undergraduate 1,410 990 824 591 546 Total 10,866 11,071 10,472 10,499 11,061 (1) The students might be studying for a qualification in a Computer Science subject in combination with other subject(s). (2) Changes were made to the subject codes used for Computer Science subjects for the 2012-13 session and this might have affected the coding of some courses. Figures are derived from individual student returns collected by HESA. The Scottish Funding Council uses a different standard population to that used by HESA and figures in these tables might differ from any published by HESA. Number of first degree entrants has increased steadily in years 2010 2014 UCAS Data The data below gives an overview of application and acceptance trends in Computer Science at Scottish HEIs in the 2007-08 to 2014-15 application cycles. Whilst the number of acceptances to these courses at Scottish HEIs has increased by around 33% in that time, the number of applications has almost doubled in the same time period as they increased by around 84%. This suggests there might be an increasing, and in many cases unmet demand for places in this subject area. NB: this analysis looks at number of applications. An individual applicant may make multiple applications. 2
Computer Science Applications to Scottish HEIs(Main Scheme) Computer Science Acceptances at Scottish HEIs For comparison: Overall Applications to Scottish HEIs (Main Scheme) Overall Acceptances at Scottish HEIs 2007-08 2008-09 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14 2014-15 6,195 5,670 6,195 7,580 8,990 9,815 11,140 11,380 1,555 1,835 2,000 1,890 1,900 2,020 2,065 2,065 216,210 199,705 210,925 250,460 258,070 266,305 278,160 284,860 36,475 40,620 43,055 42,315 41,165 41,945 42,555 42,000 Data released by UCAS in August 2015 evidences an increase in applicants placed in Computer Science Courses in. 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 Computer Science 7,190 6,810 8,170 9,240 10,640 1
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