Presentation Panel
Building Future Skills and Employability with TVET
Date Thursday, Nov 24 Time – RoomKoepenick I/II
Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) is too often the poor relation in the world of workplace L&D. It’s overlooked in favor of high-profile learning programmes. But things are changing. The global emphasis on reskilling and upskilling, and the need for new skills in a shifting economy means that both organisations and policy makers are taking TVET seriously to ensure employers have the skills they need for the future.
Here we take both a general view of how TVET is working across sectors and look at what individual employers are doing.
We’ll see how to help individuals, and those that train them, prepare people for skilled work in today’s economy and also explore the blurring boundaries between at-work training and formal education.
Rebecca Garrod-Waters
Chief Executive, Ufi VocTech Trust, United Kingdom
I am passionate about the potential for digital technology to positively transform the way vocational learning is delivered, and the power this will have to positively impact people’s lives and opportunities. At Ufi we have been growing our activity across a wide portfolio of projects designed to impact across the UK, delivering better, faster and more effective vocational training. Ufi has a mission to enable more vocational skills for more people, more of the time, with a focus on increasing learning and skills opportunities for communities, sectors, industries and places that are traditionally ‘unloved’.
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Maren Deepwell
CEO, Association for Learning Technology, United Kingdom
Dr Maren Deepwell is the Chief Executive of ALT, the Association for Learning Technology, the leading professional body for Learning Technology in the UK, representing ~3,500 Members. We support a collaborative community for individuals and organisations from all sectors including Further and Higher Education and industry and provide professional recognition and development. Membership is open to all with a professional interest in using digital technologies for learning, teaching and assessment.
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Moderator
Inge de Waard
Learning Strategist and Connector, EIT InnoEnergy, Belgium
Inge de Waard is the learning strategist at EIT InnoEnergy, she is a longtime researcher, activist, award-winning learning innovator and (e)Learning coordinator. She developed multiple online & hybrid courses, co-designed AI tools, and embedded learning innovations. Inge coaches and co-creates international, blended curricula with engineers and teachers, and explores innovative learning formats. Her expertise is recognized by peers, resulting in additional co-authored papers, invited talks and keynotes in both academic and professional conferences, workshops and seminars. She recently founded the Power Elders initiative to spotlight role models who changed their lives at any age beyond 50. Most of all, she likes to connect with people and share stories.
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Levelling up Learning by Connecting Communities in Vocation Education and Training, Maren Deepwell
This presentation shares how the AmplifyFE network enables vocational teaching staff to acquire, develop and share the digital pedagogical skills they need, with the ultimate aim of catalysing change across the UK and beyond, so that significant scale can be achieved in digital vocational learning for adults.
AmplifyFE launched in October 2020 and already connects over 1000 professionals in UK Further Education and Vocational Education, providing a strong networking community for them to share, collaborate and learn.
Led by the Association for Learning Technology (ALT) and funded by Ufi - the VocTech Trust, the initial project produced valuable resources for the sector, including a well received Communities of Practice Sector Audit Report which was conducted during the unprecedented period of disruption that has been the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings and recommendations put forward were particularly timely and insightful in identifying those factors which are strongly associated with establishing and sustaining effective and collegiate Communities of Practice.
Working in a long-term strategic partnership, ALT and Ufi are now putting those insights into practice, with the aim to support and sustain the AmplifyFE network.
We will also share the 2022 Sector Audit, which will launch in November 2022, which will include findings about how over 100 communities are developing, what changes there are in the sector landscape and how education providers and industry are working together.
The data we collect includes key indicators such as levels of activity, number of members involved, subject focus such as functional skills, governance, and platforms and tools used.
The audit helps shape the AmplifyFE network and our support for practitioners in FE and vocational education for the past year.
You will explore how AmplifyFE has become a network to connect and amplify communities of practice for digital learning, teaching and assessment in vocational education.
You will also be able to join our Community Map, charting networks, conversations and resources. The map continues to grow as new communities, networks and hashtags are added and we welcome new contributions.
Overview
- Get a unique overview of the vocational education and training landscape in the UK and explore findings about what makes a successful community of practice long-term.
- Learn about the strategic actions we are taking to address the digital skills gap and digital divide.
- Receive full and free access to the 2022 sector audit and the AmplifyFE community space and activities.
Why Vocational Technology is the future: Education 4.0 and the implementation of the best tech for vocational learners, Rebecca Garrod-Waters
In this presentation we will explore the tech developments we have seen over the past 12 months and the way the greater acceptance of tech allows and encourages us all to think more boldly about the potential for future education systems.
Ufi VocTech Trust has always been passionate about the potential of digital tools to positively transform vocational learning, whether that is learning in the workplace, learning in a formal educational setting or learning the skills you need to get a job, improve your job or change your job.
As a grant funder and investor in the tech that supports skills for work, we have a unique insight into the developing tools, the innovations that are happening within the sector and the areas where technology can have an even more significant impact.
In this session Rebecca will explore the tech developments we have seen over the past 12 months and the way the greater acceptance of tech allows and encourages us all to think more boldly about the potential for future education systems. As well as talking about the art of the immediately possible, Rebecca will look to the future and the potential of the work we support to massively change the way we deliver skills and value skills.
There will be examples of the tools that we have supported and a look to the future of learning – the way systems will need to adapt and the way that tech can positively support and drive this.
Participants will have the chance to learn about new and innovative tech focussed on vocational skills and gain insight into the impact they are having in both the workplace and college environment. Participants will also have the opportunity to hear about some of the challenges that have been addressed and be part of the discussion about the implications for a future education system.
Overview
- Explore the art of the immediately possible and reflect upon what this means for the future of vocational education.
- Explore what this means for skills in non-traditional settings, and why Education 4.0 matters more for them than in traditional 'office work'.
- Take-away some insight into the tools available and the impact they are having on learners from a wide variety of backgrounds, learning needs, skill levels and industries.