With advancements in technology, FE has moved on, too – not that you’d be too aware of that if you were a visitor to this year’s Bett show, argues Bob Harrison.

It was a promising start to my 12th Bett (formerly British Educational Training and Technology) conference.

Following Business Secretary Vince Cable opening the show at Excel, in London, and FE Minister Matthew Hancock’s attendance and personal interest in digital technologies, there is a unique combination of factors that suggests the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) will be taking a serious look at how technology-enhanced learning could support the government’s aims for the FE and skills sector.

This is particularly true of the massive open online course (MOOC) phenomenon which is gaining momentum in the USA and the UK.

As well as 100 ministers of education from around the globe being joined by the BIS ministers at the end-of-January event, the official Bett guide was entitled Schools and FE show guide 2013 and not only that, but there was a nominated FE day, too.

Sadly, the promise was not fulfilled from an FE perspective and what promised so much for FE veterans like me was short-lived and didn’t materialise.

Yes, the shiny gizmos, tablets, touch surface screens, high speed broadband Wi-Fi systems, sophisticated software, 3D printing and much more turned me into a rabbit in the digital future’s headlights, but where were all my FE friends and colleagues?

Perhaps they were down the road at Olympia at the mis-timed (or perhaps Bett was mistimed) Learning and Technologies UK show which features the best in the world of work-based learning?

Credit to the Association for Learning Technology who, encouragingly, are now official Bett partners for the first time, but even on the designated FE day the post-16 footprint was negligible.

I was disappointed, but not surprised as a Bett and FE veteran as it is what I have come
to expect”

I scoured the seminar programme and all the learning theatres for a sniff of FE providers who were “ahead of the curve” to learn from and perhaps share, but I was as disappointed with my non findings as I was with the lack of authenticity in Mr Cable’s words when saying things like “MOOCs, haptics, and cloud-computing”.

The words came out in the right order, but somehow you got the feeling that the real meaning didn’t really get communicated and got lost?

So I was disappointed, but not surprised as a Bett and FE veteran as it is what I have come to expect.

Since the demise of Becta (formerly British Educational Communications and Technology Agency) more than two years ago and with Jisc’s (formerly Joint Information Systems Committee) main eye being on the HE ball, compounded by the impending closure of the Learning and Skills Improvement Service, who frankly never “got it,” there has been no real strategic leadership of technology in FE.

This has to change, as does the mindset of the funding, audit and inspection regimes which are stuck in an industrial mindset when we need to be preparing students for a digital future. Most occupations now have digital literacy at their heart.

The schools are radically changing the information and communications technology curriculum and the digital expectations of my grandchildren, who will leave school in the late 2020s, will not be met by FE colleges with a creaky technological infrastructure and a skills set which needs major investment and refreshment.

The perfect storm of cheap mobile devices, high-speed always on broadband wifi, open source, virtual and blended learning is sweeping across the Atlantic and it is time those responsible for FE woke up and felt the breeze.

Perhaps then next year FE will be on the inside of the Bett show guide and not just a name on the cover? I live in hope and look forward to seeing many more FE friends and colleagues next year.

Bob Harrison, education adviser at Toshiba Information Systems (UK) and chair of the Teaching Schools Technology Advisory Board

For more on education technology, check out FE Week’s guide to FE learning tech here

Ofsted boss Sir Michael Wilshaw had some tough words for FE at a recent Education Select Committee hearing, and while some of his comments may not have been well-received, that’s no reason to be dismissive says Lynne Sedgmore.

I speak frequently with Ofsted during these delicate and complex times.

I believe all colleges set out to offer good provision and to do good work for their students, employers and communities.

But I am deeply concerned at the impact on the reputation of colleges that Ofsted’s currently-expressed views have.

Off-the-cuff remarks with little basis in evidence, such as some of what we heard at the recent Education Select Committee hearing [see page three], are unhelpful, and I reiterate this continually in my conversations with senior staff.

Having said that, I believe we must take notice and respond with true professionalism to the accurate and rigorous elements of Ofsted’s work.

While the media headlines have been grabbed by claims about poor teaching and unaccountable leadership, there are, equally, important messages about how colleges have, in the past, fallen victim to a poorly-conceived skills system and some less than rigorous inspection results which inadequately considered student success rates when giving grade one results.

Sir Michael Wilshaw’s acknowledgement that guidance in schools needs closer scrutiny is to be welcomed. As are Matthew Coffey’s assertions that funding may have driven an inevitable leadership focus on business needs, and that colleges must be full partners with LEPs in any future employer-led funding system.

These are signs that, within Ofsted, there is a desire to see fairness and a strong FE sector that benefits from healthy student recruitment, engages with the business community to ensure its graduates gain jobs and, as a central preoccupation, delivers outstanding teaching and learning in every institution and community.

There was an acknowledgement on all sides of the Select Committee hearing that FE was “fundamentally important” and “little understood”.

I have written in the pages of FE Week before about the need to engage seriously with teaching and learning improvement and excellence.

It is the job of every one of us working in and with colleges to ensure that teaching and learning is always the absolute best it can be, and that learners and their success are at the heart of everything.

FE is ‘fundamentally important’ and ‘little understood’”

That means every college in the country clarifying how its values, mission and strategy, place learners centre stage; how leaders embody support and commitment to teaching and learning excellence in everything they do.

On a daily basis, they must convey this critical importance to all staff by making sure teachers and support staff are enabled and encouraged to engage with effective professional development and consistently deliver excellence for all students.

There is much research about effective leadership, effective teaching and effective professional development — not least some of the recent work that the 157 Group has published.

Encouraging staff to take the time to understand this and apply it to their work is something that must happen in every college.

So yes, we should be critical when the presentation of information is inadequately evidenced or not sufficiently robust. We should dispute sweeping generalisations which we all know are based on a small snapshot of colleges. We must evidence and proclaim where we do have good practice.

What we all share is huge passion and common values for our learners and for excellent teaching and learning.

To rise to the quality challenge we face requires the self-confidence to believe we have the potential, the expertise and the commitment to create an outstanding FE sector.

It requires building powerful alliances inside and outside our colleges, focusing relentlessly on teaching and learning and celebrating success, but also challenging poor practice and generating peer cultures that ensure all staff deliver excellence in every aspect of their college.

We will find, I suspect, that we are not that far away from the values and passion of Ofsted. But to bring together our values and ambitions, we need to build a strong partnership of mutual regard alongside being vocal about, and clear on, the excellence we aspire to and are fully capable of.

Lynne Sedgmore, executive director of the 157 Group