This document provides an overview of a presentation on using technology to support young workforce development. The presentation covered:
1. Different ways technology can enhance employability skills development, including through authentic learning experiences, digital communications with employers, lifelong learning tools, and skills assessments.
2. Specific examples of how technologies like simulations, social media, e-portfolios, badges, and mobile devices are being used.
3. The importance of inclusive approaches and assistive technologies to support people with different needs. Augmented reality, e-books, and accessible design were discussed.
4. Contact information was provided for following up with the presenters on topics like technology for employability, accessibility, and community engagement resources
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5. Our agenda for today
Jason Miles-Campbell – An introduction
Celeste McLaughlin –Technology for Employability
Margaret McKay – An inclusive approach toYoungWorkforce
Development
Lynn McHugh – Any questions
#YoungWorkTech 5
6. Head of Jisc Scotland and Jisc Northern Ireland
Jason Miles-Campbell
7. Find out more…
#YoungWorkTech 7
Jason Miles-Campbell
Jason.miles-
campbell@jisc.ac.uk
T: @jasonjisc
Tel: 07468 727314
11. Challenges include …
Making use of technology to help
student employability is under-exploited
#YoungWorkTech 11
12. 5 key ways technology is being used:
1. Technology-enhanced authentic and simulated learning
experiences.
2. Digital communications and engagement with
employers.
3. Technology-enhanced lifelong learning and
employability.
4. Technology-enhanced employability and skills
development.
5. Employer-focused digital literacy development.
13. Wikis Simulations / games VLE / cloud collaboration
tools / social media
• Student cohorts working
with employers to
collaboratively develop
knowledge.
• Help to address real
employer issues.
• Case study: Glasgow
Caledonian University wiki
used to collaborate with
employer.
• Creation of “real”
environments to represent
authentic working
environments.
• Case study: S&B Autos
provide training to
apprentices using a
simulation paint spray shop
to teach panel painting skills.
• Tools to support
collaboration, document
management and project
management.
• Use of LinkedIn andTwitter
to make contact with
prospective employers.
• Case study: Dumfries and
Galloway College use of
Facebook to facilitate
student engagement with
employers.
Authentic and simulated learning
14. Social media / multi-media Mobile devices e-Portfolios
• Tools can help engage and
build relationships with
employers.
• Develop students digital
identify and reputation
• Showcase their digital
resources.
• Case study: Borders College
students created short films
and made them available to
local employers.
• Support capturing of
evidence.
• Can help students showcase
their skills.
• Case study: Reading College
rolled out personal
technologies (Google Apps)
for all students.
• Capture and showcase skills
learned on work placements.
• Showcase their
employability skills to
employers.
• Case study: Birmingham
City University use of e-
Portfolios on a Personal
Development module to
showcase skills to
employers.
Digital Communications & engagement with employers
15. e-Portfolio: showcasing skills to employers
http://shareville.bcu.ac.uk/bsvideo/portfolio01/views/Employer-View/index.html
#YoungWorkTech 15
16. Lifelong learning and employability
E-Portfolios / personal learning spaces Open Badges
• Tools such as e-Portfolios, blogs & wikis
support self-directed, personal and
professional learning.
• Good for reflecting on actives such as
work placements, and for capturing
extra-curricular activities.
• Feedback can be capture from different
stakeholders.
• Case study: City of Glasgow College
where e-Portfolios were used to support
stonemason apprenticeships.
• Provide evidence of skills.
• Good way to capture informal learning
which evidences employability skills
• Could work with employers to endorse
badges.
• Case study: Borders College awarded
Open Badges to students for engaging
with technology and showcasing digital
literacy skills.
17. Online diagnostics /Technology-
enhanced Assessment / Open Badges /
Careers Services
• Technologies such as online diagnostic
tools can be used to identify gaps in skills
and to support students identifying their
employability skills.
• Technology enhanced assessment can help
identify employability skills.
• Awarding bodies including SQA and City &
Guilds are aware of the potential of Open
Badges to evidence student skills.
• Case Study: University of London Careers
Group have developed a careers and
employability MOOC.
Employability skills development
#YoungWorkTech 17
19. Useful resources
»Technology for employability report (and associated case studies)
due to be published December 2015.
»Technology for employability blog -
http://employabilityproject.jiscinvolve.org
»Jisc e-Portfolio Guide - https://www.jisc.ac.uk/guides/e-portfolios
»Jisc Developing students’ digital literacy quick guide -
https://www.jisc.ac.uk/guides/developing-students-digital-literacy
»JiscTransforming assessment and feedback with technology guide -
https://www.jisc.ac.uk/guides/transforming-assessment-and-
feedback
23. Disabled people in Modern Apprenticeships in Scotland
» Disability disclosure rates for Modern
Apprenticeships in Scotland for year 14/15 was
0.4% compared to between 8 and 11%
elsewhere in the UK,
» Low disclosure rates do not mean that
apprentices do not have learning or support
needs that should be accommodated in the
context of their learning,
» Is the word ‘disability’ deceiving? Why are
people reluctant to disclose?
» Ironically work/vocational based training can
often be more appropriate or suit learners
better than ‘classroom based’ scenarios. 23
31. Making sense of text
» Listening to text using free add-ons for Microsoft Office and
Adobe Reader,
» Listening to text using tools likeTexthelp Read andWrite Gold,
Balabolka and Orato,
» Listen to text on mobile devices using free built in speak
features,
» Listen to Firefox webpages using GoogleText to Speech add on,
» Personalise the way Firefox webpages are viewed by adjusting
the colour contrast and text size and magnification,
» Remove distracting content on cluttered webpages using the
Clearly add on,
» Reading summaries of written text to understand it better.
32. Supporting writing
» Dictating information on a mobile device e.g. Apple or
Android voice recognition,
» Dictating using a web plugin such asVoiceNote2,
» Dictating using Dragon Naturally Speaking or the built
inWindows Speech Recognition,
» Word prediction onApple devices using Quicktype,
» Word prediction usingTexthelp Read andWrite Gold or
other free and portable alternatives,
» Proof reading written work using the text to speech
tools mentioned previously,
» Recording information using mobile apps.
33. Remembering
» Capturing video on mobile devices,
» Using built in voice recorders to capture
spoken information,
» Using audio note or similar apps to record
information and augment by adding text
and audio for review and revision,
» Using text to speech to listen rather than
reading it,
» Watching instructional videos again and
again.
34. Planning, organising and searching
» Searching using voice based
‘personal assistance’ tools such as
using Siri or OK Google,
» Using mind mapping software to
plan projects, document things to
do or visually plan a structure for a
written project,
» Using web/app based planning
management tools.
35. Inclusive approaches for young workforce development
Augmented reality (AR)
» Borders College incorporatedAR into their college
prospectus to provide additional media rich information,
» Shuttleworth College used AR for animal welfare
placements,
» Hopwood Hall using AR to learn anatomy,
» DoncasterCollege UCanCook augmented reality
cookbook showing step by step instructions to cook
meals,
» Maths content coasters in refectory atWalsallCollege,
» Augmented reality for education - http://tiny.cc/AR2learn
Brickwork AR at South Staffordshire College
36. Inclusive approaches for young workforce development
eBooks
» Redbridge college are planning to develop
interactive iBooks for hospitality and catering
students,
» Nash college are creating a Watch and Learn video
modelling project with students who have autism,
» UCL and Leeds Beckett are developing a
Timestretcher app to help with time management,
» St John’s College use ibook creation apps and near
field communication (NFC) to create multi-sensory
and portable information and prompts.
37. References
» Making sense of text - http://tiny.cc/Sense-of-Text
» Supporting writing and notetaking - http://tiny.cc/writing-
notetaking
» Remembering information - http://tiny.cc/remembering
» Planning, organising & searching - http://tiny.cc/planning-
searching
37
40. Stay in touch with us - Jisc Scotland
https://twitter.com/jiscscotland
http://bit.ly/JiscScotland
http://bit.ly/JiscScotlandEvents
#YoungWorkTech 40
Notas do Editor
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As part of the Jisc Technology for Employability project, a study was commissioned to provide an exploration of the role of technology in supporting the development of student employability skills.
A report of the project findings will be published in December.
This section of the webinar will give a brief overview of some of the report findings and highlight exemplars of good practice captured via case studies.
One of the challenges identified as part of the study is that making use of technology to help student employability is under-exploited.
The report identified 5 key ways that technology is being used to support development of student employability.
Provide active and real world learning experiences.
Benefits for Learners:
Authentic learning can be effective in developing employability skills.
Opportunities for students to experience different working environments.
Collaborative tools can provide opportunities to work with geographically distributed employers.
Glasgow Caledonian University Case Study (available from Jisc Technology for Employability Report, to be published December 2015):
Business Studies students collaborated with employers to research and problem-solve a real business issue.
Used a wiki to record and share experiences.
Learning and assessment activities helped develop employability skills such as team working, written communication, planning and organisational skills.
Demonstrates how technology can help enable work related learning, employer engagement and entrepreneurship into teaching and learning.
S&B Autos Case Study (available from Jisc Technology for Employability Report, to be published December 2015):
S&B Autos provide automotive training to Apprentices based in industrial settings.
They use augmented reality enabling learners to practice in developing skills in sustainable ways using simulation technology.
Augmented reality software has been introduced to support virtual paint spraying, allowing students to gain basic skills and practice safety protocols before attempting spraying in real time.
Dumfries and Galloway College Case study: Stranraer cutting crew Facebook - http://www.rsc-scotland.org/?p=2163:
A Facebook group was set up following a request from students and was a student led group.
Secure groups created for all hairdressing courses and used initially for general communications between learners and tutors.
Use of Facebook was expanded to focus on employability with a secure group has also been created for local salon owners.
Digital communications and engagement with employs can:
Identify and develop contacts and relationships with employers.
Develop digital and employability identity.
Develop digital evidence to help students show their skills and ‘rounded self’.
Showcase students ‘rounded self’ to employers.
Borders College Case Study: Assessment through podcasting and video production at Borders College - http://www.rsc-scotland.org/?p=2432:
HNC Interactive Media students created a script for broadcast purposes and filmed and edited a short film based on the script.
The film was embedded in a site and made available to ‘clients’ (local organisations) demonstrating their employability skills via the assessment.
Reading College Case Study (available from Jisc Technology for Employability Report, to be published December 2015):
Reading College has been making more use of personal technologies for learning.
They have switched off the college VLE and replaced it with Google Apps reflecting modern methods of working and providing students with digital literacy skills for employability.
Birmingham City University – use of e-Portfolios as part of a Personal Development module – NEXT SLIDE.
Case study available from the Jisc e-Portfolio Guide - https://www.jisc.ac.uk/guides/e-portfolios/employability-and-skills:
Birmingham City Business School – use of e-Portfolios with first-year undergraduates studying a compulsory Personal Development module - https://epip.pbworks.com/w/page/35600237/Exemplar%201%20-%20Personal%20Development%20in%20the%20Business%20School.
Moved from paper-based to an online e-Portfolio which enabled students to evidence skills.
The e-Portfolio (Mahara) allowed students to provide different views (employer, PDP, social, tutor views - http://shareville.bcu.ac.uk/bsvideo/portfolio01/index.html).
Students need to think carefully about what to include and how to present it and the technology gives them the opportunity to include photos and videos which could be used to evidence employability skills such as team working.
Self-directed and professional learning
e-Portfolios can support students in capturing their lifelong learning, help them evaluate and manage their own learning
Students need to be able to own and store their e-Portfolio data
Feedback can be captured from range of stakeholders including employers to help develop learner self-regulatory skills
City of Glasgow College (available from Jisc Technology for Employability Report, to be published December 2015):
The City of Glasgow College has created a bespoke e-portfolio used to support stonemason apprentices who spend the majority of their learning time away from College, completing apprenticeships in stonemason yards.
The apprentices spend 85% of their learning time with an employer yet none of the accomplishments achieved there were recorded previously as part of a digital record of accomplishment and body of work.
50 stonemasons have used the portfolio so far to which another 84 are about to be added and 50 more due later in the Spring 2016.
Borders College Case Study - Open Badge Adventures - http://www.rsc-scotland.org/?p=2454
Open Badges have been awarded to students and staff for best practice in using Moodle.
The badges can be displayed on sites such as LinkedIn to showcase skills such as digital literacy.
Open Badges is still a fairly new and innovative concept however other colleges and universities can see their potential and are piloting their use.
Technology-enhanced employability skills development:
Learner skills diagnostics to support students in diagnosing their employability skills.
Technology can play a role in identifying employability skills achieved via assessment practice. This could include the capturing of evidence of employability by video, and mapping assessment and learning outcomes against employability outcomes - https://www.jisc.ac.uk/guides/transforming-assessment-and-feedback/employability.
The potential of Open Badges is being recognised by awarding bodies - http://www.sqa.org.uk/sqa/67688.html.
The role of careers services in developing employability skills of students.
University of London Careers Group Case Study (available from Jisc Technology for Employability Report, to be published December 2015):
The University of London Careers Group have developed a careers and employability MOOC (delivered via Coursera) - https://www.coursera.org/course/career.
All the technologies mentioned can help with digital literacies defined as “the capabilities which fit someone for living, learning and working in a digital society”.
The work of the Jisc digital capabilities project builds on previous digital literacies work and the six elements of digital capabilities is on the screen. The Jisc quick guide – Developing students’ digital literacy has some helpful information - https://www.jisc.ac.uk/guides/developing-students-digital-literacy
Students need to understand how to apply technology to employer contexts and needs.
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In collaboration with the FE sector and significant others, Skills Development Scotland have been leading on how they can improve equality and diversity within our young workforce, and highlight the importance of assisting disabled young people to access training opportunities such as the Modern Apprenticeship programme.
However feedback their 2014/15 report highlighted that disclosure rate for Modern Apprenticeships was in fact incredibly low - 0.4% - this compares to between 8 and 11% for other organisations particularly Skills Funding Agency (who run apprenticeships in England) HESA (Higher Education Statistics Agency), SFC (student finance England), and UCAS
And yet they know from careers/guidance and schools stats that there are actually a lot more disabled young people doing Modern Apprenticeships than actually disclose.
In order to unpack this, they have commissioned Equality Challenge Unit to carry out research, with Lead Scotland being subcontracted to undertake this.
The question is do young people identify with the word disabled?
Early finding in LEAD Scotland’s research has highlighted that 66% of young people with a disability as defined under the Equality Act would not describe themselves as ‘disabled’ did not want to be classed this way.
School leavers for example may not have experienced a culture of ‘disclosure‘ at school, and often this is their first experience of having to think about this when they move into post 16 education.
These findings highlight the fact that rather than a reactive approach to supporting our young workforce, maybe a more embedded and inclusive approach could actively help widen participation, engage learning and remove unnecessary barriers for a wider range of backgrounds.
So if we want to support the needs of our young workforce whose additional needs have not been disclosed or identified – what role might technology play?
There are disabled learners and employees who will require specific assistive technologies that are typically commercial/paid for, and access to work can provide financial support for employers to ensure that the appropriate technology based strategies are in place.
In addition where assistive technologies such as texthelp read and write gold or mind mapping software have been purchased as a site licence in a workplace, then a real opportunity exists - the capacity for it to become more a ubiquitous tool and to be made available to everyone, promoted as efficiency tools NOT SIMPLY accessibility tools.
But if we move from an accessibility paradigm, and view AT tools as productivity tools that help us all personalise the way we access information and the way we work, we could actually provide the opportunity to ‘normalise’ the way they are perceived and used, to reach those who choose not to disclose barriers or disabilities and to widen participation for a wider cohort of people.
We could in fact work towards creating an environment where people do not have to self disclose to get an inclusive experience.
Before we move forward with this, if we can stick with a medical model right now - and think about the way people with disabilities access and assimilate information.
Vision – favoured media
More audio less text
Dyslexic – more interactivity, images, audio and video. Less text
Hearing loss struggle with audio, especially when there is no additional text based information for podcasts or video. Equally people who are primary BSL users sometimes struggle with text, especially where English is a second language
Similarly students with learning difficulties might engage less with text and better with more multi-sensory and creative ways of conveying information
Pulling this together we find it is printed text that is the least favoured way of conveying information and although we have been talking about disability here we could say that this might be the case for a wider range of people.
Indeed there has been growing recognition that these multi-sensory approaches to using technology have a significant part to play in reducing barriers.
Going back to the issue of lower disclosure rates therefore it is clear that if we remove barriers for 10% of our workforce you have the capacity to improve access for 100%. Creating a fairer experience for everyone.
How can we exploit the power of augmenting or adding value to traditional text based approaches - with options to have information read back using text to speech, recorded or videoed.
Appreciating the benefits when learning is accessed ‘on the go’, using mobile technologies, software run on pen drives, web based, social media, where learning can be shared, crowd sourced, critiqued collaboratively.
Where it can be played/replayed, paused listened to now or later, personalised to make it easier for individuals to access.
Do we compartmentalise the way we view technology?
Do we see specific uses of technology as belonging to one particular part of our lives? Is there a disconnect work, home, learning, social and leisure?
In addition do we perceive much of our social use of technology as being more interactive and multi-sensory and our work/learning as having a more text based focus?
Should the technologies we use fit neatly into one category or another, or should it be more disruptive and lurk between the different facets of the learning/workplace/social spectrum bringing technologies that learners are comfortable with into play when it best fits with the way that they work and learn.
If our focus is to developing talent within our young workforce and putt the learner at the centre, how can we equip young people for the workplace by exploiting, investing and capitalising on their digital literacy skills? Indeed the skills that they bring with them? Can we use the technologies that students are more comfortable with as learning tools not just as cool new things?
Jo Morrison the founding Creative Director of Futurelab talked about ‘mundane technology’, she pointed out that mobile devices and digital technologies were often hiding in plain view but at the same time they are integral to day to day learning and to creative practices.
How can ‘traditional’ assistive technology, commercial and free software, social media, apps and other tools be used to help people be more productive in the workplace?
How can we exploit the technologies that learners use on the go to advantage them in the workplace?
Technologies that are…
Hidden in the pocket
Hidden in the browser
Hidden in plain sight
Hidden by our influence
As Celeste mentioned the Use of technology is under used
How can we exploit assistive/enabling technologies to support and develop core skills and support young workforce development?
How can we make the most of commercial enabling technologies, free tools and portable tools to develop resilience and productivity in the workplace?
How can we take advantage of tools to help young people become more agile and resilient in the workplace?
Text-to-speech tools can be great for proofreading because it is easier to spot mistakes when you are listening to information being read out. This can be really helpful for people who have specific learning difficulties, slow readers, people who have literacy issues
There are some great built in text to speech features in Word and Adobe reader but they rely on people being aware of what they can do and how they can access it. Do we know what these resources are and what they can do? Mobile devices allow people to listen to text, and web browsers now offer a range of add-ons to allow people to simplify the way they read, to change colours or magnify what they are reading.
Dictation software has improved over the years, voice recognition tools such as Dragon naturally speaking or build features on computers have become more sophisticated, more accurate and can make a really difference for people who find writing difficult.
But other features such as audio recording tools on mobile devices are helpful for noting voice memos, for capturing information instead of writing, especially on the go.
Word prediction can help ease the burden of writing text to speech tools as mentioned previously can be great for proof reading.
Again mobile technology provides the capacity to
Capture information,
Record notes rather than write them,
Using text to speech to listen rather than reading it,
To instructional videos again and again.
Searching using voice based ‘personal assistance tools such as using siri or OK Google can be really useful ways of finding information quickly,
Using mind mapping software to plan projects, document things to do or visually plan a structure for a written project, can really help visual workers
And there are some very useful web/app based planning management tools
How are inclusive approaches helping and supporting young workforce development? These examples demonstrate some really interesting uses of Augmented Reality from across the UK. Celeste mentioned AR earlier
AR allows people to access information by scanning a barcode or pointing your smartphone at an object and seeing additional layers of information visualised graphical video/audio content
Used in formal learning but many of these examples have been adopted in WBL situations and placements,
Some really interesting initiatives where ebooks, accessed on mobile devices have been used to create on the go learning offering video, interactivity, prompts and although some of the examples we have highlighted have been used in college settings, offer some great opportunities for workplace support also. Examples from the Jisc Summer of Student Innovation and Accessible by Design Competition.
Redbridge college are planning to develop interactive iBooks for hospitality and catering students in training restaurants which will incorporate audio, video, and BSL prompts and instruction.
Nash college are creating a Watch and Learn video modelling project with students who have autism where learners can watch step by step instruction again and again.
UCL and Leeds Beckett are developing a Timestretcher app to help with time management, HE
St John’s College use ibook creation apps and near field communication (NFC) to create multi-sensory and portable information and prompts.
These are just some examples that might be interesting and might offer insights into the art of the possible.
I talked earlier about how technology can support productivity in the workplace and I these links will offer more additional supporting information which I hope will be of assistance
Making sense of text - http://tiny.cc/Sense-of-Text
Supporting writing and notetaking - http://tiny.cc/writing-notetaking
Remembering information - http://tiny.cc/remembering
Planning, organising & searching - http://tiny.cc/planning-searching
Go to ‘View’ menu > ‘Header and Footer…’ to edit the footers on this slide (click ‘Apply’ to change only the currently selected slide, or ‘Apply to All’ to change the footers on all slides).
Go to ‘View’ menu > ‘Header and Footer…’ to edit the footers on this slide (click ‘Apply’ to change only the currently selected slide, or ‘Apply to All’ to change the footers on all slides).
To add a background image to this slide; drag a picture to the placeholder or click the icon in the centre of the placeholder to browse for and add another image. Once added, the image can be cropped, resized or repositioned to suit.