1.
Background
The existence of a skill gap in the
workforce is not a new phenomenon but acceleration in technical
developments and the globalisation of economies has meant that planning a
response to it has become more urgent. A report from the European
Commission, ICT Skills Monitoring Group (2002) indicates that there are
two particular issues that are a cause for concern. Firstly, a skill gap
tends to widen social divisions and secondly, shortages in ICT skills, and
mismatches between the technical skills available and the technical skills
required, present a barrier to productivity. For despite suffering from
recession like Europe, the US has been improving its productivity and this
rise is linked with an increase in the use of IT.
Recognition that the role of both
worker and citizen demand that all school leavers be digitally literate
has resulted in ICT education beginning in primary schools. ICT has been
well embedded into the UK national curriculum at all stages in order for
students to develop the necessary ICT skills and cognitive abilities.
Considerable support and guidance has been offered particularly in the
shape of the Key Stage 3 ICT strategy. There is also an acknowledgment
that ICT can offer an effective environment for learning in a wide range
of subjects and hence the National Grid for Learning has been developed
and in some areas local e-Learning platforms have been put into place.
Various academic and vocational
qualifications and certification frameworks have been introduced and
implemented over the last 30 years. Halstead (2003) traces the changes in
policy within education moving from a model of personal growth and
self-realisation in the 1970s, to increased control and a much stronger
instrumental function for education linked to employability and
accountability during the 90s. One of the aspects of the emphasis on
employability is the integration of vendor qualifications into the
curriculum. This paper explores the proposition of incorporating lower
level vendor qualifications into secondary schools’ curricula. We
investigate the rationale for their introduction and consider whether they
are likely to contribute to the perceived UK skills shortage. We also ask
whether we are focussing on developing students’ skills to the detriment
of their wider cognitive abilities and whether we are developing the
necessary critical thinking ability for the Information Society. Finally,
we consider whether current students are motivated to study ICT at higher
levels and thus develop the professional skills that will be required in
the future.
This paper begins by describing the
project, then moves on to discuss the literature relating to e-Government
initiatives and the skills needed for an Information Society and this is
followed by considering the role of ICT in schools. We then move on to
consider frameworks which will help to structure our findings and then
responses are categorised and drawn together in the final discussion
section.
2.
Vendor qualifications and the project
Across Europe companies such as
Cisco, Oracle, SAP, Microsoft, IBM and Intel are linking with governments,
with schools and with universities to deliver vendor qualifications
(European Commission, ICT Skills Monitoring Group 2002). In the UK the
Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) has been working with
vendors to incorporate their qualifications in order to enable students to
gain dual accreditation (Wood and Revill 2004) and the Microsoft Word Core
Curriculum has been integrated into the OCR level 2 National Certificate
in IT.
This research reports on a
curriculum development project funded by the Learning and Skills Council (LSC)
in the South Yorkshire area. We were tasked with preparing suitable
curriculum materials to teach 11 to 18 year olds the Microsoft Office Word
(MOS) core curriculum in order to prepare them to pass the MOS vendor
qualification. This qualification is assessed via an on-line examination
provided through a number of distribution agencies. Whilst Microsoft has
produced both paper based and interactive learning material, their
material is aimed at adults. This project linked with a large European
funded project providing hardware for schools and developing a local
e-Learning platform. As part of this schools were set targets that two
teachers in every school should be trained on all Microsoft Office
packages and each school negotiated a target number of units to be passed
by students. Each of the target units could be achieved by a student
passing either one MOS exam or half (four of the eight units) of the full
European Computer Driving Licence (ECDL) qualification. ECDL is perceived
by teachers as a lower level, but more wide ranging qualification, thus
MOS is seen as an easier option for students who know one package well.
A series of fact-finding meetings
were held with members of local education authorities and the Learning and
Skills Council. There were also discussions with managers in further
education (FE) and with teachers in school and FE. There was some
classroom observation of teachers and trainee teachers and focus groups
were held with small groups of year 11 students.
3.
Skills and digital literacy
e-Government initiatives in Europe
have strong underlying economic and competitiveness agendas, together with
a strong emphasis on effective citizenship and social inclusion (HMSO
1999). For example the Action Plan for eEurope 2005 (Commission of the
European Communities, 2002) specifies the aim to make the European Union
the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy with improved
employment and social cohesion. There is an emphasis on enabling
e-Government, e-Health, e-Learning and e-Commerce through the means of
cheap, fast and secure Internet access and the acknowledgment that this
development must be fuelled by the provision of skilled workers. There is
some evidence that a better educated workforce creates productivity gains
and in the United States the proportion of the population classified as
skilled has risen from 20% in 1950 to 60% in 1997 (Servon 2002).
A report on the skills shortage
across the European Union (European Commission: ICT Skills Monitoring
Group 2002, p8) begins by classifying ICT skills into three categories.
The first category is ‘professional skills’ which are defined as the
ability to use advanced ICT tools and /or develop, repair and create them.
The second category is ‘user skills’ which are described as the use of
workplace specific tools such as banking information systems or Customer
Relationship Management systems in the retail sector. The final category
encompasses the use of basic ICT tools, for example use of the Internet,
email and generic packages such as word processing and spreadsheets; this
category is labelled ‘digital literacy’. ‘Digital literacy relates to
the ability to grasp and use information as presented on a computer
installation…Being digitally literate implies being able to search and
retrieve information, to navigate and communicate on-line, to participate
in digital and virtual communities.’ (European Commission: ICT Skills
Monitoring Group 2002, p12).To date, much of the research in skills
shortages has concentrated on professional skills and little work has been
undertaken in relation to the other two categories.
The professional skills category
has within the last few years developed a negative image due to high staff
turnover and high levels of redundancy. This is at least partly because
the sector tends to take on new staff to fill skills shortages rather then
retrain existing staff. Keeping up with rapid changes in technology is a
significant challenge for workers in this sector. But while some workers
have been laid off there are areas where demand for skilled workers
remains high. The picture is not as bleak and risky as it may appear as
there is still high demand for professional ICT skills in other sectors
than the telecommunications and computer services sector, for example in
real estate, business and health and social services. And whilst there has
been unemployment amongst ICT professionals there is a strong demand for
business skills allied with ICT.
Much of the analysis pertaining to
skills shortages to date has focussed on the shortfall in professional
skills, both within the ICT sector and outside it, but the proliferation
of PC usage across a wide profile of businesses implies that a much larger
proportion of workers than at present will need to be digitally literate.
ICT no longer represents a sector in its own right but has become a set of
specialist skills demanded across all sectors. In 2002 75% of the
workforce in the UK used a PC at work and to maintain that
proportion demands an increase in ICT users of 1.6 million by 2009, and to
increase the proportion to 95% would demand an extra 7.3 million ICT users
(European Commission: ICT Skills Monitoring Group 2002).
In addition to this we must
recognise that digital literacy is required for everyday activities as
information is a critical resource (Corrocher & Ordanini 2002). It is not only commercial businesses and public sector
organisations that depend upon information but also individuals who have
many more choices available to them and with greater choice comes
increasing complexity. Although the principles underpinning e-Government
developments focus strongly on making services available through a variety
of easy to use interfaces we should not underestimate the abilities needed
to make effective use of e-Government facilities. Not only is information
perceived as a public good to which all should have access but local
authorities are also using their websites, not only to facilitate
transactions and inform their citizens, but also to consult with them and
enable them to exercise their democratic rights (Horrocks and Hambley
1998). However, even when people have access to the Internet it does not
mean they choose to use it. Whilst some research indicates that people are
nervous about using the technology others simply see no valuable reason to
use it (Foley et al. 2002). Here, we have an issue not just of having the
necessary skills but also of having the motivation. If we concur with
Servon (2002, page 21) who contends that the skills necessary to work,
prosper and participate in current society are intrinsically bound up with
the ability to use information technology tools then we must demolish
these barriers especially for the generation currently in primary and
secondary education.
The UK Government has argued for
some time that we need workers with broad-based and transferable skills
for an Information Economy. This was the intention when National
Vocational Qualifications (NVQs) were introduced in 1986. Williams (1999)
contends that the narrow and context dependant nature of NVQs was the
result of a pragmatic linking with Youth Training Schemes in order to hit
targets and was not the original intent. This intention to produce workers
with broad-based and transferable skills is still held by the present UK
Government and can be discerned in the consultation document for the
e-Learning Strategy (DFES 2003) which aims to prepare a professional
workforce as well as fulfilled citizens. It asserts that it is necessary
to produce a population capable of continually updating their knowledge
and skills. Worries associated with globalisation and the off shoring of
many jobs has led to the intention to develop a strong knowledge economy.
In addition to the requirements for highly educated knowledge workers this
demands a significant workforce with technician skills to maintain IT
equipment locally. The importance attached to lifelong learning and
application of ICT to develop skills for the economy can be seen in the UK
Government’s support for the National Grid for Learning and the desire to
produce the best educated workforce in the world (Gorard and Selwyn 1999;
Selwyn and Fitz 2001).
The use of computers in the
classroom has a twenty year history which is traced by Somekh (1999) and
by Watson (1997). Initial beliefs that computer assisted learning would
improve teaching and produce efficiencies (Hooper 1977) have largely been
discarded with a perception that the role of IT within education, in
addition to being a subject of study in its own right, is -as a tool, -as
a communication device and -as a means of access to a wide range of
resources. While computers of some sort have been used in schools for at
least 20 years the significant uptake of ICT as a GCSE subject in any
numbers has been fairly recent. Computing ‘O’ level was certainly
available in some schools as early as 1973 when students used the local
polytechnic mainframe computer to run their programs and IT was a GCSE
subject using PCs by 1992. However, in a paper by Bell (2001) which
reports on the proportion of students taking different subject options in
1997, ICT is not mentioned, whereas by 2002 it was widely studied (Colley
and Comber 2003). For many years the number of students enrolling for
computing and information systems courses in HE has been rising but there
has been a drop of 25% in the number of applicants to UK university
computing courses in 2003/4; following a less severe decline over the
previous two years. This is an issue of concern to university computing
departments. Various arguments are advanced for this drop, they refer
either to supply side problems related to changes in the school curriculum
or to the demand side and the downturn in the IT job market.
4.
Educational frameworks
Here we explore three frameworks
that are applicable for analysing the responses of participants. Firstly
Saunders (1993) suggests that the curriculum can be assigned two types of
value. He bases his model on the work of Marx who proposed the notion of
value in relation to the economic base of society. Goods can have
‘exchange value’ and this is the value they have for sale or exchange
regardless of the need for them. This view perceives goods as commodities.
But instead, or indeed as well, they can have ‘use value’ which relates to
their intrinsic usefulness. He suggests that curricular forms that have
high use value, either to citizens themselves or to their potential
employers, must also be given exchange value if they are to survive.
Secondly Halstead (2003) traces the
changes in policy within education over the last 30 years. During the 70s
educational institutions focussed on personal growth and self-realisation,
the individual, idealistic model. In the 1980s there was a period
of intense reform emphasising shared social value. We saw the introduction
of the national curriculum and key stages for education, together with
attainment targets, testing through Standardised Attainment Tests (SATs)
and of course school inspections. League tables and accountability
demonstrated a commitment to shared values, common goals and state
control, this was the social coherence and idealism model. In the
90s there was increased control and a much stronger link being forged
between employability and education. There was significant ideological
shift from perceiving an intrinsic worth to education to valuing its
instrumental role. The emphasis was on citizenship, collective
responsibility and education for the development of society, this was the
social coherence and pragmatism model. Now with the desperate
shortage of teachers, we see the use of classroom assistants, and flexible
PGCE programmes. There is also a lighter touch in a number of areas for
example the permission to ‘disapply’ the National Curriculum to certain
students in order to introduce vocational qualifications (DFES 2002) and
an encouragement for diversity through initiatives such as the creation of
specialist schools. Thus we move into the individual, pragmatic model.
Finally Scott (1995) discusses the
move from mode 1 to mode 2 knowledge which is basically a move from
‘knowing that’ to ‘knowing how’. Within higher education this has included
a swing from courses to credits and the recognition of the need for routes
for progression as we shift from an elite to a mass HE system. The
discourse associated with credits and progression is seen as part of the
commodification of learning linked with the 'exchange value' of education.
5.
Responses
(i) Curriculum Managers
This group comprised local
authority representatives, FE managers and Learning and Skills Council
representatives. The main rationale they advanced for the development was
the skills gap and the demand for sub-degree technicians. They
concentrated on the way in which the MOS qualification could be fitted
within a wider range of qualifications available for students such as
GCSEs, GNVQs and Key Skills qualifications. Their discourse revolved
around pre-requisites, levels and dual qualifications. There was
considerable discussion about where the course fits into the framework of
delivery and this aligns with Scott’s (1995) mode 2 description. The
managers in the FE college believed that employers would value the
qualification i.e. it would have strong exchange value and they felt that
thus it would also have high exchange value for the students and help to
motivate them.
We spoke to a contact in another
local authority in the south of England that had been running Microsoft
courses in schools for some time. Some of the courses had been aimed at
older students, especially sixth formers taking MOS as an additional
qualification to bolster their ‘A’ levels but the authority had aimed
courses primarily at adults. This activity had been successful on a number
of fronts. Firstly it had helped to open up the schools to community
activity, secondly it had raised small amounts of money for the schools,
thirdly it had helped the local authority meet some of its adult training
targets and finally it proved a good way to encourage adults back into
education.
We can see that managers focus on
the 'exchange value' of such qualifications and use the discourse of the
commodification of learning. They also take a pragmatic approach and keep
a weather eye on accountability issues such as the targets that have to be
achieved.
(ii) Teachers
Teachers accepted the principle of
integrating the qualifications and using support material in order to do
this. Ideally, they wanted the material to be differentiated for different
age group and extension and practice material to be available. There were
opposing views regarding whether the qualification would be taken by able
students as an add-on or by less able students to support their
employability. Most of the discussion revolved around how the course could
be fitted into the curriculum. Suggestions were that it could be attached
to the OCR CLAIT course, used during lunchtime or after school activity,
taken as part of the Key Skills curriculum during GCSE or sixth form
study, or slotted into the period after SATs in the summer.
In the appendix you will find some
examples of national curriculum ICT learning outcomes and some of the MOS
objectives. We mapped our materials against both of these. It was possible
to situate the MOS objectives within tasks that allowed achievement of the
NC learning outcomes. The national curriculum learning outcomes are far
more generic than the MOS objectives and are focussed not only on carrying
out a task but on understanding why one is completing the task and making
judgments about the most appropriate way to undertake it. The NC outcomes
are also expected to be carried out across a wide range of contexts and
this raises other concerns, which are explored below.
The trainee teachers who were
observed demonstrated strong ICT subject knowledge. However, weaknesses
were perceived in applying these skills across a broad context. Examples
include: the young trainee who can use a spreadsheet but does not really
understand the rationale for using percentages rather than absolute
numbers; the trainee who is teaching about the use of corporate logos with
no understanding of marketing or of design principles; the trainee who
does not understand the business example which the class teacher expects
her to use as a spreadsheet exercise and finally even the mature student
who cannot spell accurately. There are two problems here; firstly despite
the literacy and numeracy requirements for all Initial Teacher Training
applicants incoming teachers have weaknesses in these fundamental areas.
Secondly, the ICT teacher is increasingly being required to teach about
the use of software across a very wide application area without
necessarily having the contextual knowledge to do so effectively.
Although the teachers show an
awareness of the commodification of learning and the 'exchange value' of
education they concentrate on discussing the practicalities of teaching.
They readily accept the integration of vendor qualifications but they do
perceive a conflict between the generic outcomes required by the national
curriculum and examination board qualifications and the more low level but
prescriptive objectives of the vendor qualification. A number felt very
strongly that they did not want any more ‘how to use Word’ material.
(iii) Students
Secondary students demonstrate
confidence using computers and often experiment in order to find out how
to use a package. ICT was used in many of their subjects of study and all
of the students interviewed had a PC at home. The discussions with
students explored their views on studying ICT both at school and in the
future. The most common reason advanced for choosing ICT as a GCSE subject
was enjoyment of the subject. This was often closely linked to their
competence at the subject and their expected grades. A number felt that if
they were interested in something then they were 'half way there' in terms
of their performance. There was also a keen awareness that basic ICT
understanding was useful for whatever they went on to do and that studying
ICT would give them a 'head start' with the constant advances in
technology.
Students emphasised the 'use value'
of education and the importance of enjoyment and they often had a career
in mind though some were keen to know that gaining certain qualifications
would help them to keep their career options open should they change their
mind. Although they referred to the need to be able to use a computer
rather than have a qualification, there was a reference to the 'exchange
value' implicit in the discussion of doing well and gaining good grades.
While a number of students clearly
enjoyed ICT there were a number of negative images. One frequently
repeated observation was that there was duplication and repetition of
material leading to boredom. In particular there was overlap between the
GCSE in Business Studies and the GCSE in ICT. Rarely was there any
reference to the subject being either difficult or challenging. While
there were different preferences in terms of the packages used and the
contexts chosen, a number of them commented that they were happy setting
up databases but unhappy at having to write down how they had done this.
When discussing whether they might
pursue a career in computing some of them were aware of the high number of
computing graduates and the fact that jobs such as those occupied by the
technicians in their school did not pay highly. None of them referred to
insecurity in the IT job market. Once again their choices were governed
mainly by what they enjoyed doing. ’If it interests you, you’ll do better,
if you like it you’re 50% there, it’s like football you need to have your
heart in it’. They were often resistant to careers in the computing area
perceiving the job as spending the whole day sitting in front of a
computer. They demonstrated a healthy sense of realism ‘well, you need a
job to live’. But they claimed that high salaries were not very important,
more important was doing something that interested them.
6.
Discussion
The integration of vendor
qualifications into the school curriculum is clearly part of the linkage
between education and employment that has been prevalent in recent years
(Halstead, 2003). The rationale advanced by funders for the integration of
MOS qualifications is to satisfy the demand for low-level technicians.
However, the type of vendor qualification being discussed within this
project fits more accurately into the category of ‘digital literacy’ than
low level ‘professional skill’. So it is debateable whether the outcomes
of this project could satisfy this demand although they could help to
underpin it.
It is clear that the activities in
schools which include the incorporation of basic ICT skills in the
national curriculum, funding linked with achieving targets related to ECDL
and vendor certification, and incorporation of vendor certification into
national qualifications all seek to develop ‘digital literacy’ in all
school leavers. However, the question is posed. Will the shortfall in
professional ICT skills be exacerbated by the dropping number of graduates
in the next few years due to the recent downturn in university
recruitment? In turn is this affected not only by the volatile nature of
employment in the ICT sector over recent years but also by potential
recruits being deterred from more technical courses by their school ICT
experience?
Another issue to consider in
assessing whether this initiative will improve ‘digital literacy’ is the
possibility that MOS exams will be taken by more able students to
contribute to their development and provide them with additional
qualifications for university entrance. If this is the case then this
initiative may not increase skills although it may accredit some of the
skills already being obtained and generate dual qualifications. It is
possible that, in the current accountability culture, targets will be
achieved but this will not necessarily reflect any increase in skills
levels and the proportion of people with few or no qualifications may well
remain stubbornly constant.
Next we ask whether this initiative
focuses on developing students’ skills to the detriment of their wider
cognitive abilities. The generic learning outcomes of the national
curriculum, including the demand for reflection and evaluation, suggest
that we are aiming to develop the necessary critical thinking ability for
the Information Society. Although the objectives of the vendor
qualification do not demand this level of critical thought they do provide
the very necessary skills required to utilise a software package and upon
which such outcomes can be built. Perhaps a more worrying proposition that
emerges within this paper is that ICT teachers are not fully equipped to
do more than just develop their students' basic ICT skills.
This leads us finally to the issue
of motivation. The message, given by planners, that the use of vendor
qualifications is needed as an exchange mechanism in order to motivate
many students reinforces the view that intrinsic motivation, through
enjoyment of the subject, is often insufficient. The overriding driver for
students in choosing a subject to study is their enjoyment of the subject
and it would seem that repetition of topics and unenthusiastic teaching in
some schools may well be impacting on the desire of young people to pursue
further study and careers in the ICT area.
7.
Appendix
National Curriculum key stage 3 learning outcomes
(examples):
§
analyse the
requirements of tasks, taking into account the information they need and
the ways they will use it;
§
use ICT effectively
to explore, develop and interpret information and solve problems in a
variety of subjects and contexts;
§
consider how the
information found and developed using ICT should be interpreted and
presented in forms that are sensitive to the needs of particular
audiences, fit for purpose and suit the information content;
§
evaluate the
effectiveness of their own and others’ uses of information sources and ICT
tool, using the results to improve the quality of their work and to inform
future judgements.
MOS objectives (examples):
§
Insert page breaks;
§
Highlight text in
document;
§
Insert and move text;
§
Cut, copy, paste and
paste special using Office clipboard.
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