Beyond Education: Employment and Skills


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Abstract
A traditional view of education and training has been at the heart of a lot of e-Learning standards and specifications. Are we now in danger of being left behind by the radical agenda endorsed by Gordon Brown, John Denham and Ed Balls in "Implementing the Leitch Review of Skills"?

Both the integration of Employment with "demand-led Education" for adult learners and the delivery of education in employment for an increasing proportion of children and young people create new opportunities and dangers requiring new pedagogies. In this new paradigm how may technology empower learners to take control of their own learning for their career development? This session will review recent and planned international implementations of ePortfolio for employability and identify the services learners require in this new situation.

In this new landscape developments are planned for HR systems that may have significant implications for HEIs: the session will discuss the work of the HR-XML consortium, its potential implications for education and how we might influence or contribute to this work.

Perhaps our focus on technology, the A Level and Degree level education has inhibited our ability to support the skills agenda: what is the role of technology in training a plumber and what tools are required to administer the recognition of proven compeence? Can we see lightweight data streams, device independence and mobile technologies being at a stage of maturity that real progress can be made? Are we really taking account of the sophistication of readily available personal technological devices.

Organisational details
This session will be led by [mailto:p.rees-jones@adm.leeds.ac.uk Peter Rees Jones]; please contact him if you have any queries relating to it.

The session runs from 9.00 to 13.00 on Weds 21st Nov.