Digital Literacy, A New Essential Skill ; Food for Thought from Welsh Experience

Digital Literacy the Welsh Experience

A Think Piece

In Wales, based on recommendations from E-Skills the then Sector Skills Council and Jisc work (including a review of all the digital competencies frameworks globally) , and on advice of Graham Donaldson in his Report to the Welsh Government , a new essential skills framework has been developed to support work based and lifelong learning.

This fits with the requirement for Trail Blazers in England to consider the embedding of digital skills in the new apprenticeship frameworks.

You'll probably know the name Essential Skills in Northern Ireland, but in England you'll likely recognise them as 'Functional Skills', or 'Core Skills' in Scotland. In Scotland things have become particularly confused with Skills for Learning Life and Work being pushed in Schools , Essential Skills in Colleges,  while in apprenticeship frameworks Core Skills is still the brand that is used for the underpinning generic skill set. Though the superset in Schools and College are related to the core skills framework.

There is probably a separate blog post needed in figuring out why this drift apart has happened in Scotland and what should be done to fix this. I hope some thinking hats are going on - digital literacy is a sensible broadening of the narrower core skill of IT.

The Welsh government realised that IT alone was not going to equip learners to gain the dynamic digital skills they would need to support them in adapting with evolving digital technologies at home and in the workplace.

The decision was taken that from September 2015 digital literacy would replace IT as an essential skill along with employability skills, communication and application of number. Essential Skills is a compulsory element for anyone studying towards an apprenticeship or foundation learning programme in Wales.

Based around digital capabilities https://www.jisc.ac.uk/rd/projects/building-digital-capability

The Welsh government has created a new framework of learner qualifications that incorporates all the key aspects of digital literacy models. It offers six themes across six levels, from Entry 1 to Level 3, including:

• Digital responsibility
• Digital information literacy
• Digital productivity
• Digital collaboration
• Digital creativity
• Digital learning

You can see the framework and the suggested models of learning and assessment in the context of the whole new Essential Skills Framework here http://qualificationswales.org/media/1371/qwrd1088-final_-_esw_suite_design_principles_-_june_2015_pdf2.pdf

I will focus only on the Digital Literacy components here.

The components can easily be adapted to a checklist, a think list approach for Trailblazers in the development of their new standards.  

For  awarding and accreditation bodies across the UK many of whom have not yet looked at digital literacies as a core component of their skills offering this is a useful place to start thinking about how digital literacies should be embedded in learning and in the workplace to improve both the learner’s skill base and workplace productivity.

If you were a Trail Blazer or regulator thinking about digital literacy and skills this would be a good place to start.

Digital Responsibility

Be able to access a range of digital devices  

Know how to stay safe in a digital world and demonstrate how to interact safely in the digital world

Be able to access and use transaction based on-line services

Know what is meant by a digital footprint and know the protocols for you as an individual and within an organisation in its maintenance and demonstrate maintenance of a digital footprint.

Be able to work safely and securely in a range of digital environments

Be able to apply a range of protocols for digital responsibility and digital security in a wide range of digital communities and environments

Digital Information Literacy

Be able to select, identify and verify the source of digital information

Understand how to critically analyse and the review techniques to gather digital information

Be able to retrieve and use digital information to complete a task or solve a problem

Be able to evaluate and use digital information to complete complex tasks or solve complex problems.

Digital Productivity

Be able to open a file and use a range of input devices

Be able to present information in a digital format

Be able to open and respond appropriately to personal and business  messages

Be able to identify, maintain, resolve common digital issues   and use basic hardware.

Be able to organise, store, share, permission and protect digital information

Digital Collaboration

Be able to select and use appropriate digital tools to collaborate with others

Be able to plan, organise and apply effective and efficient collaborative working practices

Understand and demonstrate how collaboration can enhance personal professional and organisational practice

Digital Creativity

Be able to create, edit and enhance a digital resource including multimedia resources.

Be able to use a wide range of digital creative tools and techniques to complete a complex task.

Understand how to critically review, analyse and evaluate creative digital solutions.

Understand how a digital creative solution has the potential to develop opportunities for entrepreneurship and enterprise.

Digital Learning

Understand how digital technologies, tools and techniques enhance and extend learning opportunities.