On 1 April 2004, Microsoft UK awarded 20 South Yorkshire schools and colleges with Microsoft Office Specialist IT Academy status at a ceremony at Maltby Comprehensive School , Rotherham . All the schools and colleges who received awards are members of the EU Objective 1 funded e-SY.info South Yorkshire e-Learning Programme, which has sponsored the training and testing necessary to qualify for the Microsoft awards. It means that the 20 schools and colleges will be able to offer Microsoft training as part of the curriculum, giving students in South Yorkshire a head start in gaining industry skills valued by employers.

Christine Lewis, Programme Director for e-SY.info, commented: “The event marks a significant step in South Yorkshire schools and colleges offering Information Technology (IT) industry training for students and ultimately for the wider community. It is a major achievement not just locally but also nationally. It represents the first stage of the largest ever initiative in the UK to train up schools, colleges and other public learning providers to offer Microsoft training.”

The awards ceremony included presentations to teachers in the e-SY.info Programme who achieved top scores in the Microsoft Office Specialist tests . Also attending the event were representatives from the next phase of schools on the
e-SY.info Programme that are currently preparing to offer Microsoft training and testing.

The event was organised by the e-SY.info team in partnership with Microsoft, Sheffield Hallam University IT Foundry, the Microsoft Regional Academy for South Yorkshire , and RM plc, leader of the consortium delivering the e-SY.info programme. The Academy awards will be presented by a representative from Microsoft and the individual awards by a representative from Sheffield Hallam University IT Foundry.

Schools and Colleges receiving Microsoft IT Academy (Office Specialist) status include:

Staff and pupils from across Rotherham were brought together to celebrate the town's educational successes in a specially organised 14 - 19 Education Week launched on 9 th February at Magna Science and Adventure Centre.

Rotherham has responded pro-actively to the Government's initiative to boost interest and enthusiasm for education and training in that age group.

A variety of innovative schemes, including workplace learning, flexible timetabling and college taster sessions, have already been successfully introduced.

The event was organised by Rotherham Partnership, along with Rotherham Borough Council and the Learning and Skills Council.

Rotherham Council's Director of Education and chair of Rotherham Partnership's Learning Spoke, Di Billups, said: "This is partnership working at its best. It shows what can be achieved when everyone works together.

We are very proud of what is happening educationally across our town and are working towards a flexible curriculum that will allow post 14 students to take subjects at different centres to better suit their needs.

Places like CENT have been opened on the Magna site which engages young people in specific projects such as the current Fibre Optics course that is being run.

The Education Celebration Week was launched on 9th February at Magna, Science and Adventure Centre with a programme of workshops, educational activities and events including a visit from Tidy Music.

A twilight conference took place with keynote speakers including Ken Spours from the Institute of Education in London .

It was the start of a week full of celebration with events happening at schools and colleges across Rotherham every day. Other events included:

9th February Wickersley Comprehensive pupils attended an art and design workshop with invited artists.

10th February RCAT hosted a Construction Workshop. Thomas Rotherham College (TRC) held a session on creating a Student Crew with a tour of the Music Factory.

11th February RCAT hosted an Engineering Workshop and TRC hosted a session on Caring, Leisure and Environmental courses.

12th February Dearne Valley College hosted a taster session for their Travel and Tourism courses and Clifton Comprehensive School held a 14 - 19 evening.

13th February RCAT hosted a session giving advice on the choices available to 16 - 19 year olds.

A ground-breaking new skills programme is set to transform the number of industry-ready recruits for jobs in South Yorkshire’s rapidly expanding creative and digital industries. The Programme, branded ‘e-SY skills’ and co-ordinated by the Learning and Skills Council (LSC), is part of the Objective 1 Programme in South Yorkshire and is being supported by over £7 million over the next 14 months from the European Social Fund and Yorkshire Forward.

The money is enabling four new centres for digital skills: in Barnsley, Doncaster, Rotherham and Sheffield.

The Rotherham Centre of Excellence for New Technologies (CENT), based at Magna, is specialising in fixed and wireless networks, mobile and broadband technologies and digital media management;

The Barnsley Centre for Digital Specialism will focus on e-commerce, e-marketing, web services and media technologies;

The Doncaster Digital Knowledge Exchange will specialise in creative digital media, including technical skills for games, music, animation, film and virtual reality production;

Interface, the Sheffield College initiative, will focus on creative and digital skills in television, photography, journalism and e-learning. Overall the programme is focusing on new ways of integrating industry training into mainstream curriculum, developing skills for the workplace and highlighting the opportunities for careers in the creative and digital industries. Exciting new curriculum and training programmes are already under development.

Thomas Rotherham College is the prime contractor, working with lead providers Barnsley and Doncaster Colleges, RCAT and The Sheffield College. The four lead providers are working with Sheffield Hallam University on curriculum development for schools and Foundation Degrees and to train up trainers for industry qualifications.

The centres will deliver industry training and qualifications from some of the biggest global suppliers, including Apple, EA Games, Granada Media, Jim Henson’s Creature Shop, Microsoft, Siemens and Sony. Partnerships with these industry leaders are already well established in some cases, helping to adapt commercial training to school, college and University requirements. The programme is also working with the national Sector Skills Councils, e-Skills UK for IT and Skillset for interactive media, in developing industry leading delivery frameworks that relate curriculum to occupational standards for up-and-coming industries like games.

David Burrows, Microsoft UK’s Education Director, said, “Microsoft has a strong partnership with South Yorkshire in developing a critical mass of both user and high level skills for the digital economy. We are working with the Learning and Skills Council South Yorkshire and with Yorkshire Forward on the e-SY skills initiative to integrate Microsoft professional qualifications with vocational curriculum from age 14 through to Foundation Degrees.

John Korzeniewski, Executive Director of LSC South Yorkshire, said, “This project is aimed at building capacity in South Yorkshire so we can meet the growth and evolving skills requirements of the expanding creative and digital industries. By facilitating industry based partnerships, the LSC and Yorkshire Forward will make a vital contribution to the development of the region’s high growth clusters.

Archine Mews Item 4 - The Rotherham Partnership Progress Update Jan/Feb 2004. The latest news on how Rotherham 's Community Strategy is progressing. PDF Download

The new Objective 1 funded e-SY.info e-Learning Programme, the largest of its kind in Europe, is already successfully underway at schools, colleges and a range of education and community organisations thanks to close working between the delivery consortium led by RM plc, the Rotherham LEA team and the sites themselves. The programme will develop outstanding IT user skills amongst Rotherham’s young people in secondary and full time tertiary education, as well as providing new learning opportunities to parents and the wider community.

Rotherham Participants ine-SY.info

Thomas Rotherham College
Thomas Rotherham has a high proportion of AS / A2 learners on academic tracks who would benefit from the addition of vocational ICT components to these courses. Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS) offers an ideal vehicle on account of the topic choice available to learners.
The immediate target groups will be AS / A2 IT and Level 2/3 Word Processing students. Thereafter, given initial success in staff development and in IT learner uptake, there will be opportunities to add MOS options to a wide range of traditionally academic courses through the national reshaping of IT Key Skills provision at L2 & L3. The key factor is the flexibility offered under MOS certification for the learner to select the most relevant skill (e.g. Word for Humanities students).
This programme will be made possible by e-sy.info provision of interactive equipment in the classrooms.

Latest update from TRC
Thomas Rotherham College has led the way in the introduction of local test centres for the Microsoft Office Specialist qualification. On 15th December 2003 the college became the first e-sy.info site to undertake local testing, offering AS level students the opportunity to add the highly valued Microsoft certification to their academic achievements.

New curriculum development is critical to improving vocational training opportunities in schools and colleges. This is essential to ensure that local provision meets the needs of employers, current and future, and places the local workforce and community in a position of strength for full productive employment and e-citizenship. In Rotherham, this is being addressed and co-ordinated through the Learning and Skills Council Cluster programme, the e-SY.info South Yorkshire e-Learning Programme and the 14-19 ‘Pathways to Success’ Pathfinder work of the LEA. Progress is already visible in the new CAD CAM, Fibre Optics and Wireless Networking courses available at CENT.

In August 2003 students from comprehensive schools, across the borough of Rotherham, attended a new and innovative Level 2 City and Guilds course on Fibre Optics. It was so successful, that a further course took place in October 2003. This is the first time that this course has been targeted at the 14 –16 age group. The students were accordingly ‘pathfinders’ in this type of vocational learning.

Fibre Optics

Fibre optics is playing an integral part of telecommunications technology in the 21st Century. The advances in this area are the driving force behind the revolution in the way we communicate and it will affect all aspects of the way we conduct our lives. High-speed broadband networks and faster Local Area Networks are already being installed into schools, businesses and homes today.

Organisation

The course is a collaboration between Rotherham LEA, ESF Objective 1 funding, CENT (Centre for Excellence in New Technologies), Magna and Cable and Telecommunications Training Services (CTTS).

The course is a 5-day intensive practical course. One day is spent studying the theory and the remaining four on ‘hands – on’ activity. The course teaches students to install, terminate and test fibre-optic cable within data communications systems.
Students work independently or in mixed school groupings and there are clearly benefits from this, such as developing social skills and team working.

In order to pass the course, students have to attend each day, from 9am to approx. 5pm and sit a practical test and written test. There is an opportunity for students to re-sit both tests if required.

To end a very successful week, the students were given the opportunity to have a brief visit to Magna - a Science Adventure Centre and to look around each of the exhibits.

Benefits

The course provides students with a Level 2 City and Guilds qualification in Multi–Mode Fibre Optics. To date 31 students have gained the qualification. This represents an 91% pass rate.

In addition to the qualification, the course provides opportunities for ‘hands on’ learning and will support and enhance work-related learning which can be delivered between institutions and will promote the concept of student centred learning.

It is intended that the course will enhance the delivery of GCSE and Key Skills courses, by strengthening vocational provision and ‘ adding value’ to existing patterns of delivery. The course also focuses on job roles and accordingly, will aid students in progression post –16.

This locally developed course has been sited at CENT in Rotherham, and it is hoped that through its use, visitors will be attracted to CENT and Magna, thus promoting and generating interest in the Borough and South Yorkshire.

The course supports the development of local educational initiatives, including the Pathways to Success programme, Rotherham’s 14 – 19 Strategy and e – learning. On a wider scale it promotes good practice in teaching and learning and reflects the recent Government moves towards increased flexibility and participation in the wider economic community as stated in the ‘White Paper’.

All students in one way or another benefited from the course. Additionally, there were some positive outcomes for individuals, e.g , a student who failed the practical test, returned and attended for a further week to finally pass, thus highlighting commitment by the student concerned and enjoyment of the course. Another student , just 14 arrived on the course on the Monday after arriving very late the previous night from holiday. Initially, quietly focused and independent, the student not only went on to achieve a high grade on the course but socially made incredible progress.

Future Plans

Placing the theoretical content onto a virtual Learning Environment
Deliver courses ‘in – school/college’
Links to employers and Modern Apprenticeships, Foundation degrees and HE
Enhance current GNVQ, Applied GCSE and GCSE ICT courses with other similar courses
Provide ‘technician training’ for technical staff and appropriate staff in schools/colleges

Comments

Teachers:

“The course, held at the Centre for Excellence in New Technologies (CENT) in Rotherham, was intense but the students who took part were all up for a challenge and they certainly weren’t disappointed. They were treated to both practical and theoretical tasks which translated into real life vocational skills. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed themselves and was rewarded for their hard work with a credible qualification which will stand them in good stead when they enter the world of work or further study.”
Paul Blackwell, Deputy Headteacher of Old Hall

“It was delightful to see our students working together with students from other schools in LEA. The quality of delivery was superb, indeed the Christmas lectures spring to mind. Such opportunities for our youngsters, relating Mathematics and Technology to the real world are invaluable. Our students found the experience very hard work, but very rewarding.”
Lynne Selkirk, Assistant Headteacher, Swinton Community School

Student Comments:

“I really enjoyed this course. I liked the way that Martyn taught us because he made things clear. I also liked all the practicals that we did as we do not get chance to do things like that in school.”
Adam

“I enjoyed this course due to its practical nature. I also found the knowledge I gained from it to be very interesting. I feel that anyone attending this course would gain something, even if its just confidence.”
Mark

Thomas Rotherham College with RCAT is leading an innovative job guarantee programme (known as JIGSAW), working with the University of Sheffield and public sector employers across the sub-region to develop individuals to take on new jobs as ICT technicians and engineers. The scheme is part of the Learning and Skills Council led Creative and Digital Industries Skills Programme, funded through Objective 1 ESF funds and Yorkshire Forward. The JIGSAW programme is committed to creating over 20 new jobs in Rotherham alone in 2004.

Rotherham played a prominent part in the launch of the Yorkshire & Humber Grid for Learning at Westminster on 15th October 2003. The launch was held at the Houses of Parliament with Rotherham MP John Heeley as keynote speaker. Andrew Bedford of RMBC is deputy chairman of the business organisation that has been established to develop this regional broadband and learning resource service, which may impact community users as well as schools.