Archimedes
Moderator
Registered: 02/22/08
Posts: 26
|
| | 05/25/08 at 11:10 AM | Reply with quote | #1 |
|
From the TES ICT staffroom comes more discussion about the ICT Diploma.
ICT_works puts forward the following analysis:
"There has been a lengthy thread on these pages about the IT Diploma. A majority of contributors to the thread have suggested that the IT Diploma is misconceived and unlikely to catch on.
"A point that seemed missing from the discussion was the fact that the IT Diploma is about IT and not ICT. i.e. is it about employment in the IT industries, based on a 'line of learning' developed by the IT industry itself.
"ICT courses that teach ICT are something different. They are probably more about the application of ICT capability in non-specialist fields.
"So if a student is interested in going into the IT industry then the IT Diploma will be the most appropriate choice. There is a huge need for people like Software Engineering Project Managers, requiring a specific combination of pre-employment skills and experiences that ICT courses may not provide. These jobs are also highly rewarded.
"Many of the contributors to the previous thread were saying that they think the Diploma will be scrapped. This is unlikely - because our country's future health depend on the Diploma working.
Other contributors were saying that Diplomas were for the less able. This is another misconception.
"The schools in the Gateway consortia starting the Diplomas are commited to doing their best to make them work. A year from now we will see their emerging success and be able to learn from aspects that have gone less well. I think we need to give the Diplomas a chance. There is no need to rush into them, and certainly nothing to be gained by talking them down.
"The Diplomas are uniquely challenging in their structure and requirements for colaboration. Schools deserve huge support from Government in making Diplomas work - they are not at all easy to set up and professional issues may have been underestimated. Happily, the signs are that schools will get that support."
|
| Loading... | |
Archimedes
Moderator
Registered: 02/22/08
Posts: 26
|
| | 06/03/08 at 06:50 AM | Reply with quote | #2 |
|
There were a range of replies to the above posting. The following example suggests that it is too early to specialise at 14.
"The level 2 diploma in ICT looks very like GNVQ in its overall scope and matches most of what is available already in OCR Nationals. So why bother? What does it give other than headaches?
"I agree with posters who say it's too early to specialise at 14 and having been involved with sending kids off to one day college courses in Year 10/11 "a lot of them drop out and return to School.
"But at least there is little harm done. Students can be redeployed, put on the existing GCSE courses. Basing your entire future around a course which you might suddenly realise is not for you raises a lot of questions noone wants to answer. Where do you go if you drop out?
"Will there be any GCSE course running back in your school at all? Because the teachers of Humanities and languages look like they are going to royally shafted if Diplomas take off.
"This is hardly being negative but noone can give me an answer as to whether or not mass adoption of diplomas will lead to mass teacher redundancies... "
'cj deane' continues this theme...
"I am afraid that the debate by certain ill-informed posters is again being shifted as Dida was. It is a relevant qualification as a level 2 choice but in no way prepares students for an IT job. They are under 16 for goodness sake. How on earth could you be employed as a project manager or programmer based on a level 2 diploma in IT. The problem with our country is pretending to focus on industry without sufficiently doing it any justice due to the clamour for league tables."
A posting by 'Deep Throat' adds what seems like an authoratative viewpoint on Diplomas in general...
"...it would be very unwise for anyone reading the more sceptical contributions to think that the Diploma is going to be a flash in the pan, or be inferior to traditional GCSEs and A levels.
"A review of all employers in every sector of employment confirms that employers need young people with transferable skills and the ability to learn and adapt.
"The sectors themselves can teach people the specific knowledge relevant to the work that they will do.
They don't always believe that teachers who haven't experienced working in the sector itself are in the strongest position to do this well.
What they dont want is young people who have only been through a knowledge-based curriculum - and haven't been taught the raft of transferable skills that you will see in the structure of the Diploma.
Traditional subjects on there own do not go far enough in teaching the skills that young people will need.
"Furthermore, the knowledge that they impart - especially in a subject like IT, is likely to be out of date quite quickly, and of limited long-term value. The subject can't be content - free of course, but it needs to take its main steer from what the IT industry believes are the longer term learning essentials.
"Also, Diplomas wont be right for every learner. The current estimate is that 40% will follow a Diploma, 40% will continue with general subjects, and 20% will follow a vocational route like an apprenticeship.
Of course, those students going into Medicine and Law will continue to follow the well-trodden academic path that takes them there, but this is a minority.
The addition of subjects like science and humanities in 2011 will more directly tread the ground covered by our traditional subjects, albeit with a professional orientation.
"It is the belief of Government (with all party support) that once the Diploma has demonstrated a clear route through HE into successful employment it will become 'the qualification of choice'. This is because aspiring middle class parents (to give one example) will wish to choose the successful route into employment for their sons and daughters.
"It is for LAs to ensure (by steering funding - including BSF) that by 2013 all schools are working to offer an entitlement to all pupils to choose any Diploma on offer by that time.
"So, not all teachers need to get involved with the Diplomas at this time - but they should still aim to have an open mind about their development - and provide impartial advice to students about their choices.
"Over the next 5 years competition will probably begin to make some traditional subjects unviable in some schools. It is hard to tell how quickly this will happen - but essentially it will be demand-led change.
"The professional issues here are enormously important to get right.
Anxiety and concern are signs that there is a big job to be done....."
'fortuneteller' replies to the charge that 14 is to young to specialise with the following:
"Gavcradd suggests that level 2 Diplomas will fail, one reason being that 14 is too early an age to specialise.
I agree entirely.
"This is exactly why students should choose to study the Diploma - which provides a broad range of learning and skills - rather than endless GCSEs which specialise on teaching a historical, repetitive, knowledge-based curriculum that is of very mixed value to the student once they try to cash in their qualifications in the employment marketplace. "
Many of the points raised in this discussion about the IT Diploma, of course, also apply to Engineering and other Diplomas.
Contributors to this forum have suggested that the case for Diplomas is still under discussion by many of those who will be responsible for delivering it. There is probably a continuing need for information about the structure of the Diploma and the rationale for its content.
|
| Loading... | |
