Press Release

£5.6 million technology professional development programme for teachers in England goes live

20 January 2010

Vital (Transforming Lessons, Inspiring Learning), a new professional development programme for teachers in England, had its official launch at the 2010 BETT Show in London in January. The Open University (OU) and e-skills UK – the team behind the £5.6 million DCSF-funded scheme – took full advantage of this important showcase to unveil details of the programme, which aims to boost both the specialist teaching of IT in schools and the use of ICT across the curriculum.

"The response among the many hundreds to our stand was extremely positive," says e-skills UK's Debbie Forster, Vital's Programme Co-ordinator. "It confirmed the hunger among school and sixth-form college teachers for effective continuing professional development in technology which is delivered, crucially, in ways that are sensitive to the time and other pressures teachers face."

In line with the findings from research conducted during the development of the Vital concept, teachers at BETT expressed high levels of approval for the scheme's emphasis on highly practical courses focused on classroom practice. Teachers also welcomed the shift from ‘one off training’ to ongoing professional development with frameworks that allow individuals to identify new learning opportunities and plan their own development in a more coherent way.

"Vital will recognise and build upon the expertise that teachers already have, and support them in sharing ‘good practice’. Through the Vital Community, practitioners will be able to reclaim their rightful position as leading-edge creators and thinkers in education," explains the OU's Peter Twining, Vital's Programme Director. "Teachers are finding it increasingly difficult to get time out of school to attend courses and we recognise that discrete courses are not always the most effective form of staff development. Vital's provision focuses on peer-to-peer collaboration, structured bite-sized '15 minute CPD' activities and courses combining different proportions of face-to-face and on-line learning. We will maximise the benefits of informal learning, while providing routes for teachers to receive accreditation for their staff development."

By 2011 there will be a stable of 25 new courses on offer for specialists who are teaching technology (IT/Computing) as a subject, and for all teachers using ICT to enhance teaching in other subjects. The first of these, launched at BETT 2010, are focused on elements of the 14-19 Diploma in IT and on supporting the use of schools’ virtual learning environments (VLEs) to enhance student collaboration and reflection.

The Vital website will support a range of vibrant online communities where teachers can share expertise, raise issues and explore interesting practice. The website also provides opportunities for other continuing professional development (CPD) providers to showcase their offerings, giving schools easy access to a rich source of information about the full range of ICT-related CPD available to them.

"One of the challenges for schools at the moment is identifying suitable staff development. We are determined to add value by helping schools locate relevant CPD opportunities, including referring them out to other providers’ courses," says Peter Twining. "Our goal is to work with all the key stakeholders to maximise the collective impact that we can have. We would like to avoid any duplication of effort in the development of ICT CPD, and to that end we are collaborating with other stakeholders to coordinate the development of high quality CPD materials that will be available free of charge for educational use on a national scale."