Candy sweetens the blend for the NHS
On February 10th a capacity audience of over sixty Education, Training and Development specialists from the NHS attended an event at The Training Foundation to learn more about blended learning, to find out about the TAP Learning System and to hear a presentation from Professor Philip Candy, Director of Education, Training and Development for the National Health Service's National Programme for Information Technology (Connecting for Health).
NHS Education Training and Development specialists from every part of the UK braved blizzard conditions en route from locations as far afield as the north of Scotland, the South West of England, Northumbria and Lincolnshire.
The event was Chaired by Adrian Snook, who introduced a series of expert speakers on the day'stheme Blended Learning in the NHS.
The first keynote presentation of the day was delivered by respected author and authority on blended learning Clive Shepherd, taking as his theme Change and opportunity: Learning and Development at the Crossroads. This thought-provoking session looked at the range of ways in which technological and social changes are opening up fresh opportunities for learning and development professionals.
Alison Wright of NHS Education South Central (NESC) was next at the lectern to present her session e-Learning in NHS South Central.
Alison is E-learning Programme Manager within NESC's Quality, Practice Learning(QPL)Team. While developing the capacity and capability to deliver e-learning to staff and students is key to NHS South Central's strategic objectives, Alison stressed that e-learning must not be viewed as a standalone panacea, but another tool in the Learning and Development armoury. "When there's so much pressure to deliver training to such vast numbers of employees there can be a tendency to choose the media without giving proper consideration to the bigger picture."
"It was clear that staff in many organisations were finding it difficult to know where to start with e-learning," comments Alison. "While some trusts had whole teams skilled in putting together multimedia L&D courses, a general lack of skills and confidence both in ICT and e-learning, combined with limitations in local IT infrastructures and sharing of resources, expertise and experience were proving to be major obstacles."
Alison was looking for a very particular approach to addressing these issues. A number of options were dismissed because they were simply too technical and 'medium' focused. One offering stood head and shoulders above others, however. She explained that The TAP® Certificate in Blended Learning corresponded perfectly with NESC's aspirations to move from a position of patchy, undeveloped provision to a far more coherent, integrated approach to exploiting the potential of new technologies.
After a brief break, Philip Candy,the Director of Education, Training and Development for Connecting for Health led the second keynote session; The future of blended learning in the NHS: Realising the 'Double Dividend' of the National Programme for IT.
In his session Professor Candy explained that the success of the National Programme for IT depended on users learning about what the applications do and how to use them. Candy believes that the technology being installed as part of the initiative will form the armature around which some other learning applications will operate, thereby realising a 'double dividend'.
Professor Candy explained that he regards e-learning as part of a much broader learning ecology which includes lectures and classroom presentations, mentors and coaches, floor walkers, helpdesks, electronic performance support, free-play learning environments and of course other users. In closing he re-iterated the extent to which Connecting for Health is engaged in the development of national strategies for the implementation of e-Learning and blended learning.
The last session of the morning was led by Louise Talbot of The Training Foundation, who led an interactive exploration of the range of ways in which face-to-face learning specialists will need to develop their professional skills and approaches to succeed in the world of blended learning.
Over the lunch break attendees got the opportunity to get 'hands-on' with a wide range of new and emerging learning technologies in two of The Training Foundation's technology suites.
Marie Dolan of The Training Foundation led the first session of the afternoon about the new TAP CPD programme Trainer of Choice which explores and addresses the challenges presented when seeking to engage with the hearts and minds of learners.
The last formal session of the afternoon was from Ron Mackrell of The Training Foundation who took as his theme e-Learning and the TAP Partners Programme. During this presentation Mr Mackrell announced the launch of an entirely new category of TAP Partner for those organisations who have made a policy commitment that their e-Learning training is facilitated and designed by TAP® qualified professionals.
Earlier this month The Training Foundation announced that Buckinghamshire County Council had become the 150th organisation to joined the prestigeous TAP® Partners Programme.