Digital strategy launched by Skills for Care

The government’s appetite for ‘all things digital’ is well documented and the Department of Health is committed to the concept of ‘Digital First‘. In response to this momentum, Skills for Care has now released its own strategy document; ‘Digital Working, Learning and Information Sharing Strategy’.

Although wide-ranging in scope, a key tenet of the strategy recognises the importance of integrating digital technologies as part of a blended approach:

‘Digital learning is recognised as a crucial part of workforce development, and part of a blended approach to learning and development including the achievement of standards and qualifications’.

Furthermore, the strategy highlights four key actions required to help move this forward:

• Examples of how technology is being used to enable workers, employers, people with care and support needs and carers to work and learn differently, and an exploration of the evidence of the impact of using digital technology will be collated and shared.
• The current capability of the workforce to work and learn digitally will be reviewed and any skills gaps and key issues identified.
• A guide to commissioning and providing workforce development for digital learning, working and information sharing will be produced.
• A workforce development support resource for digital working, learning and information sharing will be developed from the guide. The resource will aim to address how digital working and learning can support integrated workforce development and examples of how digital products and services can be co-produced.

This is precisely the type of approach we have been working on for some time and it’s great to see ‘digital’ being championed from within the higher echelons of government. We have invested significant time and money into developing our unique qualification technology and this clearly places our clients (and their learners) at the forefront of this revolution.

As the ‘digital’ momentum continues to build, the smart money will be on further adoption and integration of online technologies with further government money (Skills Funding Agency) flowing in this direction.

EdgeWorks has already utilised ‘Innovation Code’ funding to create bespoke qualifications on behalf of our clients and if you want to be part of this opportunity, then please don’t hesitate to get in touch.