November 23, 2021
Can online education help plug the global skills gap?
Employment rates have been hitting the headlines recently, as businesses everywhere struggle to recruit staff in a number of key areas.
But while many news stories have focused on the shortage of workers in supply-chain roles – such as haulage, food processing and hospitality – the long-term implications of constraints in other in-demand fields, like computer science and healthcare, are potentially even more serious.
The statistics are stark. One recent study reported that the total number of applications per job vacancy in the UK almost halved between Q3 2020 and Q3 2021, while vacancies doubled during the same period. Worryingly, this yawning disparity between the number of vacant positions and the number of applicants continues to increase, month on month.
The skills gap is particularly acute in the tech sector. Recent research by EdTech company Skillsoft revealed unfilled positions in tech departments were at critical levels, with more than a third of IT leaders not only struggling to hire but also believing that current skills development programmes were rapidly and consistently being ‘outpaced’ by the speed of change.
These findings were echoed by a report from techUK, showing a ‘significant discrepancy’ between the demand for skilled workers in tech industries and opportunities to retrain in these fields. With an additional three million new jobs requiring digital skills predicted by the middle of this decade, it’s an imbalance that’s only likely to become more urgent.
Addressing the skills gap is a mammoth task. In a 2020 CBI and McKinsey report, researchers predicted that nine out of ten UK workers would need to reskill or upskill by 2030. The study summarised six core sectors that – based on a ‘skills mismatch’ analysis – would potentially require the greatest focus: digital skills; leadership and management; communication; teaching and training; STEM; and critical thinking.
It’s a problem that’s already on the government’s radar. In September 2020, plans were outlined for a so-called ‘lifetime skills guarantee’ which would offer access to free courses, as well as a flexible loan system to support ‘bitesize’ learning for adults without a Level-3 qualification. However, although the scheme will support first-time Level-3 students, those holding existing qualifications but who need to reskill in order to get back to employment, for example, will still face financial barriers to accessing the learning they need.
Older students are often overlooked when it comes to HE provision; almost all public funding of education in England is invested in the under-25s, with only around 2 percent going to adult learners, according to a 2019 report by the Institute for Fiscal Studies.
And, while the 2020 CBI report highlighted under-investment in workplace training as one of the major issues facing government and businesses in the drive to provide more learning opportunities (annual training spend per employee has flatlined in the last decade), it also acknowledged that continuing to prioritise longer, qualifications-based courses for young people was limiting overall progress.
This position was underscored by another recent report into adult skills training provision in the UK. The study, conducted by the Workplace Training and Development Commission (WTDC), called for a radical system reboot with ‘renewed focus on digital skills and innovation’ via a more agile, modular approach that would better serve both students and employers in the coming months and years.
In fact, it’s likely that modular, online learning will be key to unlocking the barriers to reskilling because it:
Although in recent years more universities had begun to experiment with online and hybrid teaching and learning programmes, the pandemic accelerated the evolution of alternative delivery models, driving the kind of complex education transformation that usually takes decades to execute.
What started as a schedule of hastily improvised measures designed solely to facilitate temporary distance learning for campus-based students, ended up delivering genuine benefits for educators and learners alike:
Even when the influence of Covid-19 on educational provision has diminished, it’s likely that universities will want to retain these advantages by continuing to deploy a more flexible approach to study, especially as they navigate globally diversifying learner markets. Any such strategic shift will require an honest, no-holds-barred review of existing infrastructure.
Do current systems offer sufficient learner-centric opportunities to those accessing their education in non-standard ways? Can institutions effectively leverage existing resources to create platforms that invite, support and reward engagement?
As the higher education sector re-evaluates its relationship with technology as it grapples with the need to simultaneously reduce inequities and drive efficiencies, the entire ecosystem is overdue a reboot.
With ‘lifelong learning’ experiences increasingly happening online and among older age groups, universities need to carefully consider what will undoubtedly become crucial investments in digital infrastructure, education partnerships and hybrid learning spaces. Against this backdrop, the case for collaborating with EdTech providers that can help institutions expand access to learning – engaging students more fully, raising attainment and enhancing outcomes, while optimising the use of resources – is compelling.
Little wonder that projections by market intelligence organisation HolonIQ predict global spending on EdTech to reach $400 billion (£292 billion) by 2025 – double current investment levels.
There’s no quick fix to remedy the skills gap but any long-term solution will require a radical re-evaluation of the role of higher education. Thanks to the pandemic, we now know that educational institutions and policymakers can respond swiftly when they need to. A different kind of crisis is already upon us, demanding a similarly innovative response, and revealing its own opportunities and challenges.
The roadmap is still forming. We are tasked with creating a framework for enlightened education, without knowing what the future holds – or what it will demand of us. We do know that this era of digital transformation will require significant change; not slow, steady, and iterative development, but profound disruption on a previously unimagined level as we redraw processes and re-define purpose.
In the broader context of this transformation, faculties will themselves need to upskill and reskill to support a reimagined curriculum that prioritises student recruitment and retention from non-traditional candidate pools.
As governments begin to invest more significantly in skills development, we’d expect to see the emergence of a flexible partnerships model between the universities tasked with building skills, the businesses that need a highly skilled workforce to underpin productivity and growth, and third-party organisations with the expertise to develop and deliver effective online and hybrid learning programmes to motivated students everywhere. It’s a powerful vision.
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Prioritising wellbeing in higher education: strategies for improving students’ mental health
That increasing numbers of students are experiencing mental health problems isn’t news; it’s an escalating trend that was extensively documented even before the Covid-19 pandemic, as HE providers reported unprecedented demands for access to their health and welfare support services prior to the 2020 crisis.
Diversification: the key to unlocking new higher education revenue streams
The recent global crisis has highlighted a long-standing need for revenue diversification in the higher education sector.
The same but different: improving fairness of access, participation, and outcomes in higher education
Fairness lies at the heart of modern higher education – in principle, at least. That everyone – regardless of social or economic background – can aspire to study for a globally acknowledged qualification, opening doors to greater education and employment opportunities, has been a cornerstone of HE provision for decades. But equality only works if everyone’s starting point is the same and, as societal divisions widen, universities must do more to level the pitch.
Optimising the digital higher education experience: delivering outstanding support for online learners
The higher education sector is experiencing a period of rapid transformation. With demand for more flexible access options catalysing significant growth in online, hybrid and blended delivery models, universities must not only design new, more adaptable, degree programmes, but must also review and strengthen the support services that are essential to sustain a student body that’s more diverse – and dispersed – than ever before.
Hybrid and blended learning: the flexible future of higher education?
After the restrictions of the last two years, the fact that university campuses everywhere are once again buzzing with students feels like a cause for optimism.
Transforming higher education for the long term
For those in the world’s wealthiest countries, tertiary education has now become the norm – especially among the 18-34-year-old demographic.
Automation in online education
Technology is fundamental in addressing one of the biggest challenges in education – how to continue to increase scale on decreasing budgets?
Online delivery is rightly seen as a valid approach. However, we must consider the students’ consumer expectations for educational experiences that are as good as experiences in other sectors, such as retail or online services, along with the goal of ensuring students are treated as individuals. Automation is key to meeting these challenges.
Motivating online students to support each other
Clear intentions, guiding principles, well-chosen, and well-instructed activities greatly increase students’ participation in peer learning
There are a variety of strategies to help students feel engaged and motivated to participate in online distance learning (ODL) programmes, but perhaps none are more powerful than finding ways to motivate students to interact with their peers.
Effective peer learning in online courses
How to motivate students to participate and genuinely benefit from learning from their peers
Well-designed online learning can be highly engaging, motivating, and enjoyable. Historically though, distance learning, both pre-web and in early online courses, suffered from poor retention – students found it difficult to study on their own.
The future of work: how universities can prepare students for an uncertain future
More people than ever are going to university. In the UK, well over a third of all 18-year-olds (37.8 percent) enrolled on a full-time undergraduate course last year, according to UCAS. And, while some students are drawn to higher education to increase their academic knowledge and enjoy the university experience, most will also be looking to improve their employment and earning prospects. Government figures for 2020 show a graduate employment rate of 86.4 percent, with median graduate earnings standing at £35,000 (£9,500 more than their non-graduate counterparts).
Creating a rich social and cultural experience for online degree learners
Much of the discussion around the recent global shift from campus-based to remote-learning models has centred on the quality of online programmes of study – more particularly on how universities can effectively motivate, support, and assess individuals as part of a dispersed student population.
Breaking the bias: addressing the higher education gender pay gap
As participation continues to widen in the UK’s higher education sector with increasing numbers of applications from previously underrepresented sectors, many gender-based anomalies remain. For example, while women are much more likely to go to university than men (as well as to complete their studies and to achieve a good degree), figures show that women graduates cede their professional advantage in a matter of months.
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