On Tuesday and Wednesday next week Leaders from Further Education and Skills come together in Bristol to pilot Jisc’s first Digital Leaders Programme, followed on Thursday and Friday by Leaders from Higher Education.
This first residential is highly interactive, focusing on the individual digital capabilities of leaders and developing ways of assessing their own skill sets, and that of their organisation, before looking at building a digital vision and strategy.
In November the cohorts will return to look at the digital capabilities of their organisations.
Donna Lanclos, UNC Charlotte, who has developed part of the mapping process for both individual capabilities and organisational capabilities with Dave White, said:
“After identifying and analysing digital practices in higher and further education, it’s now time to have conversations with the people who are capable of making decisions that can actually change the conditions within which those practices can take place. We know there are barriers to what people can and should be doing in pursuit of their education. It takes leadership, not just good information or good intentions, to effect change. I’m pleased to have the opportunity to start conversations that can effect change.”
Sarah Davies, Head of Change – Student Experience in the Jisc Research and Development team added:
“Development and support for digital leaders emerged as a strong need from our stakeholders right from our initial consultation on the Building digital capability challenge, so we’re very excited to be on the point of our first pilot run. We know that educational organisations need digitally capable leadership and a strategic approach to digital capacity across a wide range of leadership roles, not just in those with a traditional technology focus. We’re looking forward to exploring the issues and opportunities with delegates from universities, colleges and skills providers, and will feed the learning from this into the development of our digital capability service.”
This is the first leaders pilot of an extensive digital capabilities project, there will be further iterations in the spring, and an online offering is being developed. If you would like to register your interest for the next pilot then fill in the form, and we’ll update you when the dates are fixed.