The Dean – 25th June 2011
IF THE UNIVERSITY MODEL ISN’T DEAD, THIS WILL KILL IT OFF
I am speaking at the Sunday Times Festival of Education tomorrow. 2PM. The same time that David Starkey is speaking in another room. Even I would prefer to be listening to Starkey, and I am a little bit tempted to cut my talk short so that I can run over and catch my favourite teacher from Jamie Oliver’s Dream School.
I am not expecting a crowd tomorrow.* I’m not even being paid. The only reason that I’m driving down to Wellington College is that I am hoping a few people take a shine to the vocational learning model that we have designed at School of Communication Arts.
One of my goals is to demonstrate a free, open-source framework in which employers and educators can collaborate to provide a learning experience that is far better suited towards getting learners industry-ready. There are several killer apps in this model and I will be sharing case studies of these features in my talk.
Because I don’t expect this to be enough of a hook to drag anyone away from the great David Starkey, and because Toby Young will be simultaneously speaking in another room, I thought it was probably best to list of the highlights of my talk;
- Curriculum Wiki – the first nationally accredited Level 4 (soon Level 5) qualification written exclusively by employers, using online wiki tools.
- Heroes and Legends; the business model financially rewards companies that motivate their employees to for engage with learners.
- The mentor model; 40 one-to-one contact hours a week for every learner.
- Widening participation; smart employers don’t want more of the same, they want different and better.
If you are tempted to join me, I will be showing videos and sharing the data that we collect. The aim to to show how every profession can provide more industry-ready graduates in this apprenticeship incubator model of learning, than in any university.
* I have two free tickets. Claim one and help me double the number of people in my room.
