Group Admins
Description
Session Description
The use of digital technology is transforming all manner of organisations and interactions and the need for education to prepare learners for the digital world is well recognised. The Jisc digital capability framework (Jisc, 2017) has been influential across the sector in providing a way of understanding the digital capabilities that are needed to enable individuals to live, learn and work in a digital society. However we also recognise the need for whole organisations to become ‘digitally capable’ but do we yet know what a digitally capable organisation looks like what steps we need to take to get there?
Participants in this session will have the opportunity to hear about a model of organisational capability contextualised for the education sector, and engage with examples of practice from universities and colleges.
Digital capability is a core element underpinning the UK government’s white paper The UK industrial strategy (GOV.UK, 2017) which cites numerous examples of technology-related industries identified as being of ‘strategic value’ (GOV.UK, 2017:5) to the economy but also acknowledges issues of low productivity that need to be addressed. ‘People’ are one of the five foundations of productivity within the vision for a transformed economy with three key policies that all reference education and investment in digital skills as part of the solution (GOV.UK, 2017:11).
Other national and global research highlight concerns about mismatches between the skills employers need (now and in the future), how a lack of digital skills is harming business (European Commission, 2017), the shortage of high-tech labour and ‘the challenges in matching the speed of change in the education sector … to the rapidly changing skill sets needs in the economy and society’ (ECORYS UK, 2016). The World Economic Forum (WEF) identifies skills gaps among workers and organisational leaders as having the potential to ‘significantly hamper new technology adoption and therefore business growth’ (WEF, 2018).
Jisc has been researching effective approaches to building digital capability for individuals since 2008 – the skills needed to live, learn and work in a digital society (Jisc, 2014) – and recognises the critical role that organisations play in providing a culture, infrastructure and processes that enable staff and students to thrive. Our research has underpinned the development of the building digital capability service, developed and co-designed in consultation with members, key stakeholders and sector experts from across further and higher education.
This co-design process has revealed valuable insight into the critical success factors that need to be in place for organisations to succeed digitally. This, in turn has informed the development of our new digital capability organisational maturity model.
The model provides practical examples of what different stages of maturity looks like in terms of organisational practice, process and infrastructure during the journey towards organisational digital capability. This session will provide an opportunity for participants to engage with the model, consider the critical success factors for building a digitally capable organisation, reflect on where their organisations are on this journey, and identify next steps to achieving their goals.
References
ECORYS UK (2016). Digital skills for the UK economy. Available from: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/492889/DCMSDigitalSkillsReportJan2016.pdf [Accessed 7 February 2019]
European Commission (2017). ICT for work: Digital skills in the workplace. European Commission. Available from: https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/news/ict-work-digital-skills-workplace [Accessed 11 March 2019]
Gov.UK (2017). The UK Industrial Strategy: building a Britain fit for the future. Gov.UK. Available from: https://www.gov.uk/government/topical-events/the-uks-industrial-strategy [Accessed 28 February 2019]
Jisc (2014). Developing digital literacies. Jisc. Available from: https://www.jisc.ac.uk/full-guide/developing-digital-literacies [Accessed 7 March 2019]
Jisc (2017). Building digital capabilities: the six elements defined. Jisc. Available at: http://repository.jisc.ac.uk/7278/1/BDCP-DC-Framework-Individual-6E-110319.pdf [Accessed 7 March 2019]
World Economic Forum (2018). The Future of Jobs Report 2018. WEF. Available from: http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Future_of_Jobs_2018.pdf [Accessed 10 March 2018].
