Written question WQ97605
- Asked by
- Rhys ab OwenIndependent
- To be answered by
- Cabinet Secretary for Education
- Tabled
- Due
- Answered
- Time to answer
- 6 days
Question
What was the evidential basis for Welsh Government’s decision to replace Technocamps, a bilingual digital skills programme, with University of York’s STEM learning programme, an English language only programme?
Answer
Answered by Cabinet Secretary for Education
The Curriculum for Wales Grant Programme prioritised professional learning and building system capacity. This responded to practitioner feedback asking for consistent, nationally available professional learning opportunities, including for computing and digital skills. This was made very clear to Technocamps. It is a requirement for all grants awarded under this programme to be delivered bilingually.
The grant process was a competitive process, supported by robust appraisal and moderation that closely considered each application against clear criteria specified at the outset. Technocamps applied twice under the computing and digital skills priority. They were unsuccessful on both occasions due to the insufficient focus on national professional learning. Bids could only be considered on the basis of applications submitted and the content of that application was entirely in Technocamps’ control.
During the second application window, Technocamps’ existing grant was increased by £100,000 to cover school bookings through to the end of the 2024/25 academic year. They received all funding due to them under previous grant arrangements and no guarantee of funding was made beyond this. Again, this was made very clear to Technocamps before the application process.
STEM Learning will deliver a fully bilingual programme in partnership with Wales-based organisations, including See Science, located in Cardiff. It will employ advisors and facilitators based in Wales. Professional learning will be delivered both face-to-face and online. It is not an online only programme It will include a bilingual website, ensuring the entire user journey can be accessed through Welsh.
We are providing £1.4 million over 3 years to support computing and digital skills. This is an increase compared to previous years.
The programme will deliver 20 new professional learning courses for teachers across Wales, covering topics such as artificial intelligence, cyber security, coding and computational thinking. It will also develop professional learning communities across Wales.