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NESC’s Anne-Marie McGauran discusses digital inclusion in
Digital inclusion in Ireland
Secretariat to the National Economic and Social Council (NESC) Anne-Marie McGauran discusses the council’s recommendation for a national strategy for digital inclusion.
McGauran recently authored a report that looked at connectivity, devices, and skills in relation to digital inclusion in Ireland and argues that a digital inclusion strategy would help address the digital needs of groups who remain poorly engaged with digital technologies, namely those who are older, poorer, and with lower levels of education.
McGauran stresses that a focus on the needs of people in these key groups would build on Ireland’s large investment in broadband connectivity and critically, would help to combat social exclusion in the long term.
“Aiming for full digital inclusion is the next logical step to build on Ireland’s large investment in broadband connectivity, and in eGovernment. International studies show that the return from such investment in digital inclusion is high. From a social cohesion point of view, such investment aims to ensure that digital divides do not persist, and so helps to combat social exclusion.”
Explaining the premise of digital inclusion, the policy analyst says that everyone can contribute to and benefit from the digital economy and society. For the individual, this means having “convenient, reliable access to affordable, accessible digital devices and an internet connection”. For businesses, it is about the spread of digital transformation to all enterprises.
The pandemic has added an additional layer to the importance of digital inclusion, accelerating the reliance on digital and its importance for social inclusion. This accelerated reliance has occurred against a backdrop of greater digitalisation in the form of the fourth industrial revolution and Ireland’s large investment in broadband.
“Everyone needs to be enabled and equipped to work in this new labour market and those least-well equipped are most likely to be left behind,” says McGauran, highlighting research from the UK, which suggests a £15 return for every £1 invested in digital inclusion.
McGauran outlines the main dimensions of digital inclusion and some of the challenges associated with them, namely:
Connectivity: An improving issue across Ireland but one which remains a problem in rural Ireland and poorer communities;
Skills: Content literacy and technical skills, both of which require constant updating;
Devices: Cost is a major factor in either device absence or outdated models; and
Confidence: The confidence to engage with the digital world.
While the pandemic has accelerated use of the internet, obvious gaps remain. McGauran’s research shows
that in 2020, 25 per cent of over 60s hadn’t used the internet in the last three months, a similar picture for 16 per cent of those on the lowest income quintile. On connectivity, only 79 per cent of the west of Ireland had fixed broadband connection in 2020 and 73 per cent in the border region.
Assessing public services, the NESC report shows that even amid the pandemic, only half the population seek government information or download government forms online. For businesses, a stark figure is that 40 per cent of companies, mainly indigenous SMEs, completely lack digital technologies, while a further 30 per cent have few digital assets.
McGauran points to a range of existing policies and programmes, ranging from an upcoming renewal of the National Digital Strategy, the implementation of the European Electronic Communications Code to domestic law, and the recent National Strategy on Adult Literacy, Numeracy and Digital Literacy. Domestic policies and programmes are supported by a range of EU programmes, such as WIFI4EU and the EU’s web accessibility directive.
“The report highlights that there are several State policies focused on digital technologies. There are also a range of state agency, business, and community programmes. There is a need to coordinate across these policies and programmes if digital inclusion is to improve,” she says.
Highlighting that a review of Irish policies and or international best practice suggest an agenda for policy action to address the varying levels of digital inclusion in Ireland, McGauran believes that pursuing this agenda will help to “better prepare individuals, the economy, society and the public service for a more digitised future”.
The five overarching recommendations outlined by the NESC report are:
1 develop a national strategy for digital inclusion, with a key focus on coordination, and with a strong commitment to fine-grained measurement of progress;
2 create a comprehensive framework for digital skills progression;
3 support digital inclusion at community level;
4 deliver targeted supports for material access to key groups; and
5 enhance guidance for digital and assisted-digital public services, and ‘complementary’ channels.
The policy analyst welcomes the use of DigComp, the digital reference framework developed by the European Commission setting out 21 competences, grouped in five key areas, over eight proficiency levels, to best describe what it means to be digitally competent, in the National Adult Literacy, Numeracy and Digital Literacy Strategy published in September 2021. Other commitments in this Strategy will help address the recommendations in the NESC report on creating a comprehensive framework for digital skills progression.
Concluding, McGauran says: “The council believes that, while digital inclusion should be part of a national digital strategy, there should also be a stand-alone Strategy for Digital Inclusion. Such a strategy can provide a shared direction and responsibility, coordinate existing work, highlight and address gaps, and allow for collaboration of statutory bodies, businesses, and communities. It could include specific targets and target groups, and a focus on connectivity, skills, material access, and the provision of public services to those who are not digitally engaged.”
Tackling the retrofit skills shortage head on
The Laois and Offaly Education and Training Board (LOETB), National Construction Training Centre in Mount Lucas, County Offaly is aiming to meet the challenge of training the huge numbers of skilled workers needed for Ireland’s planned housebuilding and deep retrofitting programmes, writes John Kelly, Manager of the National Construction Training Centre.
Following the Government’s ambitious target to retrofit 300,000 homes by 2030, Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science Simon Harris TD established the LOETB National Construction Training Centre in Mount Lucas as one of four centres of excellence, with the anticipation of training 2,000 people in retrofit skills, including near zero energy buildings (NZEB) skills. Facilities at the training centre include a large purpose-
built deep retrofit hall of 600 square metres. The retrofit training hall includes full-scale rigs representing the gamut of situations encountered on most projects, everything from roof, wall and floor insulation to airtightness application, ventilation installation and commissioning, and renewable energy installation. It is truly a showcase in terms of state-of-the-art upskilling facilities for those involved in delivering deep retrofits.
With the target of 2,000 people in mind, the National Construction Training Centre at Mount Lucas, launched an extensive suite of courses, which focuses on both retrofit and new build all of which are fully funded for people in employment under the national Skills to Advance initiative. Three different course types are provided.
The first are short, City and Guilds assured courses, which focus on delivery of NZEB.
These courses include the very popular NZEB Fundamentals (one-day course), NZEB Retrofit (two-day course) and NZEB Ventilation (three-day course). There are also trade-specific courses for carpenters, bricklayers, plumbers, electricians, and plasterers as well as a more detailed programme for site supervisors.
The second include practical programmes which are industry recognised, the objective of which is to ensure learners, including new entrants, have the skillset currently required by employers to contribute to the Government's retrofit targets. Examples of such courses include external wall insulation, internal wall insulation and airtightness.
The third category of programmes are longer QQI accredited courses, including Thermal Insulation Installation and Construction Skills. These courses typically run from five to eight days and include a formal assessment on completion.
The National Construction Training Centre at Mount Lucas has also commenced delivery of the Certified Passive House Tradesperson course. Passive house buildings are energy efficient buildings that provide users with high levels of comfort and excellent air quality around the clock. They may not look any different from other buildings, but good planning as well as careful execution of the details is essential in the construction of such projects. This ensures that the high requirements for the building envelope and technology can be met. As a result, building professionals need additional expertise which can be acquired and substantiated with the Certified Passive House Tradesperson course. This twoday blended learning course is delivered online (one day) and onsite in the National Construction Training Centre at Mount Lucas (one day).
All programmes are delivered in a flexible manner to ensure convenience and accessibility to all. With provisions for day, evening, and weekend courses. Many courses offer a blended approach, with both online and on-site delivery.
The key attraction for learners attending the National Construction Training Centre at Mount Lucas is the quality of training rigs which provides for a deepimmersion experience. As well as learning about deep retrofit from a theoretical perspective, learners get to grips with the very latest products, details and application methods from expert tutors who are deeply passionate about delivering deep retrofits at scale. Tony Dalton, Director of Further Education and Training at LOETB adds: “The facilities, programmes and educational resources needed to deliver a growing pool of retrofit experts is now in place. At the LOETB National Construction Training Centre, there is an exciting multilayered training programme for every level, from entry to expert.
“2022 will see further investment in the training site, increasing NZEB and Retrofit capacity, and developing future construction training facilities including construction simulation and BIM.”
E: nzeb@mountlucas.ie W: www.mountlucas.ie
Teaching and fostering the skills of the future
As the world’s economy seeks to emerge from the damage wrought by Covid-19, more than 80 per cent of businesses “face critical gaps in the skills needed to build resilience amid ongoing uncertainty”. With skills development now critical, apprenticeships and online learning once again come into focus.
Two new reports from McKinsey and Company – Reviving the art of apprenticeship to unlock continuous skill development and Setting a new bar for online higher education – make the case for the modernisation of both the apprenticeship and online higher education worlds. Cognisant of the 80 per cent figure for skills gaps in business, McKinsey notes that only 42 per cent of employees are taking up employer-supported reskilling and upskilling opportunities and that “there is simply too much to learn and not enough time for formal learning to meet all of an organisation’s reskilling needs”.
Modern apprenticeships
Modern apprenticeships are a “learning model that distributes apprenticeship skills and responsibilities throughout the organisation” that “represents a focused effort to intentionally build the same specific skills, habits of mind, and actions as those of a domain expert”. The McKinsey imagination of these roles places them in all workplaces, not just in the vocational occupations typically associated with apprenticeships.
Organisations, the report says, can take four steps towards introducing apprenticeships into their organisations as a “powerful skill-building tool and to begin to reshape culture around the idea of continuous learning”: 1. Create a clear organisational expectation for both learning and teaching. 2. Build apprenticeship skills in every employee. 3. Identify the skills that individuals need to build.
4. Be broad and inclusive about who can apprentice.
McKinsey’s model recommends that the manager in the apprenticeship situation models “how to approach the work instead of giving prescriptive directions
to be followed”, gives the apprentice manageable tasks to complete individually, provides samples of work as supports, asking the apprentice questions, provide opportunities for the apprentice to articulate their thinking on the subject, offer coaching and feedback throughout the process and assess the apprentice’s progress and add complexity over time.
The report states that learning environments “flourish in organisations with strong learning cultures because those cultures emphasise the importance of every person taking ownership for their development and growing their skills” and advises that the “teacher does not have to be the direct team lead, the senior leader, the ‘guru’, or expert faculty”, but rather can be “anyone in an organisation, even peers or junior colleagues who possess a skill that others need to build”. Steps recommended towards reaching a culture of continuous learning with an organisation include: visibly positioning a CEO or senior leader who “values learning and teaching”; supporting learner agency within the organisation; and creating incentives to encourage individuals to both teach and learn.
Online learning
As a result of the worsening of the already existing skills gaps across worldwide industry, learning methods will have to modernise to equip both the workforce of today and of the future with the skills that have been found to be lacking. Key to doing this, along with the development of a modern apprenticeship system, will be the utilisation of online learning, as McKinsey and Company illustrates in the second of its reports.
Research conducted via a survey of more than 30 institutions, “including both regulated degree-granting universities and nonregulated lifelong education providers” and ethnographic market research, following 29 students in the United States and in Brazil (two of the largest online higher education markets in the world), found that the most successful online higher education institutions place their focus on eight dimensions of the learning experience. These eight dimensions were then classified under three principles by McKinsey: create a seamless journey for students; adopt an engaging approach to teaching; and build a caring network.
1. Create a seamless journey for students: The first step towards building a seamless journey for students is the building of an education road map, due to McKinsey’s finding that online students “may need more direction, motivation, and discipline than students in in-person programmes”. The second step is enabling seamless connections, with it advised that courses and programme content “be structured so they can be accessed in low-bandwidth situations or downloaded for offline use”.
2. Adopt an engaging approach to teaching: The first step within this principle is that institutions should offer a range of learning formats, with examples given including Zhejiang University in China, where instructors use live videoconferencing and chat rooms, and the University of Michigan’s Center for Academic Innovation, which uses its custom ECoach platform to help students in large classes navigate content when one-on-one interaction with instructors and also “sends students reminders, motivational tips, performance reviews, and exam-preparation materials”.
Ensuring the captivation of audiences and utilisation of adaptive learning tools such as AI and analytics used to address students’ needs and offer real-time feedback and support are mentioned as next steps. Inclusion of real-world application of skills is the final step within this principle recommended, with pioneers said to make use of virtual reality, laboratories, simulations, and games for students in this regard.
3. Create a caring network: The two steps listed within this principle are the provision of academic and non-academic support, such as Southern New Hampshire University’s system that detects low student engagements and offers alerts and nudges, and the fostering of a strong community, which again offers SNHU as an example due to their Connect social gateway, which offers an exclusive social network to over 15,000 members.
Supporting adults with literacy, numeracy and digital needs
Listening to callers
A lot of callers during the lockdown rang us as they were reflecting on their own lives. They felt very different to their friends who could work from home. When the pandemic happened and they lost their jobs, they felt their lives had come to a sudden full stop. This happened to people in all age groups. Many were also very annoyed and dejected that they were being left behind. We spent a lot of time on these calls as they needed to know someone was listening. We took the time to talk to them and discuss what options they would have if they wanted to return to education.
For some, this meant directing them to the Adult Literacy Service in their local Education and Training Board. ETBs provide a unique service that is completely free. They offer a range of learner-centred, unaccredited, and accredited courses, as well as guidance and progression to further education and training opportunities.
For others, we offered tutoring over the phone to resolve a particular issue. For example, there was a caller who had been out of work for five weeks during the pandemic. They decided they would like to do a Special Needs Assistant course but felt their spelling was holding them back, so they mightn’t be able for it. We set them up with one of our tutors who taught them over the phone for a few weeks until they had the confidence to do the course.
Sometimes it’s that small intervention that gives people the confidence and courage to go on to learn and do new things.
Over the last 18 months, the National Adult Literacy Agency saw a surge in calls to its freephone. They were from people who had just lost their jobs, parents who struggled with information from schools, and older people who wanted help using technology. NALA’s CEO, Colleen Dube, speaks about the critical importance of literacy, listening to callers and designing services that meet their needs.
Pilot prison programme
This year we were involved in an inspiring literacy project with Portlaoise Prison. We did it in partnership with the Prison’s Education Unit, Laois and Offaly Education Training Board, Dublin Adult Learning Centre and Waterford Institute of Technology.
Not many people realise that over 40 per cent of incarcerated people in Ireland left school before the age of 14. As a result of educational and wider inequalities, the average literacy level of prisoners is much lower than the general population.
In this pilot programme, six incarcerated men were supported to graduate as literacy tutors and are now qualified to support other men improve their literacy.
The participants call themselves ‘The Peers’. They have normalised education and learning in the prison so now it is a good thing to have books under your arm. The positive impact of ‘The Peers’ is confirmed by teachers from the Education Unit who say that the numbers of people turning up for support has increased.
This quote sums up the project best:
“I took part in the training because I understood how difficult life could be for people without literacy skills. I discovered many prisoners wanted to write letters to their families, especially their children, and could not, due to literacy issues. I had the desire to help these people.
“People say we are doing the right thing using our time here like this, using it to be educated. Many see it as the best way to do time.”
Training online
Like many organisations we moved all our training online over the last two years, which has been a very positive experience for us. While we normally held about five events annually with 900 tutors attending, last year we organised a diverse programme of training and workshops online, supporting over 1,500 tutors’ professional development and knowledge sharing. While we hope to have some face-to-face events next year, there’s no doubt that we’ve been converted to online delivery. Literacy tutors are incredibly busy and it just suits more people not to have to travel.
Plain English
In Ireland, one-in-six people has difficulty understanding written text, so a lot of our work involves helping organisations to be more accessible to people with literacy needs. There are huge benefits and cost savings of doing this, such as fewer customer complaints and mistakes.
One step in the right direction is for organisations to use plain English and last year we trained a thousand employees in how to write in plain English. We also supported one hundred public and private sector organisations in editing their documents in plain English so that they are easier for all people, but especially people with literacy needs, to read and understand information.
There is a growing demand from the public for clear information and we recommend that anyone producing public information write it in plain English. After all, both citizens and governments benefit from clear information. Citizens are more likely to understand their rights and governments are more likely to make better use of their resources.
10-year strategy
In Ireland, the supposed land of saints and scholars, over 500,000 adults have low levels of literacy. Even more have low levels of numeracy and digital skills. This has a devastating impact on individuals, families, and communities. This year, after many years of advocating, we were heartened to see the Government’s commitment to develop a new 10-year strategy for adult literacy, numeracy and digital skills. Beyond its intrinsic importance as part of the right to education, literacy empowers individuals and improves their lives by expanding their capabilities to choose a kind of life they can value.
Now, more than ever, it will be vital that we support people with literacy needs, so that they can understand information, make constructive choices, selfadvocate and ultimately respond to external pressures and change.
So, have a look around you — one-insix people has a literacy need. They could be your customers or valued members of staff. Think about how you could support them through training or making your services more accessible.
We’re here to help in any way we can and would love to hear from you.
T: 1800 20 20 65 E: info@nala.ie W: www.nala.ie Twitter: @nalaireland
