CDN’s Digital team was delighted to be involved in the launch event of Forth Valley College’s Digital Skills: Transforming Care course. We caught up with Health and Social Care Lecturer Jane Muir to find out more about the project…
Work on the Innovation Project started in January 2020 (before the global COVID-19 pandemic), with the aim of upgrading the digital skills of care workers, ensuring that Scotland has a digitally competent care workforce fit for the future. The pandemic brought the need for a care workforce skilled in using digital technology into stark national focus. In Scotland there was a rapid national switch to online support for medical conferencing, digital home monitoring and technology-enabled care. It was clear that staff skilled in using digital technology in care support would contribute to reducing hospital admissions and increasing positive care outcomes for people using care services.
The Digital Skills: Transforming Care online (Moodle) blended learning course was developed through discussion and agreement with Forth Valley College partners and local employers. They worked together to co-produce an induction for digital skills standards course, to address the needs of frontline care staff. The project team were guided by Scotland’s Digital Health and Care Strategy (2018) and influenced by the document Skills 4.0: A Skills model to drive Scotland’s future (Skills Development Scotland 2018). The Forth Valley College team collaborated with employer partners to build content and competencies, incorporating meta skills that encourage employee innovation, leadership, and self-management. Once lockdown was announced, the college team had to adapt and continued to develop the course via online focus groups and virtual meetings.
The Digital Skills: Transforming Care course creates a baseline standard of digital skills and will be used as part of the new employee induction process. It contains knowledge, skills and a competency-based element based on using digital technology in care practice. It has been designed for frontline care service employees.
The course was officially launched via a webinar on 16 June 2020. Significant employers attended the virtual launch event, as well as key stakeholders including SFC, NES and SSSC. CDN’s Digital & Innovations Lead Kenji Lamb supported the Forth Valley College team on the day.
Jane said: ‘CDN has been amazing. We really benefited from Kenji’s vast knowledge and experience – before the launch event he was able to talk us through the process, so we knew exactly what to expect. As well as giving us tips on how to keep the conversation going on the day, he gave my project team much more confidence.’
The training course is a flexible learning tool featuring visibly appealing graphics which has been optimised for a mobile phone screen. It contains accessibility features which means there are no barriers to learning and it presents the learner with scenario-based learning experiences. It is now available on the Forth Valley College website and anyone currently working in frontline care services can complete this course at no cost to themselves.
The project team have built professional relationships with care sector managers and staff which have been utilised during the COVID-19 response, to provide immediate employment opportunities for Forth Valley College students.
The Innovation Project has created opportunities with more prominent local employers. Jane told us: ‘We now have a reputation in the local area of reliability. This has opened up opportunities for us that didn’t exist before.’
The project team understood the occupational pressures that partners faced in the current situation, which has resulted in the mutual value of maintaining closer working relationships. Jane said: ‘We are working more in alignment with the care sector. Service managers now contact me for recruitment drives. We’re creating a much more well-rounded student and employers can see the high quality of the students.’
Jane added: ‘Since this project local employers understand progression routes and now I can just pick up the phone and speak to local employers.’
The team has now been asked to develop another online course for local employers.
Click here to watch the launch event
Find out more about the Digital Skills: Transforming Care course here.