Aligning with industry
The collaboration skills essential to growing digital talent
In the UK, urgent action was needed to ensure that learners were equipped with hands-on workplace skills. In collaboration with the University of Cambridge, our Research team created teaching and assessment resources to remedy this tech and team-work talent shortage.
These toolkits were put straight into action in the Digital Futures project which brought together educators and business leaders to boost learner workplace skills. The toolkit was used to teach and assess the collaboration and problem-solving skills identified by industry leaders as being key to the future success of individuals and businesses in the North of England.
The challenge
The skills developed during face-to-face working are key to helping students think clearly and build persistence throughout their schooling. Giving young people a foundation of skills for group problem solving can also help them to thrive in their professional lives, which is why embedding collaboration in education is not only good for academic success, but also a strategic investment in national development. However, learners spend most of their time in school working independently. Finding a way to give students practice with collaboration in the classroom can be challenging.
AQA researchers, in partnership with the University of Cambridge, wanted to help educators to assess and strengthen workplace critical collaborative skills in the classroom. They developed an evidence-based framework to guide lessons that could improve group problem solving and teach students about successful collaboration.
Research findings
The initial research identified the main features of more successful and less successful collaboration, with students participating particularly well likely to demonstrate more ‘good’ features or demonstrate them more consistently.
Collaborative group work: Assessment resources for schools
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For example, a student participating well might:
- create the feeling of a group and ensure all are involved
- help to establish a shared focus for the group
- invite ideas from others, building on them and challenging them
- use inclusive language such as ‘shall we?’
A student participating less well might:
- take and retain control of the task, take a position of authority, dominate or command others
- talk in a monologue and build on their own ideas only
- give a very low or high number of comments relative to the rest of the group
- offer few ideas and invite few from others.
These findings were used to create a group work toolkit to support teachers in observing, guiding, and improving student collaboration. They are designed to help students understand what good collaboration looks like and how they can improve their own approach.
The resources were quickly adopted by the Digital Futures project.
A future talent pipeline for a world leading digital city
This collaborative problem-solving research is now used as the principal assessment measure in the Rigorous, Engaging, Authentic Learning (REAL) Computer Science programme.
This programme, as part of the Digital Futures project in Manchester (UK), was driven by an ambition to be a world leading digital city. A goal which could not be achieved unless young people were equipped with the right digital and creative skills needed for the future workforce.
This future talent pipeline would be created through a partnership between educators and industry experts who would share the digital and teamworking skills they needed future employees to have. In this innovative approach, the industry experts worked with students in training days which gave learners hands on experience with the priority skills identified, such as computer programming.
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“The toolkit provides students with the opportunity to work in ways not normally seen in the average computer science lesson. Students work in teams collaborating on shared coding challenges. They are provided with opportunities to self and peer assess against a set of collaboration criteria, with teachers providing summative assessments.
In Greater Manchester we used the resource as an assessment tool to support ‘live’ briefs led by industry professionals who had been paired with teachers in schools.”
- John Sibbald, Digital Education Specialist
The AQA collaboration research was used as a foundation for these lessons, as teamwork was seen to be an indispensable skill in this industry and therefore needed to be a central part of preparation to enter the workplace.
Participants worked in groups and identified success criteria that could be used to assess the project outcome and their individual contributions.
Addressing the wider workforce digital skills shortage
Following successful trials, the programme was supported by the Greater Manchester Combined Authority and was rolled out to 50 schools, supporting efforts to address the workforce digital skills shortage.
A collaborative group work toolkit incorporating the AQA research supported teachers and industry partners in creating and delivering these activities together and enabled them to assess classroom collaboration among student groups. This project went from strength to strength, with other outputs from the programme including podcasts and student experience days.
“The activity allowed students to flourish and enjoy their learning whilst adopting industry techniques and processes. They have all developed their coding, collaboration, resilience and teamwork skills whilst working to tight deadlines.”
- Alex Garry, Computing lead at Manchester Communication Academy who took part in the pilot Digital Futures ‘Bringing the curriculum to life’ programme.
Reviewing the impact
Feedback from these sessions was positive. Students thrived when given the chance to work together and were inspired to broaden their options for the future.
“Normally we don’t communicate much in class in this way but in this activity we communicated with everyone in our team.”
- Student participant
Throughout these activities, students not only gained an understanding of the digital careers open to them, but they also gained experience working as a team, seeing how much more they could achieve by working effectively with others. They presented their outcomes to a public audience at the end of the project, including peers, teachers, industry experts and parents.
As a not-for-profit organisation, we are extremely proud to have contributed to this initiative which has helped to align in class activities with the needs of our flourishing digital industries.
What’s your vision for 21st Century Skills?
In collaboration with academic and vocational partners worldwide, we design qualifications and assessments that equip learners with future-ready skills. So, if you want to develop a generation of collaborative and adaptable critical-thinkers, we can make it happen.
Get in touch to discover how our team can integrate 21st Century Skills into your curriculum.
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