Building technical skills across universities starts with understanding what is possible

In a recent report, Advance HE notes that fresh thinking will be required for professional development across higher education in the years ahead. The report’s authors acknowledge technology in particular as an “enormous driver of change”, highlighting the need for universities not only to be agile to new opportunities but also to develop sufficient technical skills in their staff and across their organisational units.

The rationale for this is clear. Embedding the ability to work with technology into individual and organisational development will help universities operate more efficiently with stretched resources. It will also help us to move in step with a rapidly evolving technological landscape, to produce more well-rounded researchers and professionals and to provide a better environment for students. And the time to do this is now: we don’t need to look further than the recent impact of developments in generative AI to understand that the rate at which technology is advancing will continue to accelerate.

Incentivise staff and students

Experts in specific technologies will naturally remain important. After all, expecting every member of an organisation to gain an advanced and broad understanding of such a diverse and gigantic space as “technology” would be inefficient and unrealistic. Not everyone needs to be able to whip together a script in Python at a moment’s notice, to know their basics from their BASIC or to possess a deep understanding of cybersecurity beyond “good practice” reasonable principles. But it is a realistic aspiration – even in a large university setting – to cultivate a fundamental technical skill set in students and staff via training initiatives and organisational incentives.

What elements constitute that skill set and how it is developed and incentivised are likely to be institution-specific questions, but there are many tried and tested ways in which this can be achieved. Institutions can embed technical literacy by recognising it as an important facet of annual reviews and career advancement opportunities. They can sponsor and reward those who undertake technical training. And they can generate excitement and thoughtful engagement with the agenda by running technical entrepreneurship competitions and initiatives to support digital innovation. Examples of such enterprising approaches are plentiful (see, for instance, Oxford’s IT Services Innovation Lab and supporting services).

The importance of frameworks

It will also be up to universities to build up technical competency frameworks and the training provision that will support them, with the assistance of outside partners where appropriate. But they can draw on extensive work and thinking that has been done in this area. Frameworks developed specifically for HE such as the Vitae Researcher Development Framework and the UK Professional Standards Framework contain technical skills aspects that provide the terms and language with which to describe different levels of skill attainment.

Competency frameworks provide an organisation-level common vocabulary for technical skills and, more importantly, a way in which to measure progress. By mapping their resources, provision and initiatives with these skills and competencies, institutions can measure engagement with technical skills development opportunities at the organisation level, adjusting and improving provision over time.

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Becoming fluent in the language of what is possible

So far, so obvious: the aspiration to develop familiarity and comfort with technology across a workforce or student population is nothing new, and the putative benefits are clear. However, if universities truly wish to nurture technical competency across their constituencies, instilling a broader, more critical understanding of technology will be just as important as developing skill sets.

Learning more about programming is undoubtedly valuable; likewise how specific software packages work, or about clever physical engineering and its applications in a university setting. But just as valuable will be the ability of students and staff to comprehend what is reasonably achievable with technology now and in the future, and to engage with critical debates that are provoked by technology. These debates include those surrounding the nature and measurement of engagement with learning through technology, for instance, and the role of technology as a means to an answer rather than the answer in itself. While a short course in a coding language might be helpful to some, a course that promotes fluency in the language of coding will be beneficial to many, and will have a far greater impact across their university from an organisational standpoint.

Beyond developing technical skills, universities will need to develop people who are skilled enough to be part of the discussion of technology, who can exercise rational judgement about its implementation, and who are looking to the future while being conscious of the limitations of technology in the present. This way, when the next technological revolution sweeps across the higher education landscape, we will be poised to make the most of it.

John Miles is the founder and CEO of Inkpath.

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