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Ufi Charitable Trust, commonly known as Ufi, charity number 1081028, is an independent learning charity, that use of technology in vocational and adult learning. It uses technology to provide solutions, not in the academic environments of schools and universities, but vocational and adult education. It has over £50 million to invest in charitable projects in the UK. Based in London it has six trustees and four advisers. It's income comes from revenue generated by its invested funds. Accounts to December 2012 can be found on the charity commission site here.
Aims[edit]
Ufi Charitable Trust aims to use technology to help to deliver adult learning and employability in the UK. It is founded upon the principle of scale, using technology, to deliver vocational learning.
History[edit]
Ufi, the University for industry, was formed in 1998 by the then Labour government to transform the delivery of learning and skills across England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Its trading company, learndirect, formed in 2000, was sold by the Ufi Charitable Trust in 2011, to private equity house LDC[1], part of the Lloyds TSB Banking Group. The proceeds of this sale were invested and will be used to fund Ufi Charitable Trust’s future activities.
Projects and campaigns[edit]
Citizen Maths MOOC[edit]
As part of its drive to scale-up vocational and adult learning, the Ufi Charitable Trust has funding Citizens’ Maths, a MOOC which will combine the technological platforms of Google and CogBooks to offer a free, online Level 2 maths course, personalised to the needs of individual learners. Google’s Course Builder MOOC platform and the CogBooks adaptive learning system[2], adapts the learners’ experience of the course to take account of their individual needs and progress. Citizens’ Maths will target Level 2 maths (GCSE level). Drawing on research input from the Institute of Education into how people best learn maths, the focus will be on maths as a set of concepts and tools that can help people solve problems. Content will be structured according to the OECD’s internationally recognised PISA Assessment Framework "Key competencies in reading, mathematics and science"[3], with OCR ensuring that Citizens’ Maths maps against suitable Level 2 qualifications. The project is being developed by a partnership of four UK organisations, with support from Google. The funded partners are:
- Calderdale College (an Further Education college in Halifax, West Yorkshire);
- CogBooks (an adaptive learning company);
- The Institute of Education (research organisation);
- OCR (UK awarding body that is part of Cambridge Assessment, the University’s international exams group).
Childrens' Food Trust[edit]
The Children’s Food Trust's Learning Network is a e-learning facility for the children’s food workforce (school cooks, caterers, early years childcare providers, local authority staff and others.) It is online courses and informative webcasts on topical children’s food issues that takes the Children's Food Trust's training to a wide audience. The network is open to anyone who works in children’s food. The production of the e-learning content is being done by Learning Pool.
The Children's Food Trust is a registered charity. It was formerly known as the School Food Trust, which was set up by the Government in 2005 to improve school food, following Jamie Oliver's Feed Me Better campaign. It is now an independent charity, working in all areas of children's food - from early years, through primary and secondary schools, to teaching parents and children to cook at home.
The Content Exchange[edit]
The Content Exchange will be an online marketplace, produced and run by the charity City & Guilds, where tutors and learners can search for, download and share teaching and learning-related content. Resource will be put at the disposal of all individuals and institutions, not just those who create it. With this background, the idea of “The Content Exchange” evolved.
The Content Exchange will include industry and college showcases, user-generated content and resources from many sources. This is content uploaded and shared by tutors or other users of the platform.
Other projects funded by[edit]
Scaling Up report[edit]
The first report commissioned by Ufi Charitable Trust investigates opportunities for and barriers to the application of digital technology to adult learning. 'Scaling Up: achieving a breakthrough in adult learning with technology' was compiled following research including 142 phone and online questionnaires and 36 in-depth interviews with researchers, business people, learning professionals and civil servants, launched and published in May 2012. Focusing on possible ways to transform the UK’s vocational education and training system, the report was able to identify three main priorities for funding:
- Increasing the capability of those involved in running the vocational learning system
- Exploiting networks to bring together learners, learning content and learning professionals
- Harnessing computers to support individualised and differentiated learning
References[edit]
- ^ "News - LDC Acquires UK's Leading Online Learning Provider Learndirect". LDC. 2011-10-04. Retrieved 2013-10-09.
- ^ "Adaptive Learning". CogBooks. Retrieved 2013-10-09.
- ^ [1] [dead link]