Closing date for returns -16 December 2019
Education Scotland is inviting organisations that provide professional learning in STEM, including numeracy and mathematics and digital skills, to participate in our annual data gathering exercise. By submitting your data you will help us recognise the contribution your organisation makes to building the confidence and skills of practitioners and technicians nationally. The information you provide will play a key role in supporting the implementation of the STEM Education and Training Strategy and also the Making Maths Count Report.
Who should submit data?
This invitation is for organisations that provide external career-long professional learning support in sciences, technologies, engineering, mathematics/numeracy (STEM) and digital skills to the following groups and sectors:
- Early learning and childcare practitioners
- Primary school practitioners
- Secondary school practitioners
- Additional support needs practitioners
- School-based technical support staff
- Classroom assistants
- Community learning and development practitioners
- College/FE practitioners.
This invitation will, therefore, be relevant to a wide range of organisations including: local authorities, colleges, universities, employers, STEM providers, third sector organisations, science centres and festivals and national agencies. Educational establishments that have secured STEM grant funding from Education Scotland to provide professional learning to other centres are also encouraged to submit data. Please see our Defining STEM document for a list of courses and frameworks included in STEM.
Why are we asking for this data?
Both the STEM Strategy and Making Maths Count Report seek to enhance the provision of high-quality professional learning to the groups listed above. The findings from previous annual STEM practitioner and provider surveys have proven invaluable in helping to shape the national offer and to address the gaps and challenges practitioners face in accessing high-quality professional learning. In 2018, Education Scotland launched The Enhancing Professional Learning in STEM Grants Programme to promote innovation in this area and build further delivery capacity for STEM, and also numeracy and mathematics and digital skills. Over £1.9 million in funding is being made available in 2019/20 through this programme, benefitting more than 700 establishments and nearly 14,000 practitioners. The information you provide will help us get the offer right and secure further improvements.
How to submit your data
We are providing two options for returning your data this year. Please choose either option 1 or option 2 from below. To avoid double-counting, please only submit data for professional learning that your organisation has led on delivering.
Option 1 (For those organisations that have used the Excel STEM CLPL Provider Tracker)
Many organisations will have used Education Scotland’s STEM CLPL Provider Tracker 2018/19 to record the professional learning that they have provided between 01 August 2018 and 31 July 2019. If this is the case, we are inviting you to simply email your completed Excel Tracker to stem@educationscotland.gov.scot by 16 December 2019. Please also complete and submit the attached Data Submission Form (attached below) with your return.
Option 2 (For those using their own recording process)
We have prepared an online survey for those organisations that have gathered partial information or have used their own system for recording their professional learning data. The survey can be accessed through this link: https://bit.ly/2JcOUFd. The closing date for the survey is 16 December 2019.
Once again, we would like to invite your organisation to use the STEM CLPL Tracker 2019-20 (attached below) to record your professional learning delivery for this current academic year, from 1 August 2019 to 31 July 2020. It may be helpful to update this on an ongoing basis in preparation for the next Annual Data Gathering in September 2020. Please refer to the first worksheet tab in the Excel document for guidance on using the updated tracker.
A separate Annual STEM Professional Learning Practitioner Survey 2019 has been launched and provides practitioners and school/centre leaders with an opportunity to share information about their professional learning needs and priorities.
