Gary Day, Group Director for Public Sector at Apogee, explores how evolving workplace demands, tightening budgets and rising service expectations are reshaping priorities across the UK public sector and why technology modernisation, smarter procurement and secure, resilient infrastructure are becoming essential to meeting these challenges.
The digital divide continues to be a major concern for almost everyone involved in education in England and Wales. Out-dated technology and low levels of relevant skills are a major obstacle to improvements in educational attainment, especially among students from disadvantaged backgrounds.
In a digital-first world where AI is on everyone’s mind, schools, academies and further and higher education institutions should be using up-to-date technology every day. But the reality is different for many institutions.
Consultation reveals continuing problems
In its summary of responses to the consultation Narrowing the digital divide in schools and colleges, the Department for Education noted the concerns of 29% of schools that did not feel they could meet the standards in six areas, including digital leadership, governance and cyber security, by 2030. The report rightly acknowledged ‘the financial pressures schools and colleges face, as well as other barriers around expertise and technical knowledge”.
Unfortunately, the government’s £45 million investment to improve connectivity is unlikely to resolve the immediate challenge of providing up-to-date devices and laptops for students. But importantly, the DfE report highlighted how ‘positive relationships with suppliers could provide significant value’.
Device supplier relationships are critical in education
With budgets tight, supplier relationships are likely to be an important in removing the disparity between institutions with different levels of resourcing. Back in 2021, Ofcom found 17% of UK children did not have consistent access to a device suitable for online home-learning. This was obviously a critical difference during the pandemic.
Yet, four years later, this inequality remains. Students from well-resourced schools still have better access to fast, secure devices. Those at less well-endowed institutions, however, are unable to develop their digital skills or take full advantage of advances in online learning. This has become a priority for the support of SEND students.
While social mobility is a question for those in charge of policy, education leaders and IT providers must work together to shape solutions that accelerate access to the right technology. Currently, many procurement models and support systems make the road to true transformation very difficult for under-resourced institutions. Change is required.
Short-term thinking is seldom a solution
Tight budgets mean many institutions stick with legacy devices and quick fixes, buying equipment term-by-term. Many will be aware this is not the best way to conduct an educational IT strategy – and it is seldom the most cost-effective. Schools and colleges should move away from considering tech investment as discretionary expenditure and view it as fundamental to their infrastructure.
Focusing on the short-term cost instead of long-term may appear sensible, but keeping devices in use beyond their natural lifespan leads to more lost learning-time, increased overheads in support and exposure to security vulnerabilities.
A smarter, greener approach to laptop leasing for schools
There is a practical way forward that involves more innovative leasing mechanisms backed by genuine sustainability accreditations such as Blue Angel. This is a green programme that covers a product’s lifecycle. More thoughtful, tailored schemes like this release schools and colleges from the necessity of buying in small batches and of prolonging the use of laptops and devices that are already out-of-date.
Major manufacturers and managed service-providers have come together to provide a service that better suits the needs of organisations struggling to bridge the digital divide. Instead of a brutally transactional approach, such schemes employ valuable rewards and cashback mechanisms as part of a continuing relationship that starts with device set-ups and continues through support and replacement.
Institutions can spread costs and receive hundreds of new laptops to fulfil the needs of all students, rather than installing them in stages. Students not only gain modern, fully functioning technology, schools and colleges also spend less time on device-management. Using applications such as dashboards, staff with IT responsibilities can monitor the performance and status of all their organisation’s devices, wherever they are.
Sharing the burdens
As educational institutions seek to bridge digital divide, they need to assess the value of these more innovative, collaborative relationships so they can access the essential technology they need. Collaboration means responsibility is not solely on the shoulders of schools and colleges – providers will share it too.
Thankfully, we can see that technology manufacturers, managed services companies and education leaders are beginning to work together on funding, support and models that increase tech equity. Meeting this challenge requires innovative thinking and new procurement models and encouragingly, tech providers are beginning to act as strategic partners, not just suppliers.
