Parity redefines learning through the launch of Learning Plus
A paradigm shift in the way people learn has been the driver behind a new added value learning service now available to people booking on Parity courses.
The way people learn has changed and although over the past five years education has tried to respond to this through the use of technology, it has failed to address a fundamental in learning and that is people now learn in unstructured ways. “Yet most education takes place in a vertical and somewhat bureaucratic fashion, says Rick Firth, managing director of Parity’s training division.
Firth continues, “The problem is we still live in a world where knowledge is handed down by a considered expert, competency is judged by the ability to answer a series of questions correctly and we accept this as the norm, but life’s not like that any more. Education has tried to introduce new technology to learning by putting content into a variety of digital formats and on a mix of platforms and called this blended learning, when in fact it has not changed the learning process at all.”
Parity maintains that the educational shift now happening is that learning has become unstructured, more fluid and networked and believes that this is the future for learning and that educators must respond to it.
Parity's 'Learning Plus' service , influenced by the tools and context of Enterprise 2.0 will be available through the Parity website, with content available for both Parity course delegates and visitors to the site who have an interest in Project and Programme Management.
‘Learning Plus’ is a response to the changing context in which learning now takes place. It’s about new definitions, added utility, where user behaviour is not predetermined by bureaucratic text - small pieces of content, loosely joined, provides for a richer learning experience for delegates to feedback to their peers.
“Learning technology has failed to really make an impact because it has only considered automating what we have always done without considering the way we now work and play. Most organisations have been used to managing through hierarchical structures, but now that’s changing to more fluid structures where the division of labour is networked depending on skill and that is the way we should be structuring our learning environments”, says Firth.
Parity is already providing improved and more streamlined services to e-citizens for their public sector clients using Enterprise 2.0 technologies. Clients include Ofgem, Capacity Builders and Northants County Council, where social networking tools have dramatically changed the way these organisations communicate to their publics.
About Parity Group plc
Parity is a UK-based Business and IT Technology services organisation, delivering technical, recruitment and training solutions that contribute to the business transformation and economic performance of both private and public sector clients.
Parity's expertise in project and programme management minimises business risk associated with systems implementation, integration or business change for its clients.
Having been established for over thirty years, Parity has developed industry expertise in Finance, Utilities, Telecoms and the Public Sector delivering people, skills and concepts for IT enabled projects and programmes throughout the UK.
Parity believes that better relationships deliver better results. Many of its current client relationships span more than ten years, and clients include Barclays Bank, British American Tobacco, BT, Department for Constitutional Affairs, Department for Work and Pensions, HBOS, Ministry of Defence, Northern Ireland Electricity, Royal Bank of Scotland, Scottish Power, The Cabinet Office, The Charity Commission and the NHS.
Contact details:
For more information on Parity, visit www.parity.net/learningplus/ or contact Gina Cannon (g.cannon@parity.net) / Katie Franklin (k.franklin@parity.net)
