i-Skills for University Administration
From December 2005 to July 2006, Netskills delivered a JISC funded programme aimed at promoting i-skills amongst managers and administrators within HE and FE institutions. The programme built on previous JISC work in this area in the Staff Information Skills Set programme, in particular the 2 publications Improving Staff i-Skills and Investing in Staff i-Skills. During this time JISC also funded a related project at Leeds and Loughborough Universities which researched information use by specific administrative job roles and explored the implications for staff development.
The Netskills programme involved research into the information use of managers and administrators, the delivery of a series of workshops and the creation of a self-evaluation toolkit.
A literature review found that most research into information literacy was focussed on students. Although the importance of workplace information literacy is gaining ground and many of the issues are of concern to business, few organisations are addressing individual skills.
The self-evaluation tool was mapped to the stages of the i-Skills cycle and aimed to be individualised and encourage self-reflection. A set of resources was provided for people to address indentified skill gaps. The self-evaluation was trialled extensively during the workshop programme.
The report concludes that there was a high level of interest and enthusiasm for the topic and the toolkit in particular. The programme has shown the relevancy of i-Skills to the workplace and has demonstrated the potential of the i-Skills self-evaluation tool ot encourgae the development of individual skills - an essential factor in the success of strategic approaches to information and knowledge management.