Digital hub for training

With Birmingham well on its way to cementing its status as one of Europe's leading digital cities, one of its colleges is also ensuring it stays one step ahead of the digital agenda.

When the Government announced in 2003 that the whole of the UK was going digital, it took a while for people to digest what that really meant for them as individuals. Many people were not overly concerned about the impact this would have on them, as their understanding was that the main thing affected would be their television viewing.

But as many people will be finding out there is a lot more to digital than meets the eye - and a lot more advantages to becoming educated about the possibilities that becoming digitally connected has to offer.

And one college in particular is leading the way when it comes to keeping people up to speed with the latest technologies, with it now being regarded as not only the West Midland's digital hub for training, but the UK's.

Matthew Boulton College and Sutton College was the first in Britain to offer the aerial industry's brand new NVQ and the Certificate in Digital Aerial Installation after the switchover was announced, five years ago.

The need for a credited scheme became glaringly apparent when the decision was made to switch to digital and colleges across the UK were approached by the Government to pilot a new learning program. In response to this skills shortage, Matthew Boulton College and Sutton College rose to the challenge.

By March 16th 2006 the college's installers were awarded the digital tick - the kite mark for quality in the digital industry. As a result the college is now recognised as being the leading provider of digital installation training by the National Learning and Skills Council and the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform.

And it is continuing to lead the way, having landed several major contracts and providing a proven quality service. With it's state-of-the-art Digital Centre, having opened in January 2008, the college is also helping to ensure Birmingham and its residents stay one step ahead of the digital agenda.

The centre provides an insight into the future of digital home entertainment, providing information demonstrations to keep people up to speed with the changes in store. The new facility includes a signal distribution centre, a facility to train digital aerial installers, allowing to design and test systems which can deliver digital signals and information to all parts of the home.

And there is a digital home experience centre, allowing people to have a glimpse at what home entertainment will offer when the switchover is complete in 2011.

Mustafa Shevket, Director of Digital and Environmental Technologies at Matthew Boulton College and Sutton College is unable to hide his pride when speaking about the college's achievements and plans. "The changes which are currently underway in the city are incredibly exciting and being involved with the college's digital projects has been an amazing opportunity.

"We have been able to take advantage of Government funding to provide the best training for digital installers who gain the Digital tick - the kite mark for competence." he said.

"The college is one of the biggest training organisations in the UK and we are taking the lead in the digital switchover. We do quality assurance for the whole of the UK which proves we have the leading edge and we have now also won the majority of contracts nationwide, including the BBC Help scheme."

The college does indeed have a lot to shout about having also been chosen to work with a number of major manufacturers in the up-skilling of their employees.

Mr Shevket, said: "When we switch over to digital, people will have a lot more information enabling Birmingham to become a digital city. We are taking the lead in the digital switchover."

Five years after announcing the phasing out of analogue technology, much has been going on in the city to encourage its people and businesses to embrace the digital era.

With the digital switchover, Birmingham's citizens will be granted access to a whole host of new and exciting services. Already, Sky Digital and Virgin Media. Freeview and 3G subscribers are able to take advantage of interactive digital TV (iDTV). This gives them a faster way to access information and report problems to Birmingham City Council on anything from missed bin collections to more serious issues.

The key to successfully converting Birmingham to a digital city, however, lies in educating the public to the benefits and giving them the necessary skills to cope with the changes. And, as everyone knows, education can never start too early and neither can the use of digital technologies as a learning tool.

At Matthew Boulton College this is a fact which has not been ignored, with virtual learning environment being a key to the students' success.

Mobile learning devices including ASUS Mini book enable students to complete portfolio work and have been used to test a podcast diary video journal.

PDA devices are also being used to pilot, 'anytime, anywhere learning' taking learning to a new level at the college.

With so much going on at the college and in the city on a wider scale, it seems Birmingham really is gearing itself up successfully for the digital revolution.