CO6118 Ideas Store Learning Hub

Idea Store Learning, the community adult learning provision for the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, is tasked with enabling residents to develop the skills they need to become active citizens, progress in work and express themselves across different media. More than 3000 local residents enrol on over 6000 course places to develop their work and life prospects.

Courses ranging from ESOL and maths to visual and performing arts enable learners to progress into employment, enhance their work skills, communicate more effectively, improve their health and wellbeing, support their children’s learning and create stronger, connected communities. Digital skills are integral to the provision with digital communication and teaching embedded across all courses.

Specific digital skills courses from beginner to advanced form an essential growing part of the provision as well as the council’s Digital Inclusion Strategy. The current digital skills infrastructure needs updating to meet the demands of today’s and tomorrow’s world.

The existing set up limits the use and teaching of cloud-based technologies including Microsoft 365. Digital security concerns require the learning environment to be separate from the Council’s corporate network. Consequently, learners have no automated institutional email address and/or accounts, and limited means of sharing work, communicating digitally in a secure manner, or easy access to a VLE.