INNOVATION+
INNOVATION+ is designed for senior educational leaders across Wales. Education reform is a national priority in Wales and individuals in all sectors and at all levels are committed to achieving system-wide improvement and as Till Leopold, the World Economic Forum’s education lead emphasised, team-based creative solution finding is a ‘must have’ in education.
These sessions have been developed in line with the skills integral to the Four Purposes and will be delivered by two experienced innovators, Professor Andy Penaluna and Jessica Leigh Jones MBE. They will share their own thinking, and aim to help leaders move beyond hindsight towards developing their own innovative insights.
The three sessions will be delivered online and face-to-face and focus on the following themes:
Thursday 9 March 9:30-11:30am – Online
Networking and mindset development
- Creating context for learner development and citizenship
- Facilitating collaborative working to solve local challenges
- Horizon scanning, strategic opportunism and creating an intrapreneurial culture
Thursday 16 March 10am-4pm – Metropole Hotel and Spa, Temple Street, Llandrindod Wells, LD1 5DY
Implementation and supporting learning through evaluating progression
- Overcoming internal barriers to innovation
- Tools, techniques and frameworks for managing innovation
- Holistic and authentic assessment of learning
Thursday 23 March 9:30-11:30am – Online
Value creation
- Attracting and retaining great staff
- Enabling ambitious and capable learners
- Developing a skills pipeline to support local employers
Each session will include a range of activities and learning techniques including breakout rooms. Participants will be invited to conduct intersessional experiments such as conducting a piece of research beyond their organisation, initiating a critical conversation, or finding an article/video which stimulates further thinking.
Free, open to all leaders from schools, the youth work sector and PCET sector, places limited to one per organisation.
Registration is an expression of interest in attending the Innovation Series. If your expression of interest is successful, we will be in touch to confirm your place by Friday 17 February.
Email charlotte.thomas@agaa.cymru to submit your expressions of interest. Deadline 14 February.
Professor Emeritus Andy Penaluna, University of Wales Trinity Saint David
Trained as a designer to use creative thinking to solve other people’s problems, Andy led the innovation curriculum update for the United Nations’ Empretec programme. In another first, Andy was a member of the founding team that developed the EU Joint Research Centre’s EntreComp Framework, now used to develop innovators in over 50 countries. He has also represented entrepreneurs and innovators in education in Westminster Government on many occasions.
Andy has worked at all levels of education, from Primary Schools to Post Doctorate levels. In Wales he was academic lead for the development of ‘Skills Integral to the Four Purposes’. He also led the development of the World Bank funded Innovation and Entrepreneurship school curriculum in North Macedonia, following his lead in educator development in 7 Balkans countries.
Recognition of his work includes the presentation of a lifetime Queens Award for Enterprise Promotion, an honour bestowed on him by the late Queen Elisabeth the Second in Buckingham Palace. The Institute of Enterprise and Entrepreneurs and the Maserati 100 Entrepreneurs have also formally recognised Andy through UK Awards.
Jessica Leigh Jones MBE, iungo Solutions
Jessica Leigh Jones MBE is a multi-award-winning engineer and entrepreneur. In 2020, she co-founded iungo, a creative technologies start-up that works with corporate and educational clients to transform their ideas into immersive learning experiences for the future of work. Jessica is a Visiting Professor and Entrepreneur in Residence at UWTSD and the former Chair of the Centre for Digital Public Services in Wales. She is Vice Chair of WJEC and a Non-Executive Director of the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education in England. Jessica featured as one of the youngest in the Forbes 30 under 30 Europe list in 2018.