Tips on how to train & validate learners’ touch typing skills with a National Ofqual qualification (Levels 1 & 2)

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‘Why are we so obsessed with handwriting? Children spend hours, days, months and years learning this skill which will be redundant when they leave school and maybe long before’, says Sal McKeown, award-winning journalist and Commissioning Editor at Teaching Times.

She continues, ‘Children will be expected to hand in their university assignments, study work for apprenticeships, day-to-day work in offices, factories, retail etc. on laptops and tablets, typing instead of writing. Even our traditional exams may soon become digital, in line with other countries around the world and some existing vocational exams in the UK.
So perhaps schools should accept the inevitable and focus on equipping pupils with the skill before they leave school, even though it is not on the curriculum.’

Fitting in an extra-curricular activity is hard at the best of times, but in our current climate, it may seem impossible. However, it may prove to be the best preparation you could give to equip your pupils for their future!

Tips: Here are some different ways schools fit in teaching touch typing in and around the
timetable.

• At the start or end of IT classes
• IT homework
• Lunchtime clubs
• After school clubs
• As the ‘skills’ section of the DofE

An inclusive, easy to use online programme, which is a tutorial and can be accessed from both school and home, is preferable. It encourages independent learning and parental involvement and allows the skill to be learned both within and outside the timetable.

Incentivise

However, with the best will in the world, young people are under such pressure that they will ask, ‘Learn to touch type? Why? What’s in it for me?’ A recognised Ofqual qualification in touch typing may be the answer. Not only would it be an extra incentive for them to master the skill but also an additional qualification and achievement on their education
record, which they can take with them moving forward.

National Ofqual regulated touch typing qualification

Due to numerous requests from teachers for a recognised qualification in touch typing to validate their learners’ digital skills, KAZ Type partnered with Open Awards to produce the only online National Ofqual regulated touch typing qualification – Level 1 (4 credits) & Level 2 (6 credits). The qualification will add to pupils’ educational records.

Schools are already showing interest in entering their KS3 and SEN pupils for the exam, and colleges plan to offer the qualifications to their learners to prepare them for the workplace.

To find out more about KAZ, visit their EdTech Impact profile.