Day: March 12, 2021

Turing scheme to ‘open up global study and work opportunities’

Schools, colleges and universities can now apply for funding from today to allow students to study and work across the globe as part of the new Turing Scheme.

The programme, backed by £110 million, replaces the Erasmus+ scheme in the UK and will fund 35,000 global exchanges from September 2021, including university study, school exchanges, and industry work placements.

The new scheme aims to improve social mobility, targeting students from disadvantaged backgrounds and areas which did not previously have many students benefiting from Erasmus+, making life-changing opportunities accessible to everyone across the country. The British Council and Ecorys will be targeting disadvantaged parts of the country to promote the scheme to improve take up.

The Turing scheme offers benefits to students that they would not have under the previous Erasmus+ programme, with university students from disadvantaged backgrounds set to receive a maximum of £490 per month towards living costs (currently worth around 573 euros compared to 540 euros under Erasmus+), alongside travel funding, and other forms of additional funding to offset the cost of passports, visas and insurance.

Unlike Erasmus+, which is EU-focused, the Turing Scheme is a truly global programme and every country in the world is eligible to partner with UK universities, schools and colleges.

Prime Minister, Boris Johnson said: “The Turing Scheme is a truly global programme with every country in the world eligible to partner with UK universities, schools and colleges.

“It is also levelling up in action, as the scheme seeks to help students of all income groups from across the country experience fantastic education opportunities in any country they choose.”

Education Secretary Gavin Williamson said: “This is a landmark step in delivering on our promise to level up a truly global Britain, strengthening our ties across the world and providing students with the skills they need to thrive.

“The programme’s focus on social mobility and value for money will open up more opportunities for international education and travel to all of our students, especially for those from disadvantaged backgrounds who were less likely to benefit from the previous EU scheme.

“I urge all universities, schools and colleges from all corners of the UK to start their applications and partner up with countries worldwide.”

Universities Minister, Michelle Donelan said: The Turing scheme will support our levelling up agenda by opening up the world to young people and children from all backgrounds with exciting global opportunities.

“The scheme will enable up to 35,000 students throughout the UK to work or study across the globe.”

As part of the UK-wide launch, education ministers are visiting the devolved nations today to highlight the advantages of the Turing scheme and ensure wider participation for all students across the UK.

In support of the launch, Universities Minister Michelle Donelan will visit Cardiff University and Edinburgh University to discuss the bidding process including how to demonstrate widening access to more disadvantaged students as part of the application process.

School Standards Minister Nick Gibb and Apprenticeships Minister Gillian Keegan will visit educational settings in areas that have not previously benefitted from Erasmus+.

Applicants from schools and colleges are encouraged, with funding levels and eligibility set out in programme guides available to help inform applications.

UK organisations are encouraged to form partnerships across the globe, not just the EU. The Turing website includes the programme guide, funding levels and eligibility, and details of webinars available to help inform applications.

Successful applications will receive funding for administering the scheme and students taking part will receive grants to help them with the costs of their international experience. The benefits of the exchanges will be assessed and the findings used to build on future schemes. Funding decisions for subsequent years will be subject to future spending reviews.

£110m of funding will be available to support projects and activities during the 2021/2022 academic year. This is enough to fund similar levels of student exchanges under the former Erasmus+ scheme.

Programme guidance, including information on the application process, has also been published on the Turing Scheme website.

Scottish adults support tough new laws and sanctions on tech firms to combat child abuse

  • Poll shows widescale public support for stronger legislation to protect children from abuse online
  • Comes as NSPCC report says UK Government’s Online Safety Bill must be more ambitious to comprehensively tackle sexual abuse
  • Charity chief calls for no compromise on children’s safety being at the heart of new laws

The Scottish public overwhelmingly back robust new laws to protect children from abuse on social media and wants bosses to be held responsible for safety, new polling suggests.

An NSPCC/YouGov survey found that more than nine in ten respondents (95%) in Scotland want social networks and messaging services to be designed to be safe for children.

The poll of more than 2,000 adults across the UK*, of which 179 respondents were from Scotland, shows huge support for putting a legal requirement on tech firms to detect and prevent child abuse, while backing strong sanctions against directors whose companies fail.

91% of respondents in Scotland want firms to have a legal responsibility to detect child abuse, such as grooming, taking place on their sites.

And almost four in five Scottish adults (79%) support prosecuting senior managers of social media managers if their companies consistently fail to protect children from abuse online, while 83% of respondents want social media bosses fined for consistent failures.

NSPCC Chief Executive Sir Peter Wanless said it shows a huge public consensus for robust Duty of Care regulation of social media.

He is urging the UK Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden to listen by ensuring his landmark Online Safety Bill convincingly tackles online child abuse and puts the onus on firms to prevent harm. He set out the UK Government’s vision for legislation in December.

The survey found that just ten per-cent of Scottish adults think sites are regularly designed safely for children, but 77% support a legal requirement for platforms to assess the risks of child abuse on their services, and take steps to address them.

It come as the NSPCC’s ‘Delivering a Duty of Care’ report, released earlier this week, assessed plans for UK legislation against its six tests for the UK Government to achieve bold and lasting protections for children online.

It found that UK Government is failing on a third of indicators (nine out of 27), with tougher measures needed to tackle sexual abuse and to give Ofcom the powers they need to develop and enforce regulation fit for decades to come.

Sir Peter Wanless said: “Today’s polling shows the clear public consensus for stronger legislation that hardwires child protection into how tech firms design their platforms.

“Mr Dowden will be judged on whether he takes decisions in the public interest and acts firmly on the side of children with legislation ambitious enough to protect them from avoidable harm.

“For too long children have been an afterthought for Big Tech but the Online Safety Bill can deliver a culture change by resetting industry standards and giving Ofcom the power to hold firms accountable for abuse failings.”

The NSPCC is calling for legislation to be more robust so it can successfully combat online child abuse at an early stage and before it spreads across platforms.

They want a requirement for tech firms to treat content that facilitates sexual abuse with the same severity as material that meets the criminal threshold.

This means clamping down on the “digital breadcrumbs” dropped by abusers to guide others towards illegal material. These include videos of children just moments before or after they are sexually abused – so-called ‘abuse image series’ – that are widely available on social media.

The charity also want Ofcom to be able to tackle cross platform risks, where groomers target children across the different sites and games they use – something firms have strongly resisted.

In its report, the NSPCC called on the UK Government to commit to senior management liability to make tech directors personally responsible for decisions on product safety.

They say this is vital to drive cultural change and provide an appropriate deterrent against a lax adoption of the rules.

The charity wants to see senior management liability similar to the successful approach in financial services. Under the scheme, bosses taking decisions which could put children at risk could face censure, fines and in the case of the most egregious breaches of the Duty of Care, criminal sanctions.

They warn that the UK Government has softened its ambition and at present just propose liability for narrow procedural reasons, which will only to be enacted later down the line.

The NSPCC has been the leading voice for social media regulation and the charity set out detailed proposals for a Bill in 2019.

The UK Government’s White Paper consultation response in December set out the framework for an Online Safety Bill that is expected in the Spring.