Vodafone Foundation

Vodafone became the first company to sign-up to the e-Learning Foundation's Corporate Partner programme in 2008, when it awarded a grant to the e-Learning Foundation.

The Corporate Partner scheme was launched to encourage companies to support our cause to bring social justice to a generation of children who are missing out on the benefits that IT can bring them, by making an unrestricted donation of £20,000 to the charity over two years.   The funding is being used by the e-Learning Foundation to provide a free advice and support service to schools across the UK, who require professional advice on how to set-up an e-learning projects.

In 2008, Andrew Dunnett, then Director of the Vodafone Foundation , commented, "We are pleased to support the e-Learning Foundation as part of our work enabling disadvantaged young people to become more connected.   Providing communities with the technology to learn new skills and seek trusted advice is critical in supporting young people."

Neil White, Fundraising Director at the e-Learning Foundation added that, "The Vodafone Foundation's donation will help the charity to support disadvantaged communities to have access to learning technologies that will educate ad motivate children while encouraging the use of computers by other family members.  We must close the digital divide if they are to have any prospect of playing a full part in the digital age."

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Haywood Engineering College serves a very disadvantaged community, with 23% of the pupils receiving Free School Meals compared to a national average of 15%.  Many of the families lack the resources and skills to make the most of modern learning technologies to support the education of their children. As a result there was considerable scope to raise the educational achievement levels of the children through the application of learning technologies for use at home as well as at school.

The project provides all 210 Year 7 pupils with their own personal learning device for use in the classroom and at home, and has helped move teaching and learning at the school into the 21st Century.  The college has undertaken an intensive programme to prepare its staff and students to use e-learning in the classroom and at home, thereby enabling continued access to learning via the school Virtual learning Environment (VLE).  As a result, children across the year group are now able to work anywhere, anytime on their devices both in school and at home, where they can access learning materials through the schools VLE.   This has made it a lot easier for the class teachers to establish independent learning programmes for each child, and provides the capability to carry out regular checks to see if the learning has actually taken place. The children are eager to learn independently and to search for information they require for their school homework, across the school curriculum. Parents have also been included in the programme and have been given some training on using the devices so they can also develop their own learning and their child’s.

Students have commented on how excited they have been by the project and how great it is to be able to have 24/7 access to learning both at home and in school.

Student quotes

• "The project has changed the way that we are taught in lessons it is much more fun"
• "Homework is much easier to do now I have access at home all the time as I used to share a PC with my brother"
• "I love the fact I can do lots of research on the internet in preparation for my lessons"

Paula Pinson, Strategic Lead of ICT, and David Dickinson, Head teacher at the college and Shirish Patel, school Liaison Manager for the e-Learning Foundation all said how grateful they are to the Vodaphone Foundation for the funding and the support they have given to make such a project happen at their college that makes such a difference to their student’s lives and their learning.