§ Mr. Peter AinsworthTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what measures he is taking to support the development of skills in media and broadcasting technology among people of school age. [140181]
§ Jacqui SmithThe National Curriculum enables pupils from an early age to develop the skills needed to access and judge information from a variety of sources, including television and the media. There are many opportunities for pupils to develop technological skills, particularly within Information and Communications Technology and Design and Technology.
With our encouragement, the British Film Institute has worked with a range of partners, including teachers, to produce an excellent guide 'Moving Images in the classroom' for secondary schools. It offers a range of practical activities to develop pupils' skills in many different subjects including, for example, using video and software editing in Music and using a video or ICT to produce a foreign language voice-over for a news item.
368WGCSEs in Media Studies are now taken by some 25,000 pupils each year. Vocational GCSEs will extend these opportunities to greater numbers of young people.