Zainab Kizilbash Agha

📢 New from Manchester’s Centre for Digital Development: A Scorecard to Evaluate and Improve Organisational Strategies for Digital Transformation for Development (DX4D). This co-produced tool helps development organisations assess and strengthen their digital transformation strategies using nine key principles. It supports both strategy creation and evaluation, and is grounded in real-world practice and academic insight. 🧩 For ICT4D practitioners, policymakers, and researchers, this is a useful framework to spark dialogue, reflection, and strategic improvement. 🔗 Read the paper: https://lnkd.in/eBpfaAVB

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New blog from the BBC on the socio-economic impact of digital inclusion finds that achieving full digital inclusion could generate as much as: 💷 £21.1–£30.8 billion in annual Gross Value Added (GVA) from increased productivity and employment. 💷 £4.9–£9.4 billion in net gains to the Exchequer through higher tax revenues and reduced welfare spending. 💷 £26.6–31.3 billion in non-market wellbeing benefits, including improved life satisfaction and access to services. Additional benefits include: 💷 Up to £2.8 billion in annual NHS savings from virtual GP appointments. 💷 Up to £848 million in user savings from digital government services. Blog author Helen Burrows says: "Improving digital connectivity and inclusion could unlock economic growth and underpins delivery of a number of the Governments priorities — including those outlined in the recently published 10-year plan for the NHS, DSIT’s Digital Inclusion Action Plan, DWP’s Get Britain Working programme, and HM Treasury Financial Inclusion Committee." https://lnkd.in/ecYkkgPn

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*New publication* Work experience placements for students aged 14-16 at risk of disengaging from education One of the last papers that I worked on at the OECD has now been published. It looks at a super interesting programme in Wales – the tailored work experience programme is aimed at students who are not attending school and who are at risk of becoming NEET. The programme finds extended work placements for students tailored to their interests, providing them with new and different experiences as they are helped back into secondary education. The paper explores the evidence surrounding such programmes. It looks at the expected benefits of such an intervention drawing on large quantitative studies and stakeholder perspectives, including educational success. It sets out as well new PISA analysis on the links between placements and student attitudes towards schooling, identifying the importance of placements being accompanied by other forms of career development. The paper then conceptualises how such provision can be expected to interact with student human, social and cultural capital, and provides details of innovative related programmes from around the world. The paper concludes that placements can be expected to improve the engagement of students at risk of poor outcomes in education, but benefits cannot be taken for granted. It highlights important areas for consideration to optimise positive outcomes. Mann, A. and J. Diaz (2025), “Tailored Work Experience in Wales”, OECD Education Working Papers, No. 334, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://lnkd.in/ec_QseAF. 

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🎓 Thirty years ago, I bet on university. It paid off. But would I make the same choice today? In my latest column for The Telegraph, I look at the growing risks facing the UK’s higher education system—and ask whether it’s still a good deal for young people. 📉 40% of universities are heading for deficits 🇬🇧 Reliance on international students is increasingly risky 🤖 Graduate jobs are disappearing in the face of AI 📊 The graduate wage premium is shrinking 👩‍🏫 And we’ve quietly let adult learning collapse Our system still assumes the future will look like the past: more 18-year-olds, more degrees, more debt. But what if that’s wrong? It’s time to stop gambling on the choices of teenagers and start building a university model that supports learning throughout life—modular, flexible, and fit for the age of longevity and automation. 🔗 https://lnkd.in/etVSFZEW #HigherEducation #LifelongLearning #Universities #Policy #AI #FutureOfWork #EducationReform

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