Credit: Paul Hudson/CC BY 2.0

Scottish Borders Council is to launch a centre of excellence backed by Apple after being awarded professional learning provider (APLP) status by the tech giant.

The purpose of the centre, dubbed the Inspire Academy, will be to provide support to education technology projects and local authorities across the country and elsewhere in the world.

The council was awarded APLP status in recognition of the success of its Inspire Learning project, which has provided technology and professional development to staff and young people across the area, helping them to develop digital skills.

Once launched, the academy will provide further training to teachers in the local authority area and will also host national education events aimed at attendees from across the UK as a whole.

Related content

• Scottish schools partner with tech firms to boost computer science skills
• Edinburgh rolls out iPads to all secondary pupils
• Personal data of 600 people exposed by Scottish Borders Council data breach

Carol Hamilton, the council’s executive member for children and young people, said gaining APLP status and launching the academy would allow the council to serve as “a national example of good practice that can help similar projects in other areas of the country and further afield”.

"We see many potential opportunities for our teachers and young people as leading members of a global community of best practice in education and see this as a way to add enormous richness and value to learning experiences in our region,” she said. "We will soon be bringing forward more detailed plans for the initial launch of this new venture and look forward to sharing these with everyone as we enter such an exciting new chapter in the Inspire Learning journey."