Becta

From Digipedia

Becta is the government agency leading the national drive to ensure the effective and innovative use of technology throughout learning.

About us

It is our ambition to utilise the benefits of technology to create a more exciting, rewarding and successful experience for learners of all ages and abilities, enabling them to achieve their potential.

We do this in many ways. We work with government to lead the delivery and development of the e-strategy, and we influence the strategic direction and development of national education policy, to best take advantage of new and emerging technology. We also work with industry and education providers to make sure the right technology is available, and we set standards and provide tools that help establish and promote best practice.

Our work cuts across a wide range of priority areas and key themes. These include enabling people to have equal opportunity and access to learning resources, creating links between schools and the home, ensuring the safety of all learners, personalising learning to enable learners and practitioners to interact and inspire each other, helping providers to plan effective investment in technology in building or refurbishment work, and using technology to ensure efficiency and value for money.

We know that technology has the potential to transform learning. We are committed to inspiring education providers to realise that potential, and equip learners for Britain's future success.

Becta's acronym

Our acronym stood for 'British Educational Communications and Technology Agency'. Research indicates that there is now quite strong audience recognition of the name 'Becta' while changes to Becta's remit mean that the full name no longer fully describes our role - it does not reflect our work with government, partners and industry as well as the education sector. Therefore the name 'Becta' is now used independently.

British Educational Communications and Technology Agency (Becta) was established in 1998 through the reconstitution of the National Council for Educational Technology (NCET).