Digital Education Leadership Programme

Cambridge, UNICEF and GPE · 2025 to 2026

Turning global frameworks into national decisions.

A five-month leadership programme for more than 40 education leaders from 17 countries, built around practical system analysis, cross-country learning and national action planning.1

My role: AI Lead for the programme at Cambridge University Press & Assessment. I helped shape the learning architecture, led Cambridge’s technical contribution and delivery coordination, supported content and applied-activity design, and facilitated live learning with the wider programme team.

5 monthsBlended online programme
7 modulesSystem transformation to sustainability
40+ leadersMinistry and UNICEF participants
17 countriesShared learning, local application

The challenge

Digital education is a system problem, not a technology purchase.

Education leaders were making connected decisions about policy, teacher capability, digital content, data and AI, connectivity, procurement and long-term financing. These decisions were often being made under tight budgets, uneven infrastructure and rapid technological change.

DELP was co-designed by Cambridge, UNICEF and the Global Partnership for Education to help leaders analyse and strengthen national digital-education plans, identify gaps and opportunities, and turn shared frameworks into action that made sense in their own contexts.1

Core design question

How could a global programme give leaders useful common frameworks without flattening the policy, infrastructure, institutional and classroom realities of 17 different country contexts?

Digital Education Leadership Programme team in a virtual session
A DELP virtual session with members of the cross-partner programme team. Image also published in Cambridge’s public programme story.

My contribution

Learning architecture, delivery and practical application

The work combined programme leadership with detailed learning design. The aim was not simply to transmit knowledge, but to help participants use evidence and frameworks to make better system decisions.

Shape the learning journey

Helped translate the Six Pillars Framework into a seven-module progression that connected leadership, capacity, content, data and AI, infrastructure and financing.

Keep application central

Supported module activities and a cumulative capstone so that participants tested global evidence against their national priorities rather than treating the programme as a sequence of lectures.

Coordinate specialist delivery

Worked across Cambridge, UNICEF and GPE colleagues, programme specialists and expert speakers to connect technical content, facilitation and participant needs.

Use AI with judgement in the loop

Integrated guided AI-supported research and synthesis where useful, while keeping contextual analysis, verification and professional judgement with participants.

Programme architecture

Seven connected modules

The blended programme combined online learning, question-and-answer sessions, global case studies and live lectures, with added emphasis on AI.1

System transformationNational vision, priorities and systems thinking
Coordination and leadershipGovernance, partnerships and adaptive leadership
Culture and capacityTeacher capability and institutional readiness
Content and solutionsQuality, safety, inclusion and procurement
Data, AI and evidenceDecision systems, governance and impact evidence
Connectivity and infrastructureAccess, resilience, devices and maintenance
Cost and sustainabilityTotal cost, financing and long-term ownership

DELP online learning platform showing the Six Pillars Framework
The DELP learning platform linked each module to the Six Pillars Framework and to practical system decisions.

Programme evidence

Early application in country work

The available evidence shows participants applying the programme to live policy and implementation questions. It is not yet a longitudinal measure of system or learner impact.

UkraineA participant described using the learning to examine links across six strategic goals in the country’s draft digital-transformation strategy.
RwandaA participant described the value of bridging national policy and classroom reality, with stronger attention to sustainable integration and teacher needs.
GhanaA participant described applying shared standards, clearer stakeholder roles and monitoring to align digital-learning initiatives with existing plans and policy.

These examples are reported in Cambridge’s public programme story and are attributed to the participants and institutions involved.2

What I took from the work

Three design lessons

  • Frameworks matter when they structure real decisions. Their value comes from helping teams compare options, expose assumptions and identify the next practical move.
  • Peer exchange is part of the learning architecture. Cross-country discussion helped leaders test whether an approach travelled, what needed adaptation and where common problems had different causes.
  • Sustainability must shape the brief early. Financing, maintenance, governance and institutional capacity cannot be left until after a technology choice has been made.

Attribution: DELP was a collective programme co-designed by Cambridge, UNICEF and GPE. This case study focuses on my contribution as Cambridge’s AI Lead for the programme and does not imply sole authorship of the curriculum, delivery or outcomes. Programme images are used from the public Cambridge story or from the working programme asset set.

Sources and further reading

  1. Cambridge: Introducing the Digital Education Leadership Programme
  2. Cambridge public programme story: Digital Education Leadership Programme
  3. UNESCO: Six Pillars Framework

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