Transcript Stephanie Clark Employer demand-led: does this mean us? Policy Context: a paradigm shift for Higher Education? • Leitch Review • HEFCE Employer Engagement • DIUS higher.

Stephanie Clark
Employer demand-led: does
this mean us?
Policy Context: a paradigm
shift for Higher Education?
• Leitch Review
• HEFCE Employer Engagement
• DIUS higher level skills
strategy: Higher Education at
Work
• HE in FE expansion
Leitch
• Over 70% of the 2020
workforce already left school
• By 2020 40% of adults to be
qualified to level 4
• “Business facing” HEIs
Employers, working with their SSCs, should articulate their
priorities for high level skills and influence the development of
HE programmes to meet their needs.
(DIUS, 2007. World Class Skills: Implementing the Leitch Review of Skills in England)
HEFCE Employer Engagement
• £105 million ring-fenced for employer
engagement and employer part-funded
provision 2008–2011
• Employer co-funded ASNs:
– 5,000 in 08-9, 10,000 in 09-10, 20,000 in 10-11
• £50 million now committed to 17 HEIs to
develop employer co-funded provision
• 2,000 ASNs for LLNs 2008-09
– As individually funded units (to support short
courses for employers)
– Funding transfers from HEI to FEC after 2 years
HEFCE pump priming to stimulate
employer demand, test approaches
and develop capacity in the HE sector
Example 1: Coventry University £3.5m
Work-based learning: combining capability
and competency - for middle managers in
7 large companies
Example 2: University of Bradford £2.8m
Escalate - to bring about institutional
change
Example 3: De Montford University £4.3m
Training with Education - to develop
higher-level skills in the SME workforce
Higher Education at Work
• An “economic imperative” for HE to deliver
the “thinking workforce, working
intelligently”
• Aims:
– To produce more, and more employable,
graduates
– To raise the skills, and capacity, for innovation
and enterprise of those already in the workforce
• A target HE market of nearly 2 million
working people
• A target higher level workforce
development market of £5 billion
From supply-led to demandled provision 1
Employers in the driving seat:
• SSC co-purchasing
• Fdf-facilitated and SSC-mediated employer
consortia – sector or regional-based
• Accreditation of employer in-house training
(first employer tenders out now)
• HEFCE innovation vouchers to incentivise
SME purchase of services from knowledge
based institutions
(Innovation Nation DIUS, March 08)
From supply-led to demandled provision 2
Employers in the driving seat:
• National higher level skills brokerage
service - Train to Gain Plan for
Growth:
– HEFCE-funded clearing house to service
employers’ training needs through
national brokerage, connecting with
named HE co-ordinators in each HEI
– HEFCE-funded pilots for a new
Management and Leadership offer for
SMEs
From supply-led to demandled provision 3
Learners empowered:
• Learner Skills Accounts
• Adult Advancement and Careers
service
What do they want?
Employer
skills
Minimal
work place
disruption
Employee
qualifications
Learning
at/through/
by work
Mentoring /
coaching
Demographic, Economic and
Policy Changes
• 16% drop in 18 year olds
between 09 & 2020
• UK reduced market share of EU
and international students
• Migration of funds for HE
expansion to FECs, and to
employers – as direct providers
Where are we?
• What curriculum and delivery
model is needed?
• What can support sustainability?
• What infrastructural changes
are needed?
Workforce development: the
curriculum model
• Negotiated learning within a quality
assured framework
• Work-based
• Flexible delivery to minimise disruption to
the workplace – beyond traditional “parttime” - distance learning, e-learning
• Short accredited modules
• Credit accumulation, embracing AP(E)L,
credit recognition of employer training and
of short courses, towards an award.
An HE infrastructure to
support WBL
• University Regulatory
Framework?
• Business model?
• Admissions?
• Assessment?
• Endorsement?
• Marketing?
University Regulatory
Framework
• How might this need to change?
• What regs exist to cover WBL and
employer engagement? – eg, what
are the implications of:
– new employer-led workforce
development products?
– working with a consortia of employers?
– delivering off-campus learning?
• Can documentation be reduced to
assist partnership with colleges?
Business Model
Costing model:
• Account managers
• Taking account of the employer and
FE business cycles
• Including benefit in kind for cofunded places
• Product models for cost-effective
development and delivery
Admissions
What is the responsiveness to the
new markets:
• People in employment, largely /
wholly studying off-Campus?
• New migrant market?
Assessment
The traditional academic role: writing
assessments.
How will this change for WBL learners?
• Devising the form in which evidence
of learning is to be produced.
• The projects undertaken by learners
will provide the evidence for meeting
learning objectives.
Endorsement?
• By professional bodies (by
embedding qualifications,
including NVQs and National
Occupational Standards)
• Fdf Endorsement scheme
Marketing
Not just products (“our course
offer”) but services (“We can
accredit your training”).
• Prospectus
– for employers
– for people in work
• Website development
• What else?