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 demand-led 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 demand-led 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 demand-led 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 workMentoring / 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 “part-time” - 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 co-

funded 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?