Growing your own graduates: opportunities and challenges for flexible higher education in the new funding environment

1. Growing your own graduates:opportunities and challenges for flexiblehigher education in the new fundingenvironment Dr. Liz Marr, Centre for Inclusion and Curriculum Kevin Streater, Business Development Unit The Open University UALL 2012

2. Contents • Context • Role and purpose of HE in 21st Century • HE and business • RPL • Higher Apprenticeships • Case study – IT sector • Gaps and Challenges • Conclusions UALL 2012

3. Context • Turbulence • Gulf of mutual incomprehension • Treasury at the heart of the system • Creative gales of destruction • Disjunctures: • Stem /humanities • Training/education UALL 2012

4. Role and Purpose of Universities in the 21st Century • Influenced by: • Policy • Technology • Demography • Plurality of provision • Expectations of Students • Stratification • (amongst other things…) UALL 2012

5. The role of Universities • There is a growing realisation ‘of the central role of universities in providing high level skills, a world class research base and a culture of inquiry and innovation. Universities are an essential part of the supply change to business – a supply chain that has the capability to support business growth and therefore economic prosperity’. Sir Tim Wilson, February 2012 • Universities are ‘perhaps the single most important institutional medium for conserving, understanding, extending and handing on to subsequent generations the intellectual scientific and artistic heritage of mankind’. Stefan Collini, 2012 UALL 2012

6. Higher Education and Social goods UALL 2012

7. HEI’s and Business – bridging the gap • Corporate Requirements of a Learning Provider are: • Quality • Speed • Dependability • Flexibility • Cost • Priorities for a University as a Learning Provider are: • Teaching • Learning • Quality • Research • Intermediaries are needed to buffer between these two domains. These can include: • APEL/RPL/APL • Use of training providers as partners. UALL 2012

8. RPL – All roads can lead to Rome • Credit transfer • Direct entry • APEL/APL • Accreditation of Employer & Sectoral Training and CPD • Accreditation of Industry Certificated • Challenge Exams UALL 2012

9. Higher Apprenticeships Significant new development in the higher learning landscape Provides a structure to facilitate the integration of vocational and knowledge based higher education with higher level critical reflection and autonomous decision making skills Fully supports work-based learning concepts UALL 2012

10. Case Study – IT Sector UALL 2012

11. Skills Framework for the Information Age What is SFIA? • A common reference model for the identification of the skills needed to develop effective Information Systems (IS) making use of Information Communications Technologies (ICT). • A simple, logical two-dimensional framework consisting of areas of work on one axis and levels of responsibility on the other. • A common language and a sensible, logical structure that can be adapted to the training and development needs of a very wide range of businesses. UALL 2012

12. Skills Framework for the Information Age What is SFIA? • A common reference model for the identification of the skills needed to develop effective Information Systems (IS) making use of Information Communications Technologies (ICT). • A simple, logical two-dimensional framework consisting of areas of work on one axis and levels of responsibility on the other. • A common language and a sensible, logical structure that can be adapted to the training and development needs of a very wide range of businesses. UALL 2012

13. SFIA Levels • A central component of SFIA are the level descriptors. Each level is fully described in its own right under each of these four headings: • Autonomy • Influence • Complexity • Business Skills • Each level has a short tag that summarises the essence of the level, and a full generic definition that is independent of the skills definitions. UALL 2012

14. Seddon 2005 • Highlights the main barriers to the progression of Advanced Apprentices to higher education, including: • Ignorance as to the composition and status of the frameworks associated with apprenticeships • The quantum change in teaching/learning experienced by vocational learners in HE (shift towards autonomous learning, discursive assessment and disconnect with the work-setting. UALL 2012

15. Why the “quantum change”? • Quite different learning experiences at QCF Level 3 (SFIA Level 2) and QCF Level 4 (SFIA Level 3) • QCF Level 3: • Solving of defined problems • Limited autonomy • Recognisable levels of supervision and directed activity • Assessment of procedural activity • QCF/FHEQ Level 4 onwards: • Solving of complex problems which might be solution-free • Need to orient in complex/competing epistemological systems • Discursive assessment UALL 2012

16. A need for reflection… • There’s a need to recognise the challenges for students in making this transition • Important to also consider why students are making the transition… • Fundamentally it’s about employability (and personal development?) • That being the case we need to consider the nature of two ecologies Higher Education IT Professionals UALL 2012

17. Higher Education • Governed by subject benchmarks and qualification frameworks • Aims to develop self-directed learners with transferable skills suited to employment • IT Professionals • Employment is framed in terms of SFIA • Geared towards the development of tomorrow’s IT Professionals How the ecologies compare… UALL 2012

18. L3 Advanced Apprenticeshipor equivalent level qualification Transition Support Future Higher Apprenticeship Qualification Framework Competency DevelopmentFunctional/Key SkillsEmployee Rights & ResponsibilitiesPersonal LearningLevel 4 HE credit recognition New Module FoundationDegree Mentoring Support Existing Modules Additional Knowledge (level 4 credit) Work Based Learning (level 4 credit) New Module Additional Knowledge(level 5 credit) Existing Modules Honours Degree Masters Degree UALL 2012

19. Postgraduate Certificate in Advanced Professional Practice 60 points Open degree B..834 – Improving your Practice (Module 2) 30 credits – 6 months U..810 – Continuing Professional Development in Practice (Module 1) 30 credits – 6 months Additional related CPD 90 hours (up to 30 hours can be from other defined sources) OU content Three Units of 30 Hours CPD 90 hours Reflective log 70 hours 150 hours Readings and Assessment around taking new knowledge back into practice 50 hours Recognised Training Provision from sector provider. OR Potential 60 points named UG degree (content dependant) OR Readings and Assessment around learning and development 150 hours 300 hours MBA elective OR Potential 60 points Masters (content dependant) UALL 2012

20. The Gap(s) and Challenges • Conceptual • Attitudinal • Financial • Language • Using RPL • The link between the practical and the theoretical UALL 2012

21. Conclusion English government policy is heavily focused on the economic returns of investment in higher education for individuals and for the state and there is a considerable risk of a wider chasm emerging between ‘education’ for one section of society and ‘training’ for the rest. Apart from the moral and ethical issues this raises , the development of higher level practical skills without the ability to critically reflect or make autonomous decisions about their deployment can severely limit their effectiveness and potential to enhance economic performance. Economic benefit cannot be divorced from social good. UALL 2012