Organised by:

1. EMPLOYER ENGAGEMENT 13 MAY 2009 THE COMMONWEALTH CLUB How far should universities go to meet the needs of employers? Organised by: In partnership with: Sponsored by:

2. David Sweeney HEFCE Organised by: In partnership with: Sponsored by:

3. Welcome slide

4. Making sure universities meet the needs of employers 13 May 2009 David Sweeney Director Research, Innovation and Skills

5. Overview of talk • HEFCE strategy and how the HE sector is responding: • 3rd stream • Skills • Responding to the recession

6. Higher education meeting the needs of employers – some context • Long history of HE meeting employer needs • Drivers for Government intervention • Lambert review of business-university collaboration • Science and innovation investment framework • Sainsbury’s review of science and innovation • Leitch review of skills • Considerable investment in HE infrastructure • Short term versus the longer term

7. Evidence of HE meeting the needs of employers • Higher education – Business and Community Interaction Survey (HEBCIS) • Overall income from employers/business is increasing • HE infrastructure is increasingly directed towards meeting employer needs • Examples of HE-Business integration • Over one third of members on HEIs’ governing bodies are from business • Employers are actively involved in curriculum development across 80% of HEIs • CBI’s ‘Stepping Higher’ report • ‘Standing together – helping businesses in the downturn’

8. HEBCIS 2006-07Total income by partner 2003-2007 (real terms)

9. HEBCIS 2006-07Income by activity and partner 2006-07

10. HEBCIS 2006-07Selected HE-BCI income streams 2003-2007 (real terms)

11. HEBCIS 2006-07Selected infrastructure indicators 2000-2008

12. HEFCE’s ‘third stream’ strategy • Increasing the contribution that HE can make to developing the economy and society • Investing in HE infrastructure though the Higher Education Innovation Fund (HEIF) – to increase the impact of the ‘knowledge base’ • Providing evidence on the progress and benefits of HE’s contribution to the economy and society

13. HEIF 4 – Scope of third stream funding • Support for the Third Stream agenda since 1999 leading to Higher Education Innovation Fund (HEIF4) allocation of £400 million in 2008-2011 (more than £1bn in total). • Support and develop a broad range of engagements Not only private sector – also public sector and charities, community groups etc • Through knowledge and expertise exchange • Enterprise activities - result in economic and social value • Alongside and integrated with research and teaching

14. Skills policy - delivering change for the long term – our goals for 2008-11 • Transformational development of the HE sector aiming for a third or more of English HE providers involved in shared investment workforce development with employers • 35,000 additional entrants to HE, backed by employer investment alongside public funding • Increase Foundation Degree enrolments to at least 100,000 by 2010

15. Employer Engagement Fund - progress • £148 million across 60 lead universities and FE Colleges from 2008-09 • 10,700 new co-funded places in 08/09; 18,700 in 09/10 • 30% average rate of employer co-funding – rising to 50% by 2010/11 • Supporting long term strategic relations with employers

16. Good progress but challenges remain • Evaluation of 3rd stream • Supply-side and demand-side barriers continue to constrain knowledge exchange interactions • CBI skills survey • Barriers were reported that constrain greater engagement between universities and business • CFE research • The untapped market for skills • A rapidly changing environment

17. Changing economic circumstances • Increased unemployment • Large employers (e.g. car companies) • Shrinking or halting production • Desire to hold onto a skilled workforce • Graduate employment more challenging • Fight for survival (SMEs)

18. HEFCE’s Economic Challenge Investment Fund (ECIF) • Short-term, flexible funding to respond to local individual and business needs in the downturn • 78 proposals, £28 million funding: • 21 collaborative • 57 single institution • Leveraging £32 million matched funding • Over 51,000 people and 11,000 businesses being supported April 2009 to Sept 2010

19. Examples of ECIF funded activities • Increased unemployment • Cranfield University – Retraining unemployed STEM-qualified professionals to work in other sectors • Large employers • University of Hull - Short courses and workshops in key manufacturing skills • Graduate employment • University of Cumbria – IAG service to 500 unemployed and ‘at risk’ graduates • SMEs • University of Exeter – A student and graduate task force employed by the university to support SME innovation

20. Summary • Considerable investment in key areas in HE to address the needs of employers/businesses • Diversity of responses across HE that reflects: • Types of employers • Sectors of the economy • Diverse HEI expertise and missions • Dynamic period of development and significant opportunities • To be successful requires increased engagement from businesses

21. What does the future hold? • Tighter fiscal environment • A greater emphasis on employers and individuals: • Taking responsibility for their own needs • Driving demand for higher level skills • The HE sector needs to deliver • And needs to be seen to deliver

22. Derek Longhurst fdf Organised by: In partnership with: Sponsored by:

23. Derek LonghurstChief Executived.longhurst@fdf.ac.ukwww.fdf.ac.uk

24. Work-based learning • ‘Authentic and innovative work-based learning is an integral part of Foundation Degrees and their design. It enables learners to take on appropriate role(s) within the workplace, giving them the opportunity to learn and apply the skills and knowledge they have acquired as an integral element of the programme. It involves the development of higher level learning within both institutionand the workplace. It should be a two-way process… Work-based learning requires the identification and achievement of defined and related learning outcomes’. • Foundation Degree Qualification Benchmark (QAA2004) emphases added

25. Principles • Integration: defined outcomes • Engagement with workplace • Knowledge and skills • Two-way process • Level

26. Leitch Review of Skills 3.26 ‘A more highly-skilled labour force will enable businesses to innovate further, taking advantage of new technologies and ways of working in order to improve productivity and capture new markets.’ Prosperity for all in the global economy – world class skills (2006)

27. A challenge for higher education to address preparation for : • Jobs that don’t yet exist… • …using technologies that haven’t been invented… • …to solve problems we don’t even know are problems yet

28. Leitch Review of Skills ‘In the 21st Century, our natural reserve is our people – and their potential is both untapped and vast. Skills will unlock that potential. The prize for our country will be enormous – higher productivity, the creation of wealth and social justice.’ Prosperity for all in the global economy – world class skills (2006)

29. Leitch Review of Skills • 3.56 ‘Concentrating too much on younger age groups could create further longer term problems for the amount and the use of high level skills in our workforce…’ • Prosperity for all in the global economy – world class skills (2006)

30. Leitch Review of Skills ‘Skills are a key driver of fairness; unequal access to skills has contributed to relatively high rates of child poverty and income inequality in the UK. There are clear links between skills and wider social outcomes, such as health, crime and social cohesion.’ Prosperity for all in the global economy – world class skills (2006)

31. A political economy of high skills formation • Consensus • Competitive capacity • Capability • Coordination • Circulation • Cooperation • Closure • High Skills (Brown, Green and Lauder, 2005)

32. ' To develop skill requires a good measure of experiment and questioning: mechanical practice seldom enables people to improve their skills. Too often we imagine good work itself as success built, economically and efficiently, upon success. Developing skill is more arduous and erratic than this...Most people have it in them to become good craftsmen...Even if society does not reward people who have made this effort as much as it should, in the end, they can achieve a sense of self-worth.....' Richard Sennett, The Guardian (2 February 2008)

35. Higher Education: Professionals (Robert Reich) • Abstraction (theorising and/or relating empirical data to theory, and/or using formulae, equations, models and metaphors) • System thinking (see the part in the context of the whole) • Experimentation (intuitively or analytically) • Collaboration (involving communication and team-working skills) • Employability: What It Is - What It Is Not (Mantz Yorke, 2004)

36. What is work-based learning for employers? • Problem-based learning • Innovative capacity • Autonomy, motivation and self-management • Team work and communication • Personal and organisational performance

37. Principles of work-based learning • Workplace learning: context and curriculum • Transdisciplinary knowledge • Currency and level • Employee-centred or trainee employee centred • Flexibility in relation to the work and learning environment • Responsiveness

38. Purposes of work-based learning • Theorising practice/practising theory • Evaluative thinking • Systems thinking • Personal, Professional and intellectual development • Employability competence in context

39. Institutional ‘barriers’ to work-based learning Senior Management strategy Staff capability Lack of staff development strategy Lack of cross-institutional debate (silo-sitis) Lack of understanding of clients/markets Assessment practice – AP[E]L Lack of responsiveness and long lead times Risk, collaboration and inappropriate funding models

40. National growth in Foundation degree student numbers

41. Who teaches Foundation degree students?

42. Environment Agency • In 2003 identified a shortage of skilled Technician Engineers • Developed a Foundation degree as part of a formal training scheme for new recruits • Trainees based throughout the UK – Foundation degree delivered by e-learning and residential blocks • Foundation degree addresses skills shortage and produces graduates that ‘hit the ground running’

43. Foundation degree students: challenging our preconceptions? “I didn’t know what a Foundation degree was. If I’d know about this before I would not have done my degree. This opportunity is too good to be missed” “Doing a Foundation degree is very different to doing a degree. I spend most of my time in a work environment…the Foundation degree is more intense and it is hard work…but I’m much more motivated than I was when I did my degree”

44. “I learn something new from every aspect of the degree. I am more confident in my abilities and more commercially aware of the wider retail industry.”Alex Cave, Duty Manager at Tesco

45. “I feel sure that the degree will improve my career prospects and open up new opportunities. I used to suffer from a lack of confidence – I feel that the course has now given me much more confidence in my abilities and I take on new challenges with a more ‘can do’ attitude.”Kathy Coveney, Tesco Compliance Manager

46. The autonomy of institutions '...HEIs are very ambivalent about autonomy. We pay excessive lip service to the idea but we are also hooked on earmarked funding. Lots of university leaders won't do what they know they should unless, and until, there is a special fund to support it. And they stop as soon as the so-called initiative ends. This can lead to a very curious inversion of institutional priorities. The thing that we assume to be most important becomes not the first but the last call on our institutional resources.' Sir David Watson, Who owns the university?, QAA Briefing Paper - Quality Matters, November 2008