Employer Engagement and Work Based Learning: Research Findings for Kent and Medway Compilation of Research Reports June 2008 Contributors Commissioning Editor Dr Mike Nicholls, University of Greenwich Aspect 1 Dr Bethan O’Neil, CM21 Aspect 2 Dr Bethan O’Neil, CM21 Aspect 3 Viki Faulkner, KM LLN Aspect 4 Mandy Hobart, Mirabeth Consultancy and Judyn Mathewman, TRC Ltd. Aspect 5 Mandy Hobart, Mirabeth Consultancy. Key Recommendations Dr Mike Nicholls, University of Greenwich 2 Introduction Kent and Medway Lifelong Learning Network has commissioned the research summarised in this report to provide intelligence on successful models of employer engagement and work-based learning. Five aspects, broad areas of enquiry and review have been identified: 1. What lessons can be learned from Institutions with major work-based learning and employer engagement links e.g. Middlesex, Derby and Chester Universities which have well established work-based learning provision? 2. Criteria for success in the regions, e.g. the NE and NW of England, where employer engagement is more successful than in the SE; 3. The range of approaches adopted by HEIs which have successfully taken up co-funded employer engagement additional student numbers (ASNs); 4. The level of demand in Kent and Medway for higher level (i.e. Level 4 and above) work-based learning, how have employers been successfully engaged locally and what types and modes of learning have been most in demand by employers and employees; 5. The infrastructure that exists in Kent and Medway for employer engagement focused on higher level skills and what opportunities there are for developing it; 6. Key recommendations for enhancement of employer engagement in Kent and Medway emerging from this research will be summarised; Background The Kent and Medway Lifelong Learning Network (KMLLN) is a £3.85m programme to encourage local people to take advantage of vocational and work-based courses to improve their skills and careers. KMLLN is a partnership of 11 higher and further education institutions: Canterbury Christ Church University, the University of Greenwich, the University of Kent, the University College for the Creative Arts at Canterbury, Maidstone and Rochester, Canterbury College, Hadlow College, North West Kent College, Mid Kent College, South Kent College, Thanet College and West Kent College1. The core partners are part of a wider stakeholder network including key local, regional and national organisations. KMLLN’s Development Plan2 sets out the Network’s priorities to 2009. The employer engagement project relates to the identified priorities for the work- based Learning, CPD and training strand of the Plan. From a sector perspective KMLLN has identified five broad priority sector groups, with 1 http://www.gre.ac.uk/pr/articles/latest/a1357_-_kent__and__medway_lifelong_learning_launch [accessed 19/2/08]. 2 Kent and Medway Lifelong learning Network Development Plan 2007 – 2009, KMLNN, October 2007. 3 activities for each sector led by one of the partner institutions. The priority sectors are: • Health and social care, and education (led by Canterbury Christ Church University) • Land-based and sustainable futures (Hadlow College) • Culture, hospitality and tourism (University College for the Creative Arts) • Built environment, manufacturing and engineering (University of Greenwich) • Business administration and finance (University of Kent) While the Network’s activities are expected to focus on these broad sectors, there is also scope for development of services in Biosciences and Transport and Logistics, along with other emerging sectors with higher level skills needs. Employer engagement forms a key part of Government policy on higher level skills, a key aspect of which is, “progress towards a new relationship between employers and higher education”3, alongside broader moves to raise the level of workforce skills at Level 4 and above. Recent research for the Department for Innovation Universities and Skills (DIUS)4 provides valuable insights into the nature of employer demand for higher level learning, which informs the research design set out in this proposal. This research suggests that: • There are multiple employer markets, but they are largely latent, low demand and high risk at present. In general terms HE is not “set up” to deliver to this market. • This latent market is released when higher education providers and employers work closely together, with communication being the key to generating knowledgeable supply and demand. • Higher level provision is changing, demonstrating greater accessibility, flexibility, adaptability, integration and responsiveness to employer needs, and relevant to the context of professional practice in the workplace. • In bringing about the required “step change” in HE’s role building direct relationships between HE, employers and employer organisations will be critical. 3 DIUS Grant Letter to HEFCE, January 2008, http://www.hefce.ac.uk/news/hefce/2008/grant/letter.htm [accessed 19/2/08] 4 Higher Education for the Workforce: Barriers and Facilitators to Employer Engagement, Dr Marilyn Wedgwood, Manchester Metropolitan University, January 2008. http://www.dfes.gov.uk/research/data/uploadfiles/DIUS-RR-08- 04.pdf [accesses 19/2/08] 4 While this report’s focus is on Higher Education, a similar picture of employer demand emerges from research into the Further Education sector. Research by the former Learning and Skills Development Agency (LSDA)5 identified six factors that encourage employers to use colleges, including: • Access to national qualifications, especially when related to legislation, professional requirements and regulation, or to aid recruitment. • College responsiveness, with providers being flexible, finding solutions to companies’ problems, adapting provision and offering solutions with the right training, content, format, location and time. • Good relationships, developed over a long time and which employers are keen to maintain. Existing research, therefore, suggests that employer demand for work based higher level learning is best assessed through a combination of: • Understanding data on economic and related skills trends, providing evidence on the likely scale and nature of demand. This can best be done using existing data sets for Kent and Medway, and published sources, such as research related to Sector Skills Agreements and Sector Qualifications Strategies produced by the Sector Skills Councils. • Building a qualitative picture of current and future demand as seen by those closest to it, i.e. providers who are successful at developing employer relationships and meeting their needs, and intermediaries, such as Train to Gain skills brokers. 5 Exploring Employers’ Perceptions of Employer Engagement, Maria Hughes and Barry Smearton, LSDA. 5 Aspect 1 - What lessons can be learned from Institutions with major work-based learning and employer engagement links e.g. Middlesex, Derby and Chester Universities which have well established work-based learning provision? 1.0 Introduction Universities play a key role in the UK economy, generating over £45 billion of output a year6. Yet, the Leitch Review7 called for a more demand-led skills system in UK further and higher education, and set the challenging ambition of more than 40% of the adult population being qualified to higher skill levels (Level 4 and above) against the 29% attainment in 2005. This means 530,000 people a year qualifying compared with 250,000 currently – a target that the Leitch Review of Skills set as an imperative and not an option in order for the UK to be able to compete in the global market. The Kent and Medway LLN has commissioned some brief research to draw more widely from experience and practices across the UK and particularly at the Universities in Middlesex, Derby and Chester that have major work-based learning and employer engagement. Secondly it is an aim of this chapter to look at the criteria for success in the regions, particularly in the North East, where a view was posited that employer engagement is more successful than in the South East. The objective is to inform the Kent and Medway Lifelong Learning Partnership and its constituent members in terms of work based learning and employer engagement and from the scoping study to put in place a renewed plan to tackle the opportunities and challenges that apply in the South East and in the Kent and Medway region in particular in working with employers to meet workforce development needs. The biggest challenge in implementing the recommendations from the Leitch Review surrounds an understanding of what it is exactly that employers want and what they will pay for, how much they will contribute and the value of in- kind contributions to workplace learning and the skills needs of the future. The main areas that are explored in this piece of work are focused on identified successful models of engaging employers and workforce development and the lessons learnt in supporting the capacity of the sector to understand the issues. This chapter therefore addresses: Scoping primary sources on key issues, approaches and practices in employer engagement and work based learning Identifying the different approaches through illustrative case examples Exploring and explaining approaches and methods used to promote disseminate and sustain successful employer engagement and work based learning. These will hopefully assist the trajectory of how higher education institutions and further education colleges in Kent & Medway can best position