Employer-HE Partnerships in Work Based Learning What works well and what needs to improve John Mumford

Do employers value skills? Learning is key to many aspects of business – Complying with legislation Raising quality of services Creating new products Increasing efficiency Faster implementation of change Foreseeing problems - but does this mean they want academic partnerships?

Trends in learning in the workplace Individuals directing own career development Outsourcing training and even workforce development Reduced influence of many professional institutes Separation of knowledge transfer from experience Training and teambuilding events getting shorter Dumbing down of words like skills and vocational The pace of everything is speeding up

Learning Process in Larger Organisations Performance problem Upgrade CapabilityUpgrade Mission Improve Process Skills Experience in New Roles KnowledgeBehaviours Formal Training Courses Team building Events How intervention is decided The Organisation The Work Team Upgrade Staff Change Motivation The Individual Where intervention occurs Learning Outcomes

What about employees? Employee–Employer CPD synergy of interest –Trend to personal career management –Attractive to new recruits –Encourages retention –Provides a quality endorsement Some qualifications are valued by employees –Vocational licence to operate –Graduate ‘status’ glass ceiling –MBA ‘brand’ –Post grad linked to leading edge research NB employees are motivated differently to normal students

Differing Learning Management Approaches Assessment and accreditation Teaching & Mentoring Achievement in a real life situation Typical HEI Typical Workplace Strong emphasis on structured formalised course based learning and demonstration of outcomes mainly through formal examination with fine grading Experiential aspects often neglected and usually artificial and outdatedand generally unmeasurable, that is do not count towards the HE award grade Accreditation usually neglected & assessment limited to rating in-job performance Lack of structured reflection and embedding of learning Emphasis on career paths which develop capability through real life experience & achievement Work Appraisal Training & Management Case studies

Types of HE-Employer Engagement Day release and work placement Selling existing HE modules to employers and acting as a provider Adapting existing HE modules to provide tailored course and acting as a provider HE accreditation of courses businesses already run with private sector providers Enabling businesses to manage the whole process by validating their workforce development process

How HEI can engage successfully FECs are better at employer engagement than HEIs…and private sector trainers are even better HEIs do have some competitive advantages –well branded qualifications –the best quality lecturers WBL tends to be a peripheral activity for HEI staff Recognising and assessing experiential learning is difficult The funding arrangements for HEI are a major obstacle Concepts like ‘fine grading’, ‘volume of learning’ and ‘level’ are counterproductive

Conclusions Some things already work well –Traditional Large scale technical upgrade programs –Specialist lectures from top academics –Cross participation in management Opportunities for better engagement in CPD –Linking qualifications to existing learning –More flexible modular provision –Bringing learning management skills in workforce development A role for LLNs to facilitate and broker?