Linking London Sixth Annual Conference 2nd July 2012 Sue Betts Director ‘Reflections on Linking London 2011 – 12’

2011 – 12 has been a transitional year into sustainability – from a HEFCE funded Lifelong Learning Network to one based on partners’ subscription, and other funding sources It has seen the expansion of the network from a solely HE/FE partnership to one with a variety of partners It has been a productive year – with most objectives in the Business Plan achieved Evaluation of our staff development work is good to excellent We are a collaborative partnership of six years which works by building on trust and co-operation Linking London

We have 8 types of members to support currently: Universities - Further Education Colleges - 6 th Form College - Adult focused smaller colleges (SDIs and residential) – School, with 6 th Form - Awarding Bodies - Professional bodies - unionlearn - Linking London now!

Working in partnership to create opportunities Linking London

Main work strands of Linking London and Business Plan (11-12) concentrated on 6 main areas: 1.Access Agreements, now including student engagement and success (retention) and data 2.HE in FE 3.IAG 4.Employer Engagement 5.Apprenticeships 6.Staff Development and support

We have organised 21 events (Business Plan promised 10)for partners – involving 400 staff over the year – five of those events have been practitioner groups dedicated specifically to two priorities of the network – IAG and HE in FE We have held individual consultations with 23 of our 27 partners during the year We have published 10 new publications* We have responded to numerous consultations on behalf of partners and lobbied government and policy bodies on behalf of members’ interests Some achievements

One highlight after the last conference was discovering in July that we had been successful in gaining 400K Euros, under the Eramus Programme for our GLAS project, investigating areas of APL, WBL, Social Mobility, Civic Engagement, CPD – all through the lens of gender and class Successful EU funding for the GLAS project

GLAS partners with Baroness Perry at the House of Lords

We have delivered bespoke sessions to staff in our partner institutions on IAG, and progression to HE We have supported partners in their collaborative work by brokering new Progression Agreements and supporting existing relationships* We have increasingly become involved in internal members’ partner meetings, IAG delivery, FDAP etc There has been a subtle shift in our work with partners as we all anticipate the new fee structure Some achievements

In the spring of 2012 another highlight was the successful gaining of £78,000 of funding to run a Credit Accumulation and Transfer (CATs) project in the area of leadership and management We now have eleven partners involved in this project – 2 universities, three colleges and three awarding/professional bodies, plus some new recruits The first Steering Group meets on the 9 th July The CATs project - funding from BIS/SFA and AoC

We have supported institutions in their Access Agreements through providing up to date templates of engagement for the year, held an event with OFFA policy advisers, who are keen to support partners We have liaised on partners’ behalf with numerous organisations, both London wide and nationally We have shared our expertise speaking at regional and national conferences* We have developed MA modules for partners to use for APL and Admissions Staff – to show their competency We have developed an Employer Engagement toolkit to support partners’ work in this area Some achievements

Through the Link – our monthly newsletter, HE in FE our monthly bulletin and the website we provide an information and updating service for the partners We run a Helpline and Advice and Support line – for our partners We link with national experts in their field – SPA, UCAS, QAA We have explored data in progression work and are in the process of brokering a Pan London data service for partners Some achievements

We believe 2011 – 23 has been a good year for the partnership, albeit in difficult circumstances We know there are considerable challenges ahead as we approach the ‘new era’ of HE, and in time FE, but we do believe that collaboratively in partnership we can do more In summary

A ‘new era’ characterised by: Uncertainty

The ‘new era’ characterised by: the new fees regime, admissions targets and accuracy, unlimited AAB students off quota, and quota core and marginal numbers (some FE providers new to HE being directly funded), progression FE to HE, and within FE spotlight on level 3 to 4, particularly for mature learners need for emphasis on teaching and learning, and information for students, re-looking both in FE and HE at staff qualifications. the use of evidence (data)for planning purposes

Reflections Sustainability Awareness of the longer term – collaborative targets Institutions taking much greater responsibility for planning their own destiny The cost of failure is high At the same time therefore we might see the learner journey as something much more carefully defined and supported Could mean a re-emergence or a re-look at more flexible and alternative ways of providing education

Thank you for listening. Sue Betts