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

1. Employer-HE Partnershipsin Work Based LearningWhat works well and what needs to improve John Mumford

2. 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?

3. 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

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

5. 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

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

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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?