Memorandum submitted by The Open University
(OU)
INTRODUCTION
1. The Open University is pleased to contribute
to this inquiry into post-16 Skills Training. The OU is already
making a significant contribution to skills development and employer-led
learning, and we believe we have a key role to play in delivering
the recommendations of the Leitch Report for a significant increase
in higher level skills.
2. The Open University (OU) is Europe's
largest university. With our wide range of professional and vocational
courses and renowned open learning methods, we offer flexible
and accessible courses to the individual learner and provide tailored
courses to corporate clients. Every course is based on our ability
to blend learning delivery according to personal or organisational
situations rather than requiring regular classroom attendance.
Most can be studied by those in full-time employment, and are
flexible enough for even the most time-challenged of employees.
Many are immediately applicable to the workplace.
3. In the submission that follows, we have
focussed our attention on the current and potential role of higher
education in developing higher level skills within the workforce.
We have taken as headings the descriptors used in the Committee's
call for evidence.
CONTEXT
4. It is now generally accepted that the
knowledge and skills acquired by young people during an initial
period of further and higher education can no longer prepare them
for a lifetime of work. The pace of economic and technological
change is now so rapid, and the move towards knowledge and skills-based
jobs so pervasive, that everyone will need to update and extend
their skills and knowledge, and adapt to change, throughout their
working lives. This is especially the case in an ageing work force
where skills cannot be replenished solely from intakes of newly-qualified
young persons and where the task of re-skilling will consume a
lengthening period of the lifecourse.
5. The demand for upskilling and updating
will be felt as much in higher education as in other levels of
education and training. Greater numbers of graduates will wish
to re-enter higher education for updating, broadening, and specialist
courses and will do so more frequently. Many non-graduates will
wish to enter higher education late in life, often with support
from employers, in order to develop their skills and experience
and acquire recognised qualifications. This is already happening.
Just over half of all entrants to higher education are now mature
students and more than half of all students study part-time. The
Leitch report, in shifting the higher education target away from
the participation rate of 18-30-year-olds to the level of qualifications
possessed by the workforce as a whole, marks a decisive shift
of emphasis towards the education over the working life.
NATIONAL POLICY/ISSUES
Priorities and Targets
6. Government has a significant role to
play in setting a policy framework for skills-based, lifelong
learning and for articulating a role for higher education. Throughout
the lifetime of the present Administration there has been an overriding
target of achieving higher education participation rates of 50%
amongst those aged 18-30. But this is only half the story. There
is a need, beyond that, to create capacity to update and reskill
our existing "stock" of graduates and to offer HE opportunities
to a larger proportion of non-graduates who are already in the
workforce. The Government needs to take the steer from Leitch
and formally embrace targets that seek to increase attainment
levels across the whole of the adult population.
7. In addition, Government should seek not
only to increase participation but also to widen participation.
The removal of the social class gap amongst those entering higher
education is as much a challenge for the over 30-year-olds as
the under 30-year-olds. Traditional access courses have not proved
universally attractive in attracting older students and there
remains a need for good quality and accessible second chance routes
to higher education, such as those provided by the Open University.
Equally, much more could be done to meet the varied needs of different
workplace learners. It is, for example, a failing of the Leitch
report that it makes scant reference to the different learning
needs of the disabled, the elderly, and migrants, amongst others.
Funding Structures
8. We welcome the steps that Government
is taking to overhaul the system of funding for teaching and student
support so that additional funds can be generated to support the
enhancement and further development of higher education. We are
very disappointed, however, that the new arrangements are concerned
principally with the funding of full-time undergraduate study.
They do very little to help learners wishing to study on a part-time
basis, or institutions seeking resources to provide the sort of
flexible, accessible and innovative programmes that part-time
students require.
9. If lifelong skills-based learning is
to become a reality, it is essential that we construct a funding
framework that supports structured learning in all its forms.
This means that we need to recognise that the distinction between
initial and continuing education, between full-time and part-time
study, and between campus, home and work-based learning is fast
disappearing. A funding system that perpetuates these outdated
and irrelevant distinctions is inappropriate to the needs of a
learning society. It inhibits participation, constrains choice
and precludes the creation of innovative programmes that combine
part-time and full-time elements. Demand-led solutions, such as
the learning accounts advocated in the Leitch Report, are worthy
of further consideration in this respect because their uses need
not be proscribed by person, place, time or mode of study.
The Balance of Contributions
10. Equally, it is essential that all those
who benefit from higher level learning—students, employers,
and society at large—make a contribution towards its costs.
So far the burden has fallen disproportionately on students and
the public purse. It is important that employers make a greater
contribution towards the financing of higher level skills. Currently,
for example, only 17% of OU students receive any help from employers
towards course fees.
11. Nevertheless, it is essential to keep
a proper balance. The recommendation of the Leitch Report that
"at Level 4 and above, individuals and employers should pay
the bulk of the cost as they will benefit most" (p 59) may
go too far in the other direction. Recent research by UUK has
demonstrated that employer support helps mainly full-time workers
from the wealthiest households. Unaffordable costs remain a barrier
to participation for nearly half of all students, and particularly
for part-time workers, low income students, lone parents and women.
12. Moreover, providers of high-cost education
and training need funding mechanisms that will generate a security
of income which will permit institutional investment. The current
travails with the NHS are a timely reminder of the danger of relying
on uncontrolled and inconsistent demand.
SUPPLY SIDE
Sectoral Issues
13. The new emphasis on lifelong learning
and training gives a vital added dimension to university teaching.
It is important that this new role is recognised and built into
the core activities of HE institutions and that university provision
is made more accessible and flexible. We accept the strictures
of the Leitch Report that "Growth of this order is unlikely
to be achievable by trying to expand further the current model
of HE" (p 68).
14. In future, universities will need to
cater for a broader, more diverse student body. Many students
will not have the traditional qualifications for entry. They will
want access to local provision at times which cause minimum disruption
to their life and work. They will seize on the new knowledge media
as a means by which they can construct their own learning programmes
at times and in places that best suit them, using resources from
across the globe. They will look for flexible, modular programmes
of study which offer opportunities to enter and leave at different
points with credits that can be transferred between different
modes and between institutions in different places. They will
place greater emphasis on skills development, vocational relevance,
and value for money. Certificate, diploma and short course opportunities
are likely to be as sought after as degree courses. In short,
there will be a blurring of the boundaries between education and
training, between full-time and part-time study, and between institution,
home and work-based learning.
The Contribution of the Open University
15. The Open University is ready to play
a leading role in the continuing growth and development of lifelong
and skills-based learning. It is already equipped to deal with
large numbers of learners. With 160,000 home students, it is the
largest university in the UK, teaching 35% of all part-time undergraduates
every year. Moreover, the OU's traditional concern for adult students,
including those previously disadvantaged in the pursuit of higher
education, enables it to make a particularly significant contribution
to widening and increasing access for all students, not just those
aged 18-21. Nearly all of its students are aged 21 or over—the
median age of new students is 32; three-quarters are in employment;
one-third have educational qualifications below A level standard
on entry; 17% qualify for financial assistance; and 10% are from
minority ethnic backgrounds.
16. The University's distinctive provision
of supported, open learning, now incorporating new learning technologies
as integral elements of the learning experience, enable it to
respond flexibly and effectively to the demands of an increasingly
diverse studentship. The University offers courses across the
full range of academic subject areas (other then medicine and
the built environment): it is currently expanding its provision
in continuing professional development and it is developing new
pathways for work-related learning. Moreover, the University's
modular approach to teaching means not only that it can develop
qualification routes and awards (certificates, diplomas, foundation
degrees etc) to match employer demand but also that students and
employers can create their own learning programmes from the University's
broad and changing curriculum range.
17. An Appendix to this paper describes
five areas in which the OU is already making a significant contribution
to skills development and employer led learning, vizt:
(b) Credit Rating Employer Learning;
(c) Continuous Professional Development;
(d) Lifelong Learning Networks;
(e) Working with sub-degree providers.
18. Research and scholarship are vitally
important in fulfilling the academic and educational objectives
of the Open University. Research outputs not only make a major
contribution to the intellectual currency of a discipline but
also focus upon key issues affecting the social, political and
economic well-being of individuals, communities, cultures and
nations. In this respect, the OU is able to make a unique contribution
to the transfer of knowledge and innovation to the wider community
because leading researchers are able to reach much larger numbers
of people through The Open University, and through its partnership
with the BBC, than would be possible in more conventional institutions.
19. In addition, The Open University offers
a particular contribution as a provider of part-time routes into
postgraduate research both here in the UK and overseas. Many of
these students would not have been able to access research opportunities
without the unique framework provided by the Open University,
either because they wished to combine work with study—many
part-time students work in government laboratories, specialist
industrial centres and/or small and medium sized enterprises—or
because they do not have access to local centres of research excellence.
It is imperative that these nationally accessible routes into
part-time postgraduate study, and the research capacity that underpins
them, are recognised, protected and nurtured as key instruments
in widening educational opportunity, building research capacity,
and contributing to research, enterprise and wealth creation.
DEMAND SIDE
Raising Aspirations
20. Demand-led change will only work if
employers and employees raise their aspirations. As the Leitch
Report correctly argues: "Individuals must play their part
in a shared mission for world class skills. This will require
a culture of learning to be fully embedded across society, so
that all groups are able to invest in the development of their
skills, driving a step change in participation in skills improvements.
Changing culture will be a generational task, but a change in
behaviour can start today." (p 22)
21. Leitch suggests that the principle prescription
here is the institution of a comprehensive national adult careers
service. This, of course, is extremely important and it is what
the OU has always existed to achieve. But there is more that could
be done, for example in using Open Educational Resources, in conjunction
with electronic media, for awakening the appetite for learning.
22. The Open University has just launched
"Openlearn", the first of the second-generation open
educational resource projects, funded by the William and Flora
Hewlett Foundation. This will make available a broad sample of
curriculum and learning support tools free of charge to national
and worldwide learners. This experiment has the capacity to make
a profound impact on raising aspirations for learning amongst
the socially excluded, and amongst the large under-skilled population
identified in the Leitch Report.
Management of skills
23. Work to raise the skills levels of the
UK workforce will only be effective if managers have the ability
to make use of their employees' new skills. It is by no means
clear that managers have these competences at present. There may
therefore be a need and opportunity for training to be given to
managers by organisations such as the OU Business School in the
development and application of new learning and skills.
CONCLUSION
24. The Open University is pleased to have
this opportunity to contribute to the Committee's deliberations.
We feel we have a unique contribution to make to developing and
supporting the skills agenda in Britain and we stand ready to
play our part.
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