Government reform of Higher EducationWritten evidence submitted by the Edge Foundation

Summary

Higher education serves several functions, one of which is to prepare people for the world of work or help add to their skills and knowledge during their working lives.

There should be opportunities to develop new centres of vocational excellence in higher education. One model is the Edge Hotel School, which will open in 2012 as a joint venture with the University of Essex and Colchester Institute. Students will learn through immersion in the working life of a top-quality hotel, supported by professional and academic practitioners.

Many further education colleges provide excellent higher education opportunities. We offer the example of Coleg Morgannwg, which won this year’s Beacon Award for Practical Teaching and Practical Learning.

All higher education institutions (HEIs) should show how they help students develop the wider skills which employers look for. A forthcoming research report by the SCRE Centre at the University of Glasgow recommends that employability should be at the centre of HEIs’ strategic planning, and that this should be encouraged and rewarded by future HE funding mechanisms. All departments – including humanities – should take a structured approach to work placements, internships and work-based learning opportunities for their students.

It is increasingly important for people to be free to access higher education in ways and at times which meet their needs and ambitions. This should include easier access to work-based higher education.

The 2009 Skills Commission report, “Progression through Apprenticeships”, examined opportunities for more apprentices to progress to higher education. The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills should work with partners to overcome a number of barriers, including:

Lack of awareness and understanding of apprenticeships on the part of admissions tutors.

Lack of knowledge and awareness of HE on the part of apprentices.

The need for apprentices to develop additional skills before accessing HE – for example, essay-writing skills and (for some programmes) advanced maths.

About Edge

1. The Edge Foundation is an independent educational charity dedicated to raising the status of practical, technical and vocational education. The Foundation is sponsor of the Bulwell Academy (Nottingham) and Milton Keynes Academy, and has provided support in cash and in kind to support the development of University Technology Colleges, Studio Schools, the Edge Hotel School (with the University of Essex and Colchester Institute), and work-based higher education. We have also commissioned research, including a report on universities’ efforts to help undergraduates develop skills for employment.

Many Paths to Success

2. Edge believes there are many paths to success. In relation to higher education, this means people of all ages should be able to access HE programmes in places, in ways and at times which meet their current needs and support their future ambitions.

3. We have a particular interest in HE which helps people develop the skills and knowledge needed for work – that is, vocational higher education. We fully recognise that this forms only part of HE’s mission, and we have the utmost respect for study and research not directly related to the workplace. For the majority of HE students, however, preparation for work is one reason (sometimes, the main reason) for enrolling in the first place. It is therefore vitally important that they benefit from the best possible experience, geared to their current and future needs.

4. We are equally clear that there is a huge amount of good practice in this field. Vocational higher education has an outstanding track record, dating back to the earliest universities and carried forward through the 19th and 20th centuries by universities, polytechnics, colleges of technology and others. Today, good practice can be found not only in universities, but also in further education colleges, distance learning and the workplace.

5. Edge believes that a mixed economy is vital. We would be especially concerned if universities reduced support for HE programmes delivered by FE colleges, as this is often cost-effective, high-quality provision which meets the needs of local people and their employers.

6. We welcome the Government’s commitment to equitable funding and fees for people enrolled on part-time HE courses. This is long overdue.

7. In the sections which follow, we emphasise the importance of:

(a)Centres of vocational excellence in HE, such as the Edge Hotel School (a joint venture with the University of Essex and Colchester Institute) and Coleg Morgannwg;

(b)HEIs’ contribution to students’ employability skills;

(c)Work-based higher education, and

(d)Helping apprentices to move onto HE programmes when they are ready.

Centres of Vocational Excellence in HE

8. Edge believes students should have the opportunity to study at degree level in a centre of vocational excellence endorsed by employers. Centres of vocational excellence may be set up by a university, a college of further education or as a new, stand-alone facility by (eg) an HEI from outside the UK; a group of employers; or a private or third sector provider.

9. To demonstrate our commitment to centres of vocational excellence, we are working with the University of Essex and Colchester Institute to establish the Edge Hotel School.

10. In many parts of the world, future leaders of the hospitality industry are trained and educated in specialist hotel schools which are open to the public as paying guests. There have been attempts to set up similar schools in the UK, but none on the scale of counterparts in Switzerland, France or the United States.

11. Supported by a grant from Edge and in partnership with Colchester Institute, the University of Essex is redeveloping Wivenhoe House, a grade 2* listed hotel building sited on the University’s Colchester campus. When it opens in 2012, the hotel will operate entirely commercially, but with the significant difference that it will be run by students. Operating in 12–18 strong Butler Teams, student practitioners will experience and learn from all aspects of the operation of a commercial hotel, under the guidance of industry-experienced professional practitioners employed by the hotel alongside academic practitioners from Colchester Institute. These innovative work-based programmes have now been recommended for approval through the University validation process.

12. Direct, hands-on “learning by doing” will be supplemented by integrated academic development. Each calendar year will be characterised by rolling multiple entry recruitment. Student practitioners will be in study for three 14-week trimesters – much longer than standard university terms – which means students will leave the Edge Hotel School after two years with a fast track honours degree qualification in hospitality or culinary management plus the skills to be "work ready" for the industry.

13. Leaders of the hospitality industry are closely involved in all aspects of the development. We believe the Edge Hotel School will provide a template not only for other hospitality schools, but for centres of vocational excellence across a range of other sectors of the economy.

14. A further example of vocational excellence can be found at Coleg Morgannwg, in Rhonda Cynon Taff. The college won this year’s Beacon Award for Practical Teaching and Practical Learning, sponsored by Edge. The Award recognises excellent practical teaching that results in students having learning experiences that are real, meaningful, challenging and life-changing.

15. Coleg Morgannwg has strong links with theatre and film production companies and won the Award for a course developed to meet an industry need for higher level practical skills in costume construction. During the course, students produce costumes for theatre and screen productions and benefit from working alongside professionals in theatre, dance, screen and opera companies.

16. The experience of working alongside clients, including designers, actors and models, is invaluable in developing their understanding of the sensitivities involved with fitting garments on real people and of the financial and practical constraints involved in the industry. Most students go on to complete the full BA degree programme at university, while the remaining students take up jobs in the West End, in TV and in film work.

17. In addition to the Edge-sponsored Beacon Award, Coleg Morgannwg was awarded the Association of Colleges’ President’s Award by the President of the AoC Charitable Trust, Lord Willis of Knaresborough.

The Importance of Employability Skills

18. As noted already, we fully respect study and research which is not directly linked to the world of work. However, Edge believes all HE institutions should show how they help students develop the wider skills which employers look for.

19. Given the importance of this topic, we made a grant available to the SCRE Centre, University of Glasgow, so they could investigate employers’ perceptions of the employability skills of new graduates, and the steps which HEIs take to develop them. Their report (to be published shortly), makes a number of important findings and recommendations.

20. The research team found that:

(a)Employers expect graduates to have the technical and discipline competences from their degrees but require graduates to demonstrate a range of broader skills and attributes that include team-working, communication, leadership, critical thinking, problem solving and often managerial abilities or potential.

(b)Employers generally believe that universities are less than responsive to their needs and the needs of the wider economy. There was a perceived lack of systematic practice to promote employability across HEIs.

(c)Placements, internships and work-based learning opportunities are an effective way of providing university students with relevant employment skills, knowledge and awareness of employer culture.

(d)Graduate award programmes (offered by a growing number of HEIs) appear to be highly valued by graduates and employers, but the extent to which these are embedded across the sector is uncertain, and there seems to have been little systematic evaluation of them.

(e)Some HEIs do not see employability as an important part of their mission.

(f)Some academics are concerned that employability measures in their universities diminish the academic integrity of higher education. However, there is no reason why this should be the case.

(g)Some employers are frustrated that HE courses do not meet their needs. Employers say that even when they serve on HEI committees, their views on course design are often disregarded.

21. Recommendations include:

(a)Employability should be at the centre of HEIs’ strategic planning, both centrally and at the level of individual faculties and departments.

(b)Careers services in HEIs should be given more responsibility (and resources) to develop employability activities at faculty and departmental level.

(c)Funding mechanisms such as the Research Excellence Framework should be used as a lever to encourage HEIs to develop their students’ employability skills and attributes.

(d)One of the most crucial measures HEIs can adopt to promote employability is a structured approach to placements, internships and work-based learning opportunities of significant duration. Some of the more vocational and business-orientated courses already make good use of these approaches, but humanities courses should also make greater use of placements and internships.

(e)Employer membership of HEI committees should not be a token measure: academic staff should be prepared to listen and respond to employers’ ideas about course design, content and delivery.

Work-Based Higher Education

22. It is increasingly important for people to be free to access higher education in ways and at times which meet their needs and ambitions. We are particularly interested in work-based higher education.

23. Work-based higher education is not new, and the benefits are increasingly understood. A comparison of Foundation Degrees in England and Higher National Certificates and Diplomas in Scotland found, for example, that students in both countries regard work-based learning (WBL) as very important. The same was true of employers in sectors with a long tradition of valuing higher education. On the other hand, employers in some other sectors appeared reluctant to devote much time to WBL, and more particularly, to formal assessments of their employees’ knowledge and skills. This suggests that HE providers need to help employers with the delivery of WBL, sometimes down to quite a fine level of detail.

24. The obstacles were also explored in a 2006 report published by the Higher Education Academy, “Work-based learning: illuminating the higher education landscape”. For example, HEIs need to know more about the needs of employers, and how to encourage them (and their employees) to engage in higher level skills development. The report also points to the importance of understanding “what works” in work-based learning, and what this means for pedagogy. Thirdly, the report said there was a need for a trans-regional credit-based system for learning at a higher level, to encourage transparency, transferability and consistency across the UK HE sector. We believe it would be timely to re-visit the HEA’s report and recommendations.

25. As part of our commitment to work-based HE, Edge supported the development of HE@Work, which is now part of the University of Middlesex. HE@Work helps employers enhance their in-house training programmes by working with partner HEIs. This improves staff retention rates and gives people greater access to higher education. For example, HE@Work brought together the Chartered Institute of Educational Assessors (the national body for assessment professionals) and Middlesex University to develop a work-based member and fellowship route incorporating HE qualifications.

26. Despite the barriers mentioned above, we remain convinced that work-based learning should play an increasingly important part in the overall HE landscape in the years ahead.

Apprenticeships

27. It is important that people with vocational qualifications are able to access higher education. Lifelong Learning Partnerships have made excellent progress, not least in relation to people with BTEC and equivalent qualifications. However, more needs to be done to enable apprentices to progress to higher education.

28. Edge sponsored the 2009 Skills Commission report, “Progression through Apprenticeships”, which examined some of the barriers to progression. These include:

Lack of awareness and understanding of apprenticeships on the part of admissions tutors.

Lack of knowledge and awareness of HE on the part of apprentices.

The need for apprentices to develop additional skills before accessing HE – for example, essay-writing skills and (for some programmes) advanced maths.

A lack of evidence of the extent to which former apprentices do, in fact, access higher education.

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills should work with HEFCE, Universities UK, UCAS, the National Apprenticeship Service and others to overcome these barriers.

29. On a wider point, the Skills Commission concluded that HE needs to be prepared to offer programmes which meet the aspirations, skills and learning styles of people who have successfully completed apprenticeships. At the moment, the boot is too often on the other foot: former apprentices have to adapt to the programmes offered by HE providers. Professor Sir Deian Hopkin (then Vice Chancellor of London South Bank University) told the Skills Commission that “The issue is what universities must do to make higher education a better fit for apprenticeships, rather than the other way around. Universities could, for example, offer far more part-time courses, but they aren’t always set up for this type of provision at the moment”.

30. On the other hand, there are examples of HE providers offering Foundation Degrees as part of emerging Higher Apprenticeship frameworks, which are a further way of combining higher level study with skills and experience gained in the workplace. Routes such as these should be further developed and encouraged.

9 March 2011