Search results

The purpose of this paper, from a work‐based learning practitioner perspective, is to present an insight into some of the challenges, benefits and impacts associated with workforce development and employer responsive provision (ERP). The focus is learning, which is designed to meet an organization's needs and intended for groups of learners to develop their skills, whilst bringing tangible benefits to their organization.

Focusing upon experiences of managing an employer engagement, action research project, which worked with over 40, small and medium‐sized enterprises and more recently working with three major corporate organisations, this paper provides a personal perspective of engaging with organizations. It draws upon primary data from personal experiences and action research of working with employers and learners, and secondary data, such as the Higher Education Impact Study (2008) and the Higher Education Regional Development Agency's Skills for Growth report (2009). After setting the context, this paper will consider ERP and its challenges, in terms of organizational needs meeting academic tradition. This is supported with case study anecdotes, before a consideration of the impacts and benefits of ERP from an organizational perspective.

This paper provides insights into effective ERP and the elements needed to support its success. With probable continued growth in ERP, it is imperative that HEIs with ERP strategies understand the associated challenges and benefits. It suggests that in order to promote sustainable ERP activity, HEIs will need to consider a more strategic approach concerning the staff engaging in ERP activities.

From a work‐based learning practitioner perspective, this paper presents an insight into some of the challenges, benefits and impacts associated with workforce development and employer responsive provision (ERP).

This paper draws together current thinking on ERP with practice‐based application and understanding in order to inform and develop practice. It offers practical insights and experiences which build upon various bodies of literature to present identified elements necessary for successful engagement with employers. As the literature around ERP at present is fairly small, this paper offers a valuable insight into successful practice, building usable models for people working in this field.

The purpose of this paper is to contend that collaboration between employers and universities in the design and delivery of programmes of work-based study is an effective way to align the higher-level skills needs of employers with the aspirations of individuals who wish to gain university qualifications in the workplace. In mapping the fluctuations of UK higher-level skills policy through workforce development to degree apprenticeships it is argued that the facility for employers and universities to co-design and develop degree apprenticeship standards should be extended to the development of Higher Apprenticeships in England.

The paper provides an analysis of a broad range of higher education (HE) skills related UK policy documents to map the fluctuations in policy that underpin the opportunities for employers and universities to collaborate in the design and delivery of HE programmes in England, including degree apprenticeships.

It is noted that the approach to collaborative employer-university development signalled for degree apprenticeships described in policy documents unhelpfully perpetuates the presumed distinction between “academic learning” and “on the job training”. However, it is also concluded that despite this, the rationale for co-design and delivery should equally apply to the development of all higher apprenticeships to ensure that the expertise that universities can bring in designing and assessing higher-level learning is not unnecessarily excluded from the process.

This paper provides value through its analysis of how the fluctuations of HE and skills policy has affected the basis upon which employers and universities can collaborate in the design and delivery of work-based HE including higher and degree apprenticeships in England. It also seeks to inform HE policy and practice in the development of employer-responsive provision.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the challenges and benefits that arose from the implementation of an innovative example of employer responsive provision, i.e. of a postgraduate programme that is work‐based and designed specifically to meet the needs of the organisation.

The approach is to outline the principles and challenges involved in designing a postgraduate programme that combines both scientific and personal/professional development in a way that is extremely unusual. In order to achieve this, in addition to assessment of technical scientific skills, it was necessary to integrate pedagogy that would support critical reflection on wider professional practice into the programme. The use of reflection on practice adopted an approach which is not familiar to the scientific community.

Adoption of reflection on practice introduced particular challenges for programme design and delivery that required those involved to review their own practice critically. This provided particular challenges in the context of a scientific community, due to the required change in perspective. However, now the programme is established, it appears that the inclusion of critical reflection has provided the organisation with some additional benefits and unexpected observations.

The originality value of the paper derives from two elements. One is the consideration of a programme that integrates a technical scientific perspective together with reflective practice. The other is in the indication from the outcomes that such a combination may be of demonstrable organisational benefit. Evaluation of the organisational benefits of work‐based learning (as opposed to the individual benefits) has in the past proved challenging.

Work-based learning (WBL) is increasingly viewed as important in students’ higher education (HE) experiences. Drawing from the process of revalidating a Joint Honours in Education (JHE) programme, the purpose of this paper is to highlight challenges involved in ensuring a meaningful placement experience for students that is fully embedded within their course. Primary challenges included the disparate number of subject strand combinations and concomitant career aspirations, wider university requisites on developing Graduate Attributes and student expectations of their placement opportunities. In broadening the scope and number of placement opportunities, the authors simultaneously increased the partnership links with employers to attract increased student buy-in to the opportunities available to them.

This case study utilizes staff reflections, stakeholder contributions and student evaluations to illuminate the process involved in revalidating a JHE programme to incorporate increased placement opportunities. A particular focus is placed on consideration of the tensions inherent within WBL opportunities and the ways in which such experiences can be successfully embedded within a HE degree programme. Whilst the authors are able to report on successful integration of placement opportunities in Year 1, the authors utilize student perspectives to gain understanding of the importance, or otherwise, they place on placements through the duration of their degree.

Whilst placements are widely accepted as a positive feature of HE, inherent tensions emerged from some students who questioned the value and purpose of placements and time away from university. Conversely, employers saw placement and particularly the assessment of students whilst on placement as critical in students’ development into professional workers. The inclusion of placements in HE is therefore problematic, particularly in light of increased tuition fees. This case study, however, suggests that meaningful and disparate placement opportunities can be successfully embedded within each year of an HE degree programme and can be viewed as enhancing the student academic experience.

The paper is located within a body of research that focuses positively on placement/WBL opportunities for undergraduate students, but does raise some emerging tensions linked to the marketization of HE and resulting student perspectives on “value”. Although generic themes can be applied to curriculum design elsewhere, outcomes may be different and linked to differing institutional habituses that influence practice. In addition, this paper reports solely on a single case that has developed a degree course to support the unique needs of its students within a particular context.

The WBL model presented here facilitates student empowerment in tailoring their degree to their interests and career aspirations. It requires effective internal and external partnerships to inform curriculum design and the organization of placements. This paper will therefore be of interest to HE practitioners who are faced with the challenges of providing a broad range of placement opportunities for large and diverse groups of students with differing career aspirations. In addition, it will also be attractive to employers that have strong links with universities and are in the position to influence curriculum design.

The focus on employability and the development of key generic skills is interconnected with structures influencing social mobility. The range of students entering HE and the concomitant expectations on their degree to have “value” in the employment “market” on graduation is becoming increasingly important – particularly for students categorized as widening participation. Offering increased opportunities for placements and linking assessment to work-based competencies can therefore be viewed as an integral part of HE's responsibilities to students.

This case study highlights the versatility of WBL that on one hand, requires the academy to embrace alternatives ways of learning, but on the other hand, creates new and innovative ways of engaging students. In addition and critically, it illuminates an approach to embedding WBL into an overarching degree structure that enables students to tailor their degree to their interests and career aspirations.

The purpose of this paper is to offer an employer perspective on the value of degree apprenticeships (DAs) less than a year after the first apprentices commenced their studies for a bachelor’s degree in September 2015.

This case focusses on one of the first DAs in the UK. It draws on evidence from interviews with HR professionals responsible for the DA in two contrasting companies, an international PLC and a smaller, fast growing enterprise.

Both employers consider that the DA meets recruitment needs in ways that other options do not. They particularly value the ability of apprentices to make an immediate contribution in the workplace. For the smaller employer the university support structures are a significant advantage. Only the larger employer formally input into the curriculum prior to validation but both feel they can tailor content to suit their needs. Both see investing in the DA as excellent value for money.

The value of strong relationships, trust and ongoing dialogue between partners emerges as a key component in fulfilling the need of employers.

The DA model recasts employers as the purchasers of higher education and affords them a key role in developing provision tailored to their needs. Implications of this new model for employers, universities and learners are potentially profound and hard to predict. This case study is based on part of the early stage of a three-year research programme. It provides a unique, early insight into two employers’ rationales for engaging with the DA programme and their initial experiences.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of work-based research projects at postgraduate level. The focus of this paper is to measure the impact of masters- and doctoral-level work-based projects which was the specific contribution of one group of researchers to the Nixon et al.’s (2008) study.

This paper is based on data generated as part of a wider study that examines the impact of work-based learning projects across undergraduate through to doctoral level from the perspective of employers and from the employees perspective. The research study is based on a sample of alumni who had graduated from work-based masters and professional doctorate programmes and their corresponding employers in a UK higher education institution.

At masters and doctorate level the work-based project can often make an impact on the work context and also have a developmental effect on the employee who becomes a practitioner-researcher to undertake the project.

This paper finds that work-based projects are often an investment that companies make that have the propensity to yield tangible business success as well as providing an incentive for key staff to remain in the company and achieve university recognition.

The purpose of this paper is to inform colleagues working in the field of work‐based learning (WBL) about the development of a Post Graduate Certificate in Work Based Learning Facilitation at the University of Chester.

The approach is to describe and comment on the Post Graduate Certificate and to provide comment on the context within which it originated and the rationale for it.

Not applicable other than in the sense that this programme has now been delivered successfully to a number of cohorts.

This is a model for others to consider and an offer to assist others who may be interested in building their capacity to deliver programmes of WBL.

The university believes that, at the time of its development, there was no similar provision available. It is a model that has proved of value in terms of supporting the quality of the university's WBL provision.

The purpose of this paper is to present an overview of the development process and outcomes from a six-year collaboration between Halifax Bank (part of the Lloyds Banking Group) and Middlesex University between 2010 and 2016 in the UK. The collaboration involved the construction of work-integrated higher education programmes that were, from the outset, predicated on clear return on investment criteria for the Bank. One unexpected outcome from the collaboration was the emergence of critical reflection as a valued business benefit that, it is argued, has the potential for significant cultural change within the organisation.

This case study discuses how “productive reflection” can lead to an integrated approach to organisational learning. The study is located in the context of Halifax’s specific organisational objectives established following the banking crash of 2008. Quantitative and qualitative evidence is considered to illustrate the extent to which the “return on investment” criteria established by Halifax have been achieved.

The case study indicates that the challenging business context of the financial crash of 2008 provided the impetus for a sustained collaborative development that allowed the potential pitfalls of restricted learning opportunities to be addressed resulting in an integrated approach to organisational learning. In addition to the organisation’s return on investment criteria being met, there is evidence that the work-integrated approach has raised the prospect of productive reflection becoming part of an emerging learning culture.

The scale and sustained period of the university-business collaboration is unique and provides valuable insight into how an organisation’s learning culture can be affected by a work-integrated approach. In demonstrating the perceived business value of productive reflection, the case presented illustrates how learning can start to become considered as a normal aspect of working life.

The purpose of the paper is to contribute to the debate on the maintenance and enhancement of quality in the emerging landscape of higher education practice and delivery where new kinds of institutional relationships are emerging. Much of the literature describes situations where the risk to quality assurance is relatively low. The example discussed here details how principles of risk management can be used to assure quality where the risk of reputational damage is far greater.

The paper uses a single case study approach.

New and flexible forms of delivery in higher education present opportunities but also the potential for reputational damage so innovative delivery must be matched by a corresponding commitment to quality. This must be embedded at all levels, including tutors. Much of the literature from the perspective of tutors emphasises their experience of quality as a matter of bureaucratic compliance. The case study illustrates that in circumstances where there is a risk of compromise academic tutors can actively engage with a quality enhancement process.

Although a case study of specialised practice there is evidence that increasing numbers of universities are seeking to engage in similar methods. The literature on the implications of these initiatives is comprised of case studies so there is a need for more systematic research which examines practices more broadly. The case study also suggests that the search for quality cultures in HE may fruitfully investigate circumstances where quality has to be fought for rather than assumed.

The paper demonstrates that universities can deliver in flexible and innovative ways which do not compromise their reputation provided they risk assess the implications of each arrangement and develop appropriate procedures and practices at all levels of operation.

The case study is not the first of its kind to be published but it is the first to be published in the context of the quality assurance literature rather than the more specialist work based learning literature. It links developments within that specialist field to more mainstream discourses in the quality assurance literature. It also draws attention of a wider audience to some of the more innovative developments in British HE practice.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the key challenge(s) experienced by employers, employees and academics during work based learning (WBL) programmes at undergraduate level. The idea of academic mentors is proposed as an aid to addressing the challenges common to WBL programmes.

The case study presented in this paper involves a large multinational organisation and a higher education institution, both of which are based in Ireland. Interviews were used to explore the outcome(s) of a WBL programme.

The challenges associated with WBL place demands on the design of curriculum, pedagogy and accreditation. The use of academic mentors can help translate academic knowledge into workplace practice; and address challenges which are common in WBL programmes.

The understanding of best practice in the design of WBL programmes is enriched. A role for academics as mentors is identified and the implications explored.

The success of WBL can be linked to the relationships that form between employers, employees and academics. There is evidence that the academic is central to the development of these relationships.