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The purpose of this paper is to examine the changes, including those around Employee Development Planning (EDP) made by training company Options 2, to modernise performance appraisals, optimise employee performance, and enable the company to expand its skills base in order to meet current and future contractual obligations.

Under the guidance of outsourced HR firm, HR Solutions, Options 2 was introduced to an “always available, anywhere” cloud-based EDP and employee performance management tool, Dinamiks.

Benefits around upskilling through training, employee performance improvement, and meeting contractual specifications have accrued. The tool also helped Options 2 be accepted by the National Career Service as a provider of training.

A need was identified to link, more effectively, input (into Dinamiks) by some employees to company objectives. This is viewed as a cultural hangover from the days of paper-based appraisals and is being addressed.

Options 2 makes more effective use of its employees, who are better trained; is better placed to meet current and future contractual obligations; has been accepted by the National Career Service as a provider of training.

Options 2 encourages staff to have interests outside the business and to detail these within Dinamiks in order to build up a picture of the wider social aspects of employees, to their betterment as individuals inside and outside the company.

The “always available, anywhere” aspects, and the comprehensive capabilities of EDP are original for, and of lasting business value to, Options 2.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the national policy context for the development of higher apprenticeships (HAs) and discuss the initial vision and rationale for the University of Derby Corporate's (UDC) High Impact Apprenticeship project.

A critical evaluation of historical policy developments is undertaken outlining the potential for the development of a highly skilled workforce for businesses across all sectors. An embedded case study articulates the application of this learning to emergent thinking on the evolution of a framework and infrastructure to support the development of HAs.

Initial findings discuss the challenges to be faced when developing flexible and sustainable frameworks and highlight areas of good practice encountered to date. UDC's recognised expertise in work‐based learning is applied in the context of curriculum development and specifically the development of the capacity and capability of work based tutors to support learners in the workplace.

Key areas for further investigation within a longitudinal study are identified, which will contribute to the academic discourse in the area and offer insights into the perspectives of the key stakeholders involved in HAs, with a view to identifying and disseminating best practice for all parties.

The paper will be of value to all key stakeholders in the HA partnership: providers, tutors, employers, as well as those charged with the governance of such developments, including Sector Skills councils and NAS.

Starting in the late 1950s with the creation of the National Council of University Research Administrators (NCURA), followed by the formation of other professional organisations both in the USA and Europe, there was a growing sense that research management was indeed a profession. One goal was the creation of professional standards that would lead to a standard training curriculum and, ultimately, a professional credential, and there have been many attempts at developing research administration certification. Now, in the US, accreditation through the Research Administrators Certification Council (RACC) exam has become ubiquitous, whereas in other parts of the world, certification by portfolio is more common. This chapter will compare and contrast the salient features of certification, certificates, and degree programs in research administration and review their development and growth over the past 30 years. The chapter will discuss their relative merits and how they work to advance the profession of research administration.