Growing your own graduates:opportunities and challenges for flexiblehigher education in the new fundingenvironment

Dr. Liz Marr, Centre for Inclusion and Curriculum

Kevin Streater, Business Development Unit

The Open University

UALL 2012

UALL 2012

Contents

• Context• Role and purpose of HE in 21st Century• HE and business

– RPL– Higher Apprenticeships

• Case study – IT sector• Gaps and Challenges• Conclusions

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Context

• Turbulence• Gulf of mutual incomprehension• Treasury at the heart of the system• Gales of creative destruction• Disjunctures:

– Stem /humanities– Training/education

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Role and Purpose of Universities in the 21st Century• Influenced by:

– Policy– Technology– Demography– Plurality of provision– Expectations of Students– Stratification

• (amongst other things…)

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The role of Universities

• There is a growing realisation ‘of the central role of universities in providing high level skills, a world class research base and a culture of inquiry and innovation. Universities are an essential part of the supply change to business – a supply chain that has the capability to support business growth and therefore economic prosperity’. Sir Tim Wilson, February 2012

• Universities are ‘perhaps the single most important institutional medium for conserving, understanding, extending and handing on to subsequent generations the intellectual scientific and artistic heritage of mankind’. Stefan Collini, 2012

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Higher Education and Social goods

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HEI’s and Business – bridging the gap

Corporate

Learning Buyers

Intermediarie

s

Universities

Corporate Requirements of a Learning Provider are:• Quality• Speed• Dependability• Flexibility• Cost

Priorities for a University as a Learning Provider are:• Teaching• Learning• Quality• Research

Intermediaries are needed to buffer between these two domains. These can include:• APEL/RPL/APL• Use of training

providers as partners.

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RPL – All roads can lead to Rome

• Credit transfer• Direct entry• APEL/APL• Accreditation of Employer &

Sectoral Training and CPD• Accreditation of Industry

Certificated• Challenge Exams

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1. Significant new development in the higher learning landscape

2. Provides a structure to facilitate the integration of vocational and knowledge based higher education with higher level critical reflection and autonomous decision making skills

3. Fully supports work-based learning concepts

Higher Apprenticeships

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Case Study – IT Sector

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Skills Framework for the Information Age

What is SFIA?

1. A common reference model for the identification of the skills needed to develop effective Information Systems (IS) making use of Information Communications Technologies (ICT).

2. A simple, logical two-dimensional framework consisting of areas of work on one axis and levels of responsibility on the other.

3. A common language and a sensible, logical structure that can be adapted to the training and development needs of a very wide range of businesses.

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Skills Framework for the Information Age

What is SFIA?

1. A common reference model for the identification of the skills needed to develop effective Information Systems (IS) making use of Information Communications Technologies (ICT).

2. A simple, logical two-dimensional framework consisting of areas of work on one axis and levels of responsibility on the other.

3. A common language and a sensible, logical structure that can be adapted to the training and development needs of a very wide range of businesses.

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SFIA Levels

A central component of SFIA are the level descriptors. Each level is fully described in its own right under each of these four headings:

Autonomy Influence Complexity Business Skills

Each level has a short tag that summarises the essence of the level, and a full generic definition that is independent of the skills definitions.

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Seddon 2005• Highlights the main barriers to the progression of

Advanced Apprentices to higher education, including:

1. Ignorance as to the composition and status of the frameworks associated with apprenticeships

2. The quantum change in teaching/learning experienced by vocational learners in HE (shift towards autonomous learning, discursive assessment and disconnect with the work-setting.

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Why the “quantum change”?

• Quite different learning experiences at QCF Level 3 (SFIA Level 2) and QCF Level 4 (SFIA Level 3)

• QCF Level 3:– Solving of defined

problems– Limited autonomy– Recognisable levels of

supervision and directed activity

– Assessment of procedural activity

• QCF/FHEQ Level 4 onwards:– Solving of complex

problems which might be solution-free

– Need to orient in complex/competing epistemological systems

– Discursive assessment

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A need for reflection…• There’s a need to recognise the challenges for students in making this

transition• Important to also consider why students are making the transition…

– Fundamentally it’s about employability (and personal development?)• That being the case we need to consider the nature of two ecologies

IT ProfessionalsHigher Education

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How the ecologies compare…

• Higher Education–Governed by subject

benchmarks and qualification frameworks

–Aims to develop self-directed learners with transferable skills suited to employment

• IT Professionals–Employment is

framed in terms of SFIA

–Geared towards the development of tomorrow’s IT Professionals

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Future Higher Apprenticeship Qualification Framework

Masters DegreeMasters Degree

 

Transition Support

L3 Advanced Apprenticeshipor equivalent level qualification

Competency DevelopmentFunctional/Key Skills

Employee Rights & ResponsibilitiesPersonal Learning

Level 4 HE credit recognition

 Additional Knowledge (level 4 credit) Additional Knowledge (level 4 credit)

Men

tori

ng

Su

pp

ort

 Work Based Learning (level 4 credit) Work Based Learning (level 4 credit)

 Additional Knowledge (level 5 credit) Additional Knowledge (level 5 credit)

Honours DegreeHonours Degree

FoundationDegree

New Module

New Module

Existing Modules

Existing Modules

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U..810 – Continuing Professional Development in Practice (Module 1)

30 credits – 6 months

150 hours

300 hours MBA elective

Potential 60 points named UG degree

(content dependant)

Potential60 points

Masters (content dependant)

60 points Open degree

OR

OR

OR

Readings and Assessment around learning and development

150 hours

Postgraduate Certificate in Advanced Professional Practice

B..834 – Improving your Practice(Module 2)

30 credits – 6 months

OU content

Three Units of 30 Hours

CPD

90 hours

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Recognised Training Provisionfrom sector provider.

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The Gap(s) and Challenges

• Conceptual• Attitudinal• Financial• Language• Using RPL• The link between the practical and the theoretical

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Conclusion

English government policy is heavily focused on the economic returns of investment in higher education for individuals and for the state and there is a considerable risk of a wider chasm emerging between ‘education’ for one section of society and ‘training’ for the rest. Apart from the moral and ethical issues this raises , the development of higher level practical skills without the ability to critically reflect or make autonomous decisions about their deployment can severely limit their effectiveness and potential to enhance economic performance. Economic benefit cannot be divorced from social good.