growing your own graduates: opportunities and challenges for flexible higher education in the new...
TRANSCRIPT
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
Re
ad
ing
s a
nd
Ass
ess
me
nt
aro
un
d t
aki
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e b
ack
into
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e5
0 h
ou
rs
Re
flect
ive
log
70
ho
urs
Add
ition
al r
elat
ed C
PD
90 h
ou
rs(u
p to
30
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s ca
n be
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m o
ther
de
fined
sou
rces
)
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.