workplace learning : the student and employer experience professor freda tallantyre, senior...
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Workplace learning : the student and employer experience
Professor Freda Tallantyre,
Senior Associate,
Higher Education Academy University of Wolverhampton,
June 25th 2009
Employability for undergraduates
• Preparation of graduates to enter employment
• Vocational and academic curriculum components
• Incorporation of higher level skills into curriculum
• Provision of work experience : sandwich placements and other
• Incorporation of enterprise/entrepreneurship into curriculum
• Careers guidance
• Personal and professional development (PDP)
Employer views
• 81% thought graduates well prepared for work
• 80%+ large employers thought level 4 good proxy for skills
• Need more business awareness
• Need more science/maths combined with ability to work effectively
• Need better IAG
CBI Study, 2008
Lifelong learning
“Lifelong learning, by contrast, connotes a world of active learners constructing their own knowledge, and seeking out learning resources as and when they need them, in response to the changing circumstances of life and work.”
Ben Knights
Director: English Subject Centre
Higher Education Academy
Academy Exchange, Issue 6, Summer 07, p3
Boud and Solomon, 2001
“Critical reflection is important . . Because it is only through deeper critique that work situations can be improved, workplaces transformed and productivity significantly enhanced. It is about noticing and questioning the taken-for-granted assumptions that one holds and that are held by others. While it can be a discomforting process, it is necessary in all situations that do not involve perpetuating the status quo.”
Web 2 possibilities
Constructivist approach : learning effective when active, by doing, undertaken in a community and focussed on the learner’s interests.
• Blogs : closed to tutor and student or open to peers
• Wikis : content creation by groups of students
• Social bookmarking : expansion of initial reading lists, with scope for commentaries on texts
• Social networking : hosting discussion or project groups and answering queries
• Immersive technologies : role playing, especially in professional courses
Adapted from HE in a Web 2 World, Melville Report, May 09
Motivation for employees and employers
Validate and formalise experience
Open up opportunities for progression
Develop specialist knowledge/expertise
Develop practical skills for performance
Develop staff knowledge, skills, expertise
Support staff retention
Extend in-house training
Invest in biggest asset
Employee and employer wants
Flexibility of content and pace
Credit accumulation
Convenient location
Relevance to work
Compatible learning style
Reasonable cost
Fit with work schedule
Minimal release
Influence workplace change
Link theory and practice
Characteristics of WBL
Task-related
Performance based or issue led
Innovative
Strategic and just in time
Autonomously managed and self-regulated
Self motivated
Team based
Concerned with enhancing performance
Concerned with improving business
Learndirect
Benefits to employees
PersonalIncreased confidenceHigher aspirations/motivationRaised personal statusGreater self awarenessLearning to think and challenge
assumptionsUnderstanding of specific
issuesNew and enhanced skillsReflection on performance
Professional Improved performanceGreater responsibilityChanged jobs/promotionSalary increaseAble to see wider points of viewPositive change in ways of thinking
at workReduce stress and increase
contentmentAble to coach othersProfessional recognition and
membership
Benefits to employers
Clearer direction of travel for organisationDevelop new/improved policies, standards, contractsImproved quality and service provisionIncreased innovationMore self sufficient employeesPositive attitudinal/behavioural changeExternal recognition and prestige
Promoting to employees
You can do it!
No A levels required
Vocational qualifications can get you in.
Current experience and quals may attract credit
No student debt – learn while earn
Emphasis on practical learning
Tailored to your needs
Support at college and in workplace
Personal development bonus
Career development
Professional recognition
Hard work but worth it
Nationally recognised quals
Springboard to further achievement
Promoting to employers
Flexible and tailored to your needs
Motivated and highly skilled employees
Better qualified workforce
Higher staff retention
Meets skills shortages
Fuels business growth
Limits time off job
Projects that improve business performance
You can help design, deliver
Support for mentors and assessors
Good value compared to private sector training
Direct links to further qualifications, progression and CPD
Employer support
Time off to study
Use of resources and access to expertise
Funding full or part cost
Mentors or advisers in workplace
Fieldwork with colleagues
Opportunities to present findings
Designated links personnel to university
Brokerage
• Could interfere with existing good relationships
• Often matches employers needs to providers products in supply driven way
• Traditional TNA does not convey range of flexible support available
• May not know enough about HE services
• May have narrow focus on specific needs, rather than developments opportunities
• May concentrate on the presenting problem, rather than the deeper needs
Large businesses to target are:
• In competitive product markets
• Competing on factors other than price
• Growing in output and/or employment
• Introducing new products or services
• Strategic in their training
Case Study : Employer Engagement
Get Energy brokers relations of energy industries with training providers and universities on an international basis
Convenes strategic exchanges at which all learn about responses to workforce needs and industry developments
Compares governmental and strategic initiatives
Brokers partnership between business and HEIs, but also HEIs internationally
Enables national and regional skills development
Operates in business manner rather than academic conference
SMES to target are:
• In business and professional services
• Employ professional, technical and management staff
• Introducing new products, services, technology
• Undergoing organisational change
• Introducing new working methods
• Are exporting
• Have graduate manager
Case study : Employer Engagement
Creative Collaborations : NTU & Broadway Media Centre
Predominantly sole traders or micro businesses
Nottingham Creative Network – natural networkers - included students, staff and professional employees
NTI funding offered small equipment grants as lure
Structured conferences around issues of concern, with on-line follow-up
Short courses led to p/t MA for creative professionals
Research, teaching and practice interrelate and research feeds into courses
Successful programmes for SMEs
• Critical self-reflection
• Opportunity to learn from experience of peers
• Ability to access large firm’s supply chain or network
• Management skills
• Networking in cluster
• Solving actual business problems
• Using experienced mentors
• Rooted & contextualised in actual workplaces
Preferred processes
• Avoid long chunks of text on screen
• Start with activity, not reading, and use theory to underpin
• Preference for paper documents rather than on screen
• Personalised contact at least once a week
• Rapid response to questions asked
• 3 hrs per week for study
• EL sessions between 45 mins and 2hrs
Stone and Braidford, March 08, for SSDA
Some implications of recession
• Graduate destinations eroded and placements impacted
• Training budgets reduced
• Traditional professions hit e.g. financial services
• Unemployment increases and needs to retrain
• Value businesses prosper
• Export increases
• Companies need support to reorient and upskill
• HE Participation rates increase