Workforce Development and Accreditating Prior Learning

1
Workforce Development and Accreditating Prior
Learning

• Professor Simon Roodhouse
• Chief Executive

2
What is Workforce Development?

• In higher education, workforce development is
  often described as work based or work related
  learning and increasingly recognised as a field
  of study.
• Defining workforce development as workbased
  learning enables higher education in particular
  to incorporate the learning people do, for, in
  and through work
• (Costley, C, 2001)

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Higher Education Involvement

• Higher education has been highly successful in
  developing and delivering entry to work
  programmes, that is qualifying people for work at
  all levels.
• However, continuous professional development,
  retraining, part-time provision, learning
  diagnostics, assessment and certification, all
  work based, remain marginal.
• Why is this, when the case for the national
  economic and social demands for a highly skilled
  national workforce are as strident as ever?

4
The Workforce and Higher Education

• Succeeding generations of employers are still
  marooned in tedious development project steering
  committees whose proceedings take place in
  academic jargon.
• Frustrated academics are still struggling to
  secure placements and projects with the very
  companies who are lambasting the quality of their
  graduates work readiness.
• ( Butcher, V, 2002)

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Why Should Higher Education Engage?

• Learning through practical experience
• Workforce skills development
• Part of government 50 HE target
• 1.3m in work with level 3 qualifications
• Progression from level 3 Apprenticeships
• Tomlinson Review, 14 19 yrs and Skills White
  Papers
• Response to regional business needs
• Part of wider HEI employer partnerships
• Central to HEI missions

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What does it need?

• Mutual HEI and employer benefit
• Learner centred approach
• Flexible delivery of learning
• A robust system of assessment and accreditation
• Flexible qualification systems
• New qualification structures
• QCA framework
• National occupational standards
• Foundation degrees
• A national validation system - NVC

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The Higher Education Role

• Provider of lifelong learning
• Provider of degree level vocational education and
  learning
• Works closely with the professions
• Works locally , regionally, nationally and
  internationally
• Engages in research to support businesses
• Repository of vocational knowledge, and skills

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A national work-based recognition system

• The UVAC Quality Mark developed jointly
  byUVACNational Council for Work Experience
• To provide national recognition for HEIs,
  industry, students and employees to indicate high
  quality vocational provision meeting national
  industry and HE specifications for
• -Foundation Degrees,
• -Graduate Apprenticeships,
• -Professional Development

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A national validation system

The recently published Skills White Paper
Getting on in Business, Getting on at Work
provides the context we want to examine how
employer-delivered HE training could be better
supported, We will start by funding some
demonstration projects, supporting universities
and colleges to work with major employers to
validate delivery of HE training in the
workplace, and provide those elements that
require off-site training or specialist teaching
facilities. (Paragraph 154).
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A Response

• The NVC will provide a national vocational award
  service to meet the needs of public institutions
  and private organisations without degree awarding
  powers and a
• one stop shop for business, industry and public
  bodies for in-company training and
  accreditation,
• centre for the collective development of new
  national vocational awards,
• national framework for credit based vocational
  awards,
• focus for an integrated national CPD and APL/APEL
  service,
• network of progression routes,
• curriculum research and development focus.

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Who Should Pay for What?

• Industry should pay for training and support
  staff to learn
• Employees should contribute time and some
  learning
• The State should pay for learning diagnosis,
  assessment and certification

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What we Need

• Learning Companies
• Lifelong learners
• Flexible Higher Education
• National Validation and Certification
• More qualifications directly designed by
  employers and higher education and delivered in
  the workplace