Recent education headlines express the dilemma currently
facing UK higher education. The Council for the Defence of British Universities
launched last week promoting a vision of education for education's sake, with
universities as centres of learning in danger of being shackled by short-term
performance measures and funding models. On the same day, the Engineers
Employers' Federation (EEF) called for a closer alignment of the education and
training system – including higher education – with the needs of the labour
market and employers.
Are universities a key pipeline in the nation's skills
supply route? Should they be pursuing academic excellence and scholarly
enquiry, or fulfilling more prosaic but economically valuable goals? Could they
do both? These questions will be at the heart of next week's Institute for
Employment Studies (IES) conference as part of a discussion of the wider role
of higher education and the ways it might meet employer demand for high-level
skills.
Evidence gathered by the EEF, IES and others demonstrates
the growing demand for high-level technical skills, coupled with the ability to
apply them in a business context across the UK's key growth sectors of the UK.
Technicians and professional engineers are in demand across the digital,
manufacturing and energy sectors, and employers fear that any skills shortages
will be compounded in the future as their existing ageing workforces retire. If
employers can't find sufficient supply in the UK, they will look to locate
their high-end engineering operations abroad – making economic recovery even
more difficult.
Is the UK's education sector keeping pace with demand?
Compared with provision elsewhere in Europe, there are relatively few
well-structured higher education and training programmes below bachelor
degrees. Even at degree level, there are questions about whether courses are sufficiently
aligned with employer needs. We risk leaving students with insufficient skills
or experience to find satisfactory employment and businesses unable to grow due
to the lack of a skilled workforce.
Foundation degrees were supposed to be part of the answer to
this problem and although enrolment has grown, they have not taken off to the
extent originally expected. Some 27,000 students gained a foundation degree in
2010/11, around 5% of all graduates. Alternative higher level vocational
qualifications are even scarcer. Only 1,000 people gained a higher level
apprenticeship in 2010/11 and progression from apprenticeships or other
vocational courses to higher-level qualifications is minimal.
Are we missing a trick here? Offering a clear vocational
pathway to higher-level study and skill development could both further widen
participation and help boost skills and economic growth by offering relevant
vocational qualifications. Our world-class higher education and training system
should be able to design and deliver appropriate courses to meet a variety of
needs without throwing the baby out with the bath water and weakening its
current strengths.
One size of higher education does not fit all. The answer is
surely a greater diversity of provision within – and between – higher education
institutions, with more part-time provision, accelerated degrees and work-based
courses. This would mean funding models, performance indicators and application
arrangements themselves adapting to cope with a wider variety of provision and
the needs of a broader base of students.
If higher education is to work for everyone looking to
develop higher level knowledge and skills, then policy makers, institutions and
staff must also do more to ensure all students, including part-time and vocational
learners, get the same level of support and experience.
Who does higher education work for? What might a greater
diversity of provision look like in practice? Share your thoughts in the
comments below.
Source: 19 November 2012, The Guardian by Jim Hillage (Director
of research at the Institute for Employment Studies)
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