Education and Business

SPECIAL REPORT: Education & Business Students first Forging new career paths on campus talent pool Tapping into the vast resources of universities just the job Meeting the training needs of employers

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CONTENTS

CONTACTS

04 overview

room501 ltd Christopher March Managing Director e: chris@room501.co.uk Bryan Hoare Director e: bryan@room501.co.uk George Cheung e: george@room501.co.uk Euan Underwood e: euan@room501.co.uk

The economic importance of training and education in business

08 students first How Leeds Met has placed business readiness at the heart of its offering

12 people powered How training and development has fuelled a Yorkshire success story

14 talent pool Yorkshire’s official universities organisaton opens it doors to BQ

20 fit for work A look ahead to the launch of Yorkshire’s first UTC

23 building a future Report on a newly created game-changing industry apprenticeship

focus on getting fit for work

20 EDUCATION & BUSINESS

SPECIAL REPORT:

Education & Business

WELCOME A quality workforce is crucial to any business and, crucial to the provision of a quality workforce, is a good education system and robust, extensive, up-to-date and ongoing training. In a world where ever-increasing globalisation has intensified competition as never before, Yorkshire’s schools, colleges and universities must play a vital part in ensuring that our young people are equipped with a world class education.

But business cannot wash its hands of all responsibility: it too has a key part to play and must work in close partnership with the world of education to identify what its priorities and requirements are, advertise these to the wider world and, as far as it possibly can, assist the educational sector to deliver them.

In this issue of BQ2 we look at some of the first class work being done in training and education in Yorkshire from school, through university to workforce training. We interview some of the key players to examine the main issues and – more importantly – how these are being tackled. We do this not only to inform but also in the belief that it will stimulate and further a debate which is essentially about our future economic well-being.

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EditorIAL Peter Jackson Editor e: p.jackson77@btinternet.com Andrew Mernin e: andrewm@room501.co.uk Design & production room501 e: studio@room501.co.uk Photography KG Photography e: info@kgphotography.co.uk advertising For advertising call 0191 537 5720 or email sales@bq-magazine.co.uk

room501 Publishing Ltd, 16 Pickersgill Court, Quay West Business Park, Sunderland SR5 2AQ www.room501.co.uk room501 was formed from a partnership of directors who, combined, have many years of experience in contract publishing, print, marketing, sales and advertising and distribution. We are a passionate, dedicated company that strives to help you to meet your overall business needs and requirements.

All contents copyright © 2012 room501 Ltd. All rights reserved.

While every effort is made to ensure accuracy, no responsibility can be accepted for inaccuracies, howsoever caused. No liability can be accepted for illustrations, photographs, artwork or advertising materials while in transmission or with the publisher or their agents. All information is correct at time of going to print, December 2012. room501 publishing Ltd is part of Business & Enterprise Group, the UK’s market leading business improvement specialist. www.business-enterprise.net

BQ Magazine is published quarterly by room501 Ltd.

SPECIAL REPORT | WINTER 12

OVERVIEW

WINTER 12

potent forces Training and education are not just a question of individual fulfilment but economic survival. Peter Jackson looks at how that challenge is being met and what more can be done

Arguments around education all too often seem to be based on the assumption that it is only a question of the benefit of the individual youngster.

That is, of course, highly important.

Everybody deserves a fair chance in life and there’s no greater waste than wasted potential. But the penny has now well and truly dropped that this is not only a political question or one of social engineering. No, the training and education of our young people is crucial to our economic future.

This should always have been obvious. In fact it once was, and our hard-headed Victorian ancestors introduced free compulsory primary schooling with the 1870 Education Act precisely because they feared the growing economic competition of continental rivals such as Prussia which was educating its workforce for the industrial age.

Plus ca change, as they say in Yorkshire.

Now we face fierce competition from the emerging economies of the Far East and China where they take education seriously. If that were not bad enough, UK productivity – output per hour – has lagged behind that of Germany, France and Italy since 2008. In 2011 British workers on average were 20% less productive than the G7 average and nearly 40% less productive than the average US worker.

That’s the biggest gap since they started measuring it in 1990. A great many factors go into a measure of productivity but one of the most important is undeniably the education and skills level of the workforce.

And yet in the UK in general and in Yorkshire in particular we have so much in the way of educational and training assets.

Yorkshire boasts no fewer than three out of 20 of the elite Russell Group of universities in Leeds, Sheffield and York. It is, as we report in these pages, one of the few regions to

A great many factors go into a measure of productivity but one of the most important ones is undeniably the education and skills of the workforce

SPECIAL REPORT | WINTER 12

04

have a partnership structure and collective representation for its 11 higher educational establishments. Similarly West Yorkshire has the West Yorkshire Consortium of Colleges to provide partnership in Further Education.

Clearly there has been a period of some confusion and valuable time may have been lost with the abolition of Yorkshire Forward and then the establishment of the LEPs but now the new structures are in place and connections have been made and lines of communication opened between the new government and enterprise bodies and the education and training providers.

Businesses, colleges, universities and other training providers are working together more closely than perhaps ever before, within the constraints inevitably imposed in a time of austerity. It is also encouraging that new ways are being explored and trialled to give young people an education that truly fits them for the world of work and equip them with the skills available to our overseas competitors.

Perhaps most exciting is the establishment of Yorkshire’s first University Training College in Sheffield which we examine elsewhere in these pages.

If this works, it will give bright, practically minded students a robust grounding in advanced engineering and manufacturing and creative design and media. They will be taught in an atmosphere which is close to the normal working environment and will be working closely with committed employers.

EDUCATION & BUSINESS

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With just 600 places, it is anticipated that those spots will be highly sought after.

This is significant because it will help to dispel that toxic condescension for too long reserved in this country for those doing vocational studies. So, there are encouraging signs but much remains to be done, particularly in the area of apprenticeships.

There is evidence that those who left school as recovery from recession began, found it easier to find jobs, than those who had been a year or two above them at school and who had been unemployed for one or two years.

This should come as no surprise as a CV which shows years without work experience is a major handicap and it is one which is likely to

EDUCATION & BUSINESS

get worse for the individuals concerned.

Furthermore, the scrapping of the mandatory retirement age – however good in itself - is only likely to make matters worse for those at the younger end of the labour market.

The government has said that it wants to see employers making a greater contribution to apprenticeships in future but that is not likely in the present climate.

The government should maintain financial support for apprenticeships for a while longer, to reduce the risk of what is a long term investment for a business.

There is also an argument that apprentice standards should be set to maximise productivity to the employing business,

05

OVERVIEW

reducing unnecessary time spent in the classroom, particularly where this repeats previous learning.

Employers would also like to see greater flexibility to easily transfer an apprenticeship if the original employer cannot sustain the programme. Finally, it would be useful if companies which committed to apprenticeships had that recognised by having it taken into account when public sector contracts are awarded.

These steps combined with some of the initiatives and partnerships that are already underway in Yorkshire would go a long way to closing the skills gap and therefore the productivity gap. n

SPECIAL REPORT | WINTER 12

CASE STUDY

WINTER 12

Tapping into new talent Armstrong Watson accountants and financial advisors have a policy across their 14 offices of taking on A-level school leavers for a programme that focuses on education, training and business Danielle Vaughan and Joe Scott joined the Armstrong Watson Leeds office at the age of 18 in 2006/2007, after completing their A-levels, with the ambition of developing careers in the financial sector.

After being taken on as accountancy trainees, they could work full time but with sufficient time to gain relevant qualifications to progress with Armstrong Watson.

The first step was to undertake an AAT (Association of Accounting Technicians) qualification, a three-year course (which is now 2 years and comprises of only Level 3 and 4) with a commitment of one day every two weeks out of the office with an external training company on study leave.

They were also trained in the different service areas of Armstrong Watson, including audit and tax, to gain vital experience and learn about the business.

Both Danielle and Joe passed the AAT exams to gain this qualification and moved on to study for the ACA qualification over two years to become chartered accountants.

The commitment for this qualification was study leave for one-two weeks at various points throughout the year while also still managing a client workload in their respective departments. Danielle passed her ACA exams in the summer of 2011 and qualified in February 2012.

Joe passed his ACA exams in the summer of 2012 with 81% in his final exam, putting him in the top 2% internationally. He will qualify in February 2013.

Armstrong Watson has achieved much success from this recruitment and training policy and has a number of new trainees training for the same qualifications across the group.

Danielle is now a business services supervisor at the Leeds Office while Joe is a Business Services Senior at the Skipton Office. n

SPECIAL REPORT | WINTER 12

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Armstrong Watson has achieved much success from this recruitment and training policy and has a number of new trainees training for the same qualifications across the group

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EDUCATION & BUSINESS

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INTERVIEW

WINTER 12

The 2012 Olympics were a triumph for London. According to Professor Susan Price, vice chancellor of Leeds Met University, they were “fantastic” for her institution as well.

Some of her reasons for saying this should be obvious. The Brownlee brothers, who took gold and bronze in the men’s triathlon, both trained at the university. Johnny Brownlee, who took the bronze medal, also went to the university as a student himself. Then there’s Jessica Ennis. She may hail from Sheffield, but she did her javelin training at Leeds Met. And many Paralympians took advantage of the facilities the university has already acquired a reputation for.

There were behind the scenes successes as well. “We were the only university whose students had internships at the games,” says Price. “Over 60 of our event management students were assistant events managers there, helping full time events teams, and in one instance managing a whole event because of a crisis the main event manager had.”

One thing that she clearly doesn’t think enough people know about is that the Olympic torch, which inspired tens of thousands of people on its journey around the UK in the lead-up to the games, was designed by an alumnus of Leeds Met, Edward Barber.

“We were able to give Edward an honorary doctorate for that,” she says.

So, clearly a summer to remember then. But Price sees it as an added bonus, and certainly not a be all and end all. “There are many other successes going forward,” she says.

“Our success isn’t predicated on the Olympics,

delighted though we are with that.”

The key thing she wants to focus on is what the university can deliver itself. That clearly involves building links with business. “The idea that business is anathema to university doesn’t apply here,” she says, and she goes on to talk about the positive feedback her organisation has had from many employers about the quality of its students.

“One of the things employers comment on who are looking for a bit of expertise for a short time is how the students are work ready,” she says. “They can tell it’s a Leeds Met student they have working for them.”

But for Price, the key determining factor in all such work is not necessarily what the business wants, but is first and foremost what the student needs. Shortly after she took over the role of vice chancellor in 2009, she sat down with key senior management to devise a strategic plan for the development of the university over the next five years. She certainly had her ideas about what should be in it.

“The quality of our student experience is at the heart of everything we do,” she says.

The plan includes five themes, of which the first is “Putting students at the centre of our activities and providing a flexible and relevant curriculum with excellent teaching and learning”. Among other things, this involves ensuring that “when we recruit staff new to higher education teaching they can provide evidence of teaching capability, offer high levels of enthusiasm for engaging with students and commit to undertaking appropriate training”. The university is also

committed to “enabling staff to identify and implement innovative approaches to learning and teaching”.

Two years into the plan, Price is very pleased with results so far. “In the national student satisfaction survey,” she says, “Leeds Met has moved up from 69% when I arrived to 83%, which is one of the fastest rises in the sector.

We are in fact the fastest improving university in the region. We also had the sixth highest level of applications of any UK university last year.”

Producing such an improvement, she says, has been very much a holistic process. “We concentrated on everything in the student experience. The learning and teaching is part of that, but it is not all of it. It’s the facilities they have, the culture of support they have, and for us the staff going the extra mile.”

The day before speaking to BQ Leeds Met had run a staff awards night – something Price says is still relatively unusual in the university sector. She was very happy at the amount of enthusiasm there was for student-nominated awards. “That came from when students might have been going through a difficult moment, and staff made sure they could still proceed with their studies,” she says. “People always talk about what a friendly warm experience they have here.”

Such student support Price sees as vital, she says, because of the power to change that a good education can bring. You strongly suspect this is one reason why Price, a lifelong academic, chose education as a career in the first place. >>

Students first

The vice chancellor of Leeds Met tells Peter Baber why business ready students should be at the heart of what her organisation does

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EDUCATION & BUSINESS

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INTERVIEW

We are actually the fastest improving university in the region and had the sixth highest level of applications of any UK university last year

EDUCATION & BUSINESS

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SPECIAL REPORT | WINTER 12

INTERVIEW

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“This is where there is a huge difference between education and what the private sector can offer,” she says. “Right at the core of what we do is offering opportunity. And education transforms lives. Many students are the first in their family to go to university, as I was. Only in those days going to university was seen as elitist. Now we take students, bring them in, support them through to success, and take great pleasure in celebrating that success.”

It is because of her passionate belief in such powers that she is disheartened by some of the media coverage about what is possibly the biggest change to have affected universities in recent decades – the switch to a tuition feebased system.

The first undergraduates to pay the annual fee of £8,500 it will now cost to come to study at Leeds Met started this October. That fee is more than £500 short of the maximum permitted, which Price says was deliberate.

“In terms of indebtedness, students probably don’t see £500 as significant, but to the extent that it makes education more affordable it is important to us,” she says.

She admits that she herself has always been against the idea of fees, but she says negative stories about universities from now on being only available to the rich are very damaging.

“The public has been really misled in parts of the media,” she says, “if not deliberately than irresponsibly.”

The Government itself may not have done a great job in communicating the change, she says, but the fact remains that the change is only a change in the system. Because all students can apply for loans from the Government, universities are still effectively being paid by the Government, just in a different way. These loans also do not have to start being paid off until the graduate can afford to do so, while there are plenty of organisations, including Leeds Met itself, which are providing bursaries and scholarships to help students meet the cost.

The most vital thing, she says, is that these changes should not be presented in such a way that anyone is put off coming to university for financial reasons. “The one choice that no student should ever make is: ‘Can I afford to go to university?’” she says. “That undermines

SPECIAL REPORT | WINTER 12

the whole purpose of education.” She says prospective undergraduates who get as far as applying to come to Leeds Met probably understand what she is getting at.

But there may still be schoolchildren who have been deterred from applying altogether because of the fear of having to pay fees. That is why she and her staff have been going out to speak to schools to encourage more pupils to apply.

The university also plans to become more flexible in offering different types of fees according to what the student needs. “A full time earner who is only wanting to improve professionally won’t necessarily want sports facilities, so we won’t ask them to pay for them,” she says.

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Nonetheless, the fact that students now realise they will have to pay for the tuition must mean they are rapidly becoming more discerning about where they go - and that must mean universities are having to promote their wares far more effectively.

Price agrees. “Our responsibility is to ensure that as students become more discerning, they have the information available to make the right choices for them.”

But she refuses to acknowledge that such activity could ever be described as selling.

“It is all right to make it clear to students what it will mean if they come to X to study Y,” she says. “But I don’t call that selling. Selling is saying: ‘You should come here rather than there because we are so much better than

EDUCATION & BUSINESS

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them,’ without a focus on the student as a learner.”

When I suggest that most people would still describe such behaviour as selling, and that surely prospective students are going to compare universities anyway, she agrees that yes they will.

“Perhaps what I mean is that we don’t hard sell. Hard selling is saying: ‘And therefore you should come here.’ We have been competing but also collaborating with other universities for a long time.

“The newer thing for us is a focus on giving students information they need. When I was a student you didn’t know anything.” And there could be a renewed focus on business in the next few years. Price is setting high hopes on Dr Roger Brooks, newly appointed within the university as its director of enterprise.

“He will be developing a new model of developing provision according to requirements,” she says.

A key part of this, she hopes, will be fostering links with local businesses, encouraging them to use the university’s extensive research assets, through initiatives such as knowledge transfer partnerships, (KTPs).

“Research isn’t difficult,” she says, “but I think we can make it easier.

It’s more about how aware you are of what we do.

“This is where the director of enterprise appointment is very important.”

That is not to say business support is not extensive already. It is. Over the past nine years Leeds Met’s incubation space has helped to support 400 new small high growth businesses, which Price claims has led to the creation of over 1,000 jobs.

One of its more recent successes – the pop group and recording business that is Rudimental – came to give a talk to wannabe entrepreneurs at the university. That, as you might expect, was well attended.

“We are a business focused university, so for us it is as natural as breathing,” says Price. “For us it is not about saying that students who work in here will only work in business, but it is about saying students when they come here will get a training that will incorporate elements that mean they are ready to go into commercial activity.”

EDUCATION & BUSINESS

INTERVIEW

The newer thing for us is a focus on giving students the information they need. When I was a student you didn’t know anything There is increasing opportunity to link up with existing employers too. “We offer a wide range of CPD courses,” says Price, “and we can also tailor provision accordingly.”

Alongside an extensive portfolio of day release courses, the university has been experimenting with evening courses too.

And this year for the first time it is offering weekend postgraduate courses – one in leadership, and one in HR. “You can study for six weekends a year, and achieve your diploma in three years,” says Price.

She adds that there is also rapid development in online learning. The university has what she describes as a unique tie-up with publishing company Pearson offering online MBAs in such subjects as events management. But she is also keen to point out that, in contrast to some recent gloomy headlines, the growth of online learning does not spell the end of traditional teaching in lecture halls.

“I would be astonished if in ten years there weren’t substantial numbers of people who still wanted to engage with the university on a face-to-face basis in a learning environment

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within a learning community,” she says.

‘Enterprise’ is in fact one of three ‘attributes’ that, according to current university policy, all Leeds Met graduates should leave with – the other two being a ‘willingness to integrate’ and ‘digital literacy’. To meet such a challenge, every course across the university has had to be redeveloped to show that its learning includes working towards delivering those attributes.

That could pose a challenge.

After all, ‘enterprise’ is an idea that anyone teaching business studies should be able to instil in their students. But if this policy is to be followed, it should also be an idea fostered by those teaching, say, history. Does this really happen? Price says it does.

“Every course team has to incorporate those attributes in ways that are sympathetic to the rest of the course,” she says.

She adds, too, that the employers have been heavily involved in designing such a new curriculum. Yet more evidence that, while students are at the heart of the university’s focus, business isn’t far behind. n

SPECIAL REPORT | WINTER 12

CASE STUDY

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People powered Close attention to skills development and education has played a central role in the rapid rise to prominence of Yorkshire’s Arena Group, as Andrew Mernin reports Document management firm Arena Group has transformed rapidly since its inception as a photocopier repair business with a team of six in 1991.

The Wakefield firm is now a lead player in an industry which enables organisations to cut costs, improve efficiencies and become greener – and today employs around 150 people across six UK sites.

At the heart of the business’s success, which has placed it firmly on a growth curve for the foreseeable future, is its ability to attract, train and keep the right people.

The company’s training and education strategy is underpinned by its hugely successful Apprenticeship Academy which has welcomed 38 apprentices into the business since the programme was launched in 1994.

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The apprenticeship runs for up to five years and combines training in the latest technologies with customer care and people facing skills, which the firm views as critical to maintaining its reputation for top quality service delivery.

Graduates receive an industry-recognised qualification specialising in IT support, but emphasis is also placed on developing a positive attitude towards customers.

Group services manager Mick Harrison says: “Having the technical competence is just the start of it. Customer handling skills and having the correct approach to fault finding go a long way in this job.”

Currently Arena is two years into a five-year expansion plan that aims to create 70 new jobs by 2015 and open a seventh site in

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the UK to facilitate its growth.

In terms of attracting talent into the organisation, the company’s work with everevolving technology – and its status as one of Yorkshire’s most upwardly mobile firms – has certainly broadened its appeal.

Staff retention is also important, however, and it is an area in which Arena excels, thanks in part to its focus on employee development.

Group HR manager Martin Wright says: “Our staff turnover has always been low and is something we are very proud of and this is reflected in our stability index of 90.6%.

Many of our people have been with us for years and our sickness absence rates are also very impressive, at around 0.8% cumulative.

Usually a private sector business would sit around the 3 to 4% mark.

“All of this speaks volumes about the way our staff are valued, the experiences and rewards they receive and their commitment to the company,” he adds.

Managing director Adrian Fitzpatrick adds: “Staff development is incredibly important.

If your staff leave en masse then your customers are likely to follow.

“Customers really appreciate getting to know individual employees and working with

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someone who knows their business. You can’t offer that kind of service unless you treat your workforce well and keep them loyal to you.”

Unlike many fast-growing businesses, Arena does not have a conventional graduate programme as such, because of its belief that attitude is more important than qualifications.

Progression is offered to high performers across the business regardless of their qualifications, with the company preferring to consider people from all walks of life for its roles.

Engineers are regularly sent on courses led by manufacturers such as Konica, Toshiba, Kyocera and Ricoh to keep them up to date with new technology and machines.

There are plenty of other success stories within the organisation to prove its education and training strategy is paying off.

Seven new managers were recently recruited

CASE STUDY

Staff development is incredibly important. If your staff leave en masse then your customers are likely to follow

or promoted having all gone through training in leadership and people development.

Then there are individuals like one-time Arena apprentice John Crookes who achieved Kyocera top 10 engineer status in 2012, winning the annual competition for all UK dealers. As well as on the job training, part of Arena’s employee development ethos sees staff being encouraged to take part in the company’s corporate social responsibility

programme. Company employees are encouraged to take two annual days out of their normal routine to support a community or charity project.

Ultimately the success of an employer’s staff development programme can be judged by the performance of the business. And at Arena Group, given its ongoing growth, it looks as though the careful attention it pays to its people is reaping rewards. n

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EDUCATION & BUSINESS

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SPECIAL REPORT | WINTER 12

INSIGHT

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Yorkshire universities Yorkshire’s universities represent a huge business resource for the region. Peter Jackson takes a look at the body that represents them

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Yorkshire Universities (YU) is an organisation that has survived where others have not.

Universities in other regions set up bodies to give them a collective representation in working with the Regional Development Agencies, (RDAs).

But when the RDAs were abolished by the Coalition Government in 2010 the regional university bodies were largely abandoned.

But they do things differently in Yorkshire and Yorkshire Universities had been set up some years before the creation of the RDAs. Ian Rowe, head of IDR Innovation, who works with Yorkshire Universities on strengthening links with LEPs, explains: “Most English regions have lost their regional associations. The

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challenge in 2010 was: do we fold now? There are no RDAs so what’s the point, the RDA was a big funder of the universities.

“But the decision was taken not to fold. We decided we would have to work differently but that we would set about developing the same kind of linkages with the Local Enterprise Partnerships. In 2010 it was a bit of a leap of faith and, in many ways, it still is. The LEPs have very little resource and are not able to fund major projects.’’

Yorkshire Universities represents all 11 higher education institutions in Yorkshire and the Humber, ranging from the big researchfocused Russell Group universities such as Leeds, Sheffield and York to smaller providers

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such as York St John or Leeds Trinity.

Vice chancellors of all the universities form a board and meet regularly to discuss ways of adding value by working collectively rather than individually.

“Over the years of working with organisations such as Government Office in the 1990s, the Business Links, the TECs and latterly the RDA we have established a track record of being able to work using those kind of intermediaries,’’ says Rowe.

He points out that the world of business support changed dramatically in 2010 with the election of the coalition government and the abolition of the RDAs. Now the challenge is to engage the universities with the new LEP structures.

One strength of the LEPs is that they have direct business representation on their boards, giving the universities a direct line to business and a ready made network.

Not that the desire to forge these links is a one-way street. Bill Walker, director of knowledge exchange at University of Hull, says: “It’s no coincidence that every single LEP in the country – although they all operate very differently – all have a relationship with

EDUCATION & BUSINESS

It’s no coincidence that every single LEP in the country has a relationship with a university

a university because they recognise it’s about skills provision, it’s about seeing a university as a leader of economic change, not simply as a provider of educational services.

“That’s the real role and universities individually and collectively through organisations like Yorkshire Universities have been very keen to make that transition and to get that message across in recent years.’’

Yorkshire Universities started forging relationships with the LEPs in the West

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INSIGHT

Yorkshire Leeds city region and York and North Yorkshire. We are really pleased that South Yorkshire Sheffield LEP and Sheffield Hallam have come on board and we are working very hard to engage with the Humber LEP in the same way,’’ says Rowe.

“What we are finding is that despite the LEP boundaries the different actors in the organisations see the point in working across boundaries when appropriate.

“When you are trying to provide the best support or technology to businesses you don’t want to be restricted to your local university because there might be a better solution.’’

Yorkshire Universities works on a number of projects where it believes a collective voice for higher education in Yorkshire is needed.

It can also act as a guide to any business seeking to work with a university in Yorkshire.

Walker explains: “Yorkshire Universities could suggest that the best business school for them might be Bradford, or it might be Hull or Leeds or whatever and then put them in touch.

“If they didn’t wish to go to an individual organisation or didn’t know which individual organisation to go to then YU >>

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INSIGHT

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We think there’s a fantastic resource there which isn’t being used by our region’s companies

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can help them out.’’

Yorkshire Universities works with the all party parliamentary group for the North along with leading businesses in lobbying the government on issues and policies relating to the North and Yorkshire.

Apart from the board, the organisation also has an executive management group made of pro-vice chancellors and a knowledge transfer directors group, as well as a chief executive and a couple of office staff.

Rowe emphasises, it is a small organisation and largely works through its members.

He explains: “All the university members have – to a greater or lesser extent – a business support function and business engagement officers promoted through their own websites.

One of the things we are trying to do with the LEP is get a portal that is more of a catchall for businesses so they don’t have to trawl through x number of university websites to find the strongest provider.’’

Inevitably so soon after the introduction of the LEPs much of YU’s activities have been around setting structures and lines of communication, but that is not to say that it has not also been actively working on several projects and is already engaged in business activity. Indeed, they could not be otherwise for, as Walker points out, the universities are major businesses in their own right. University of Hull, for example, is worth some £500m a year to the local economy and nearly 6,000 jobs depend upon the university.

But there are greater and less tangible benefits. “Universities are generally seen as being enablers of new ways of thinking.

Often hard pressed businesses have found it difficult to understand what a university can bring.

“The impression might be: it’s bureaucratic, it’s expensive and they don’t understand the world of business I’m in – it’s all those kind of things,’’ says Walker.

But he points to initiatives such as Hull’s ‘For Entrepreneurs Only’ which has chosen to work with the Enterprise Centre in Hull.

“Individually we are all doing a lot more in engaging with businesses. Straight engagement with businesses is worth £20m a year to this university and businesses benefit a lot more besides,’’ says Walker.

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“We have each got examples of where individual businesses have improved profits, increased productivity and have taken on more staff as a result of a relationship with the university through a whole range of different things. We offer contract research, we offer consultancy, we offer access to very expensive equipment facilities. Then, of course, there’s training and development.’’

Yorkshire Universities is looking at the possibility of giving companies more access to university R&D through the Yorkshire Innovation Fund.

Ian Rowe says: “The intention is that we would be able to support innovation in companies at different levels.’’

There would be a grant to support the first stage of working with universities, to

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support early stage R&D to explore new product or process ideas. Such support would range from early stage £10,000 projects to £250,000 strategic projects. If the Yorkshire Innovation Fund gets off the ground it will be worth £8m, start in 2013 and run for a couple of years.

YU is also putting together a proof of concept fund and making it so that university intellectual property that would not otherwise be developed could be taken up on a commercial basis by businesses.

It hopes to recruit venture capitalists to support this.

Apart from research, the YU also hopes to use students to work with businesses.

It plans to do this by placing graduates in internships.

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INSIGHT

It is also working with the LEPs on their inward investment and export strategies offering internships to overseas postgraduate students.

“We think there’s a fantastic resource there which isn’t being used by our region’s companies that are looking to develop export markets and understanding of different cultures,’’ says Rowe.

So, Yorkshire Universities has no shortage of ideas and ambition to work with business, but, in this time of austerity, much of what can be done will depend on funding.

As Rowe says: “It’s both exciting and frustrating that there are ideas ,and the LEPs and the businesses are saying this is just what we need from the universities, and we are working to try to find the resource to make the things happen.’’ n

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INSIGHT

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JUST THE JOB For employers’ further education training needs West Yorkshire has got its act together, as Peter Jackson reports

Colleges in West Yorkshire are major providers of training to employers, providing courses in everything from agriculture to transport and logistics.

Ten years ago they formed the West Yorkshire Consortium of Colleges to work with the newly formed Learning and Skills Council at the time.

Partnership director Louise Tearle explains: “Also it was felt that by collaboration there might be other opportunities which could be in the lines of research or staff development.

Since then it has developed to work on whatever opportunities lent themselves to collaboration and partnership.’’

This has included bidding for various projects and programmes such as equality and diversity projects and train to gain consortia and large European Social Fund contracts. It has, for example, recently won a £57m contract for work place learning.

Projects are led and run by one member of the consortium and Calderdale College has run the Skills Fund and the Skills Enhancement Fund. The consortium has also been working to develop a relationship with the new Leeds City Region LEP. “As that has emerged we have responded by forming a skills network which includes colleges from the wider city region, not just West Yorkshire but we’ve included our colleagues from the North and the South and have included workplace learning providers

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Partnership director, Louise Tearle and the universities,’’ says Tearle.

“This has formed a network that is responding to the LEP’s skills priorities and we have a strong dialogue and communication going with them.’’

The consortium has met all its targets on the Skills Enhancement Fund which has delivered more than £40m of training to businesses in Yorkshire and Humberside. This covers all levels of training up to MBA. The fund has worked with more than 250 training providers, colleges and partners to deliver part-funded training to employers throughout the region.

Since its launch in 2008, it has supported more

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than 42,000 employed individuals to access accredited qualifications and helped more than 6,000 employers invest in training The consortium is also the managing agent for delivering Work Place Learning, not only in Yorkshire and Humber but also in the North East, North West, East Midlands and West Midlands. The delivery for this is through many colleges and more than 130 private providers working in partnership.

The training is for anybody who is 19 or over and who has not got a Level 2 qualification.

“It’s people who have low skills who might therefore be vulnerable to redundancy so this training has a very heavy emphasis on helping to ensure they are going to remain in employment and even get promotions,’’ says Tearle.

“It’s trying to provide support to employers to give an employee training who will therefore become more valuable to them. “It’s across all sectors: care, construction, we do absolutely everything.’’ The consortium also supports Leeds City Region’s ‘Five Three One’ campaign to help the economy grow by encouraging more companies to invest in skills and training.

The five things that an employer can do are: • Invest more in skills • Mentor a budding entrepreneur • Build links with education • Offer work placements to unemployed people • Offer an apprenticeship The three reasons to do them are: • To help someone reach their potential • The business will benefit • The wider economy will grow

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The one positive outcome is: • our economy grows Companies are encouraged to sign up to Five Three One and then, if they need advice and guidance, the consortium can put them in touch with the most appropriate provider.

Under the Leeds City Region Skills Network umbrella, the West Yorkshire Consortium of Colleges has also held events to encourage training providers to concentrate on what employers need and want, ensuring their curricula are relevant and up-to-date.

Issues surrounding training in West Yorkshire are similar to those in the rest of the country but there are some differences of emphasis.

Tearle says: “Manufacturing is not big in the United Kingdom as a whole but in West Yorkshire, in the Leeds City Region, manufacturing is quite significant so what we

are trying to do here is say maybe we need to make sure we are doing all we can to support and work with that.

“We try to do that for all industries. For example, we have Leeds College of Building

INSIGHT

here which is the only specialist building college in the country.

“At the moment there is a downturn in the construction industry but they are making sure that things are ready for when it picks up.’’ n

One company to benefit from the Skills Enhancement Fund has been Apollo Lighting of Leeds.

The company has increased profits despite recession thanks to the Enhancement Fund Single Business Application.

The business which designs and manufactures commercial lighting and employs 40 people, secured funds to support 25 of their managers, supervisors and administrative staff to undertake computer software training.

The training was to support the implementation of a new computer system aimed at enabling more efficient manufacture and dispatching of products.The training, delivered by Lakeview, was developed for Apollo Lighting Managing director Sue Goldberg said: “As an SME the funding has given us the opportunity to run our business more efficiently and effectively, and during the last 12 months in a very difficult economic climate, we have managed to sustain our market position with record profits”.

Make School Governance Your Business Schools across Yorkshire are looking to skilled volunteers from the business community to ensure their governing bodies are delivering high standards in education. Just like businesses, schools cannot be successful without strong management. School governors control over £80bn worth of public finances.

They recruit high-salaried individuals to perform high-powered jobs. They are strategic managers who set targets and ensure the resources are in place to meet them Recent changes in the education system have been well publicised, most notably the increasing amount of schools converting to academy status. The upshot of these developments is greater autonomy for schools as they gradually inherit power from local authorities. It is essential that there are skilled professionals on governing bodies to manage this increased responsibility.

Dr Ajay Sharman, chair of governors at Parkside Community Primary School and former technical director of Viridian says: “Good leaders and managers are able to take ideas and channel them in ways that really make a difference. That is the value that people from business can add to schools.”

Many leading business people manage to fit their governor responsibilities around a busy work schedule. Contributing ideas to two to four meetings per term helps drive school improvement and allows governors to hold the school to account for its actions. By doing so governors play a crucial role in ensuring the school delivers the highquality teaching and strong leadership that facilitates children receiving the education they need to achieve their aspirations.

Dr Sharman believes that volunteering as a governor is an excellent way

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to foster ties between businesses, schools and the wider community: “Employers have a responsibility to support their employees of the future. There is no better marketing tool for a company than a child coming home to his parents and telling them why he or she wants to work for that company.”

School governance offers the chance to develop a range of transferable skills, such as data analysis, financial management, communication, problem-solving, leadership and teamwork. A recent study by the City of London Corporation shows that no other volunteering opportunity in education allows for such extensive professional development.

There are thousands of vacancies on governing bodies across Yorkshire.

National charity SGOSS is working hard to find volunteers to fill these positions, but it needs more people from the business community to come forward.

If you want to make a substantial and tangible contribution to your local community, then contact SGOSS today! n Find out more information about school governors, or about SGOSS at www.becomeagovernor.com. Alternatively, you can contact Andrew on 020 7288 9541or email andrew.rushton@sgoss.org.uk

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fit for work Employers often complain that school leavers are not ready for work and even if they are numerate and literate they cannot get to work on time.

In Sheffield there is an attempt to address that problem with Yorkshire’s first UTC (University Technical College) due to open in September next year in a purpose-built £8.5m building.

They are specialised colleges, sponsored by a university, offering 14 to 19-year-olds the opportunity to take full-time, technicallyoriented courses. The idea behind UTCs is that they will engage students, particularly those who prefer hands-on practical learning, and turn out the kind of highly skilled job-ready young people that local employers need.

They will allow students to study subjects they are really interested in, in industry standard facilities taught by teachers with real life practical experience.

UTC supporters say that by 16 their technical skills are far in advance of those students in standard comprehensive schools and that they are more enthusiastically engaged with their academic studies.

UTCs are academies and, as such, while state funded, have greater control over their own curricula, hours and teachers’ pay and conditions. They differ from normal academies in that they take students from the age of 14 and there is a guaranteed involvement with local businesses and a university - although many Further Education colleges have similar links.

The university helps develop the curriculum, staff development and allows its specialist facilities to be used by the students.

UTC Sheffield is sponsored by Sheffield Hallam University, The Sheffield College and Sheffield Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

“The UTC is the most radical new education offer in the Sheffield city region for a generation,’’ says Andrew Cropley, chairman of the Sheffield UTC Academy Trust.

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Sheffield is to be home to Yorkshire’s first University Technical College, UTC. Peter Jackson reports “It provides a unique opportunity for young people to benefit from extensive collaboration between employers, universities, colleges and schools to gain a rounded educational experience preparing them for a wide range of future careers.’’

There are two UTCs in England. The first was the JCB academy in Staffordshire which opened in 2010. This September saw the opening of the Black Country UTC in Walsall, in the West Midlands. There are three more in the pipeline – including Sheffield - and the government has approved plans for 13 more.

The intention is that there should be 33 across the country.

Work has started on the £8.5m building in the heart of Sheffield’s creative and digital industries quarter, near to the railway station.

To win approval to set up a UTC the government has to be satisfied there is a need.

“In the Sheffield region it has been identified that there are big growth needs in engineering and manufacturing and the creative digital media quarter and the LEP has shown that there will be up to 6,000 job opportunities for young people if they are educated technically to Level 3 and above,’’ says UTC Sheffield principal Nick Crew. “That’s the driving force behind what we are aiming for.’’

To meet that need UTC Sheffield will offer specialist courses designed with employers in advanced engineering & manufacturing and creative & digital media. These were chosen as being most likely to offer strong career opportunities in the future, locally, nationally and even internationally.

Students will also study a more conventional academic curriculum – GCSEs and A Levels

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– alongside their specialist courses. But all academic learning will relate to employer-led projects with the intention that students will gain the skills and qualifications to open up opportunities for jobs and university courses in their specialist subjects.

Nick Crew gives the example of an engineering student studying for the national diploma at Level 3 who may also be doing maths and physics to A-Level.

“Our partner universities recognise that as an ideal route into graduate engineering,’’ he says. “Or a higher apprenticeship route if they go that way and we have talked to people like Rolls Royce and they regard that as a good combination.

“If they do creative and digital, there’s a bigger blend of subjects they can look at, they could do English and perhaps art and design or product design, those sorts of areas.’’

Students will be offered the chance to study German up to the age of 16, taking advantage of the UTC’s links with Siemens.

“We are going to contextualise the language into the work sector, so the German they will use will relate to engineering or creative digital media,’’ adds Crew.

Every student at the UTC will have a personal learning plan and individual targets with achievement being tracked by stage, not age, so individuals can be fast-tracked in areas where they excel, or receive additional support on topics they find more challenging.

Students will be encouraged to develop self-motivated, independent approaches to their learning as part of a team, every student being a member of a learning company.

These learning companies will compete and

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INTERVIEW

Skill seeker: Nick Crew, principal of UTC Sheffield which opens in September 2013 collaborate on employer-projects and older members will mentor and support the younger.

It is intended that through these companies, students will learn the language and disciplines of business. In addition, all students will complete the new Sheffield Skills Passport endorsed by the Cutlers’ Company and other major employers.

Apart from the sponsors, The UTC Steering Group also includes representatives from: • Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre • Baker Dearing Trust • The Cutlers’ Company • Department for Education • Docfest • Education Funding Agency • Firth Rixson • King Edward VII School • Newburgh Engineering • Sero Consulting • Sheffield City Council • Sheffield City Region Local Enterprise Partnership • University of Sheffield The UTC will also work alongside employers including Tata Steel and Boeing.

Crew explains: “The way in which the students learn, which is unique to UTC, is that it’s very much driven by employers with employer challenges built into each unit of work.

So in terms of studying, the syllabus

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content is enriched by building it around different employers. “Each unit would have a six to seven week project that’s led in partnership between the UTC and employers contextualised to their business setting and they would pose a question around a problem that needs to be solved and the assessment would be based on how the students work to solve that problem.

“The employer would allow the students to come into their work setting giving master classes in the various ways in which companies work. We would have various professionals coming into the class room to guide and support learners. We are embedding employability skills and an awareness of different sectors of employment as they work through the learning.’’

The aim is to make students feel as though they are working in a dynamic business environment. The academic year will be divided into six terms, adding up to 40 weeks.

The day will start at 8.30am and end at 5.30pm (4.30pm on Fridays) to be more in line with a working day.

The college says there will be high expectations for standards of behaviour and personal conduct to reflect a professional environment. This includes a dress code in line with the professional appearance students would be expected to adopt in a business setting. It will be a shirt and tie and a suit for a male and a female will have similar business

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dress – a blouse and a jacket. It’s a smart dress without being a uniform,’’ says Crew. “If they are working in engineering or design they can also have work wear and protective equipment where necessary.’’

The teachers will be recruited to draw on a combination of teaching and business backgrounds. Crew himself left school at 16 and completed a four-year apprenticeship in electrical engineering with British Coal and gained a higher national diploma.

He later studied for a degree and teacher training qualification at Sheffield Hallam University. He was previously vice principal of Outwood Academy Valley, Worksop, and before that, assistant headteacher at Tuxford School, Newark.

Initially there will be 120 places for Year 10 and 120 places for year 12 and, when the college is full there will be 600 students. There will be no minimum entry requirements age 14 but the minimum requirements at age 16 will be 5 GCSE passes at A* to C, including English and Maths for Level 3 courses and 4 GCSE passes at Grade D or equivalent, including English and Maths for Level 2 courses. All Year 11 students in the UTC will have an automatic right of transfer into the sixth form, providing they meet the entry criteria, but each year there will be at least 60 sixth-form places available to external applicants. Students will be drawn from Sheffield, Barnsley, >>

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Doncaster, Rotherham, Chesterfield, Bolsover and Bassetlaw. The NASUWT teaching union has argued that technical colleges will increase the segregation between the academic and the vocational.

But UTC supporters argue that their students also receive a broad education including English, maths and science combined with practical and technical qualifications which are recognised by employers and universities.

Crew points out that the college will only take students from the age of 14 precisely to avoid the danger of specialisation too early.

He adds: “At 14 the UTC starts to contextualise the learning but it still gives a broad and balanced education.’’

Is he afraid there will be a reluctance on the part of 14 year-olds to uproot themselves from secondary schools where they have settled and made friends?

“For 14 year-olds we are starting to develop

new routes of information, advice and guidance and I’m working with all out partner schools in the Sheffield region and I’ve been out to Rotherham, Barnsley and Doncaster talking to different heads of children’s services to look at how I can get impartial, good quality information to students and parents about what UTC is,’’ says Crew “I’m working through schools to get opportunities to engage with young people so we are starting to build a process where I can go to open evenings. It’s key that at 14 parents are involved as well and understand what the UTC is about and look at the travel arrangements.

“The idea in our admissions process is that it’s a regional location with post code allocation to balance the number of students coming from around the region. It’s expected there’ll only be single figures from any one school, that way there shouldn’t be a detrimental effect

on any one institution taking large numbers from them, so we have very good relationships in the area.’’

There is less than a year to go before UTC Sheffield opens its doors and Crew is up for the challenge.

He says: “It’s a fantastic opportunity for young people, particularly those who are really motivated by active learning that’s going to help to develop them in a real life context. It will really bring their learning alive and help to give them a head start. Employers are very excited about it and they say that for a long time they have talked about students having academic ability but not the skills ready for the world of work. They are really buying into this and saying they have got to make sure this is going to work for them in the future because if they don’t get involved to make this work then they have no right to say that young people aren’t equipped.’’ n

Your skills

supporting education Schools benefit from dynamic business people who can help drive school improvement.

Volunteer today and make a big difference to a local school.

www.becomeagovernor.com busquartyork.indd 1

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14/12/2012 10:18:17

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CASE STUDY

BUILDING A PATH TO A SUCCESSFUL CAREER Students and employers across England have been showing their support for the new Higher Apprenticeship in Sustainable Built Environment. The Higher Apprenticeship is a level 5 qualification with three pathways – Construction and the Built Environment, Civil Engineering and Building Services Engineering.

Students will study towards a Level 5 NVQ Diploma in Construction Management (Sustainability) and a Higher National Diploma in Construction and the Built Environment and select Construction and the Built Environment, Civil Engineering or Building Services as a specialist route.

Successful participants will then be able to pursue a career in a range of disciplines including architectural technology, building services, civil engineering, construction management, planning and surveying with as many as thirteen career routes identified.

The framework is initially being delivered through a network of partners across the country: Leeds College of Building, Barnsley College, Bradford College, Grimsby Institute, Hartlepool College, Bristol College, City of Southampton College, Highbury College, Leicester College, Moulton College, New College Nottingham, Oldham College and Stephenson College.

During the development stages various

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councils and employers were consulted, including Mott MacDonald, NG Bailey, Wilmott Dixon, Incommunities, Wood Mitchell Group, Halcrow, David Wilson Homes, RFM Group and many SMEs linked to the Federation of Master Builders and National Federation of Building Contractors.

Several organisations have committed to the programme including Watson Batty Architects, JN Bentley, Aone+, Lovell, Arup, ISS, Mitie, GMI and AECOM. Professional bodies such as the Institution of Civil Engineers, ICE, The Chartered Institution of Building Service Engineers, CIBSE, and The Chartered Institute of Building, CIOB, were also consulted to ensure the Higher Apprenticeship will be able to gain professional institution recognition, as appropriate, across the three distinct pathway routes. Jay Gregson, who works for Toshiba Carrier and was the first person in the UK to enrol, says: “I chose the course because it combines a graduate level qualification with real life work experience which means I’ll receive a salary and avoid the expense and

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debt associated with going to university. It’s exciting to be one of the first people in the country to do the course and I can’t wait to get started.” Lee Firth, technical programme manager at NG Bailey, which has played a key role in the development of the framework says: “This course offers all the sustainability competencies that are key to the future of the industry whilst maintaining the core requirements that are essential in construction management, which makes it a highly relevant framework. There’s no doubt it will encourage new people into the industry and help to produce quality employees that meet the standard academically and can deliver in the workplace.” n If you would like to find out more about how your company and employees could benefit from the Higher Apprenticeship in Sustainable Built Environment then please contact the higher apprenticeship project manager, Sarah Carter, by calling 0113 222 6000 ext 6263 or by emailing secarter@lcb.ac.uk.

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It’s no coincidence that every single LEP in the country has a relationship with a university Bill walker, director of knowledge exchange university of hull