Hugh Tollyfield, MIoDHigher Education Funding Council for England

Special Adviser, Employer Engagement

Leitch Follow-up EventFriday 15 February

*Dr Marilyn Wedgewood -Report to DfES (2007)“Employer Engagement-Barriers and Facilitators”

What do we mean by aworld class workforce?

“A thinking, educatedworkforce -

working intelligently”*

Two Key UKGovernment Reports

‘Leitch’ Review

“Prosperity for allin the global

economy -World class skills”

(HM Treasury Dec 2006)

‘Sainsbury’ Review

“The Race to the TopA review of the

Government’s scienceand innovation policies”

(HM Treasury Oct 2007)

Two Strong ThemesAcross the Reports

Business-HEPartnerships

• Strategic Engagement• Research partnerships

• Business Improvement• Knowledge exchange

• Demand Responsive• Consultancy

• Enterprise Development• Supporting spin-outs

High QualityWorkforce• Strategic Demand

• STEM and post-graduates

• Graduate Employability• Generic and vocational knowledge and skills

• Demand Responsive• CPD

• More people at HE level• Include non-graduates

UK workforce skills in a global economy

Leitch Review (Dec 2006)* “The Review has concluded that the UK must commit itself to a world class skills base in order to secure prosperity and fairness in the new global economy.”

‘The Prize’– Economic Prosperity– Increased Social Justice

Driven By– Increased productivity– Improved employment

*HM Treasury, Final Report of the Leitch Review of Skills (December 2006) “Prosperity for all in the global economy – world class skills”

Leitch Review – Ambitions for 2020

Working age adults in 2020:

– 95% to be functionally literate & numerate (2005 base - 85% and 79%)

– 90% or more qualified to at least Level 2(2005 base - 69%)

– Shifting the balance of intermediate skills from Level 2 to Level 3 with 1.9 million more people achieving Level 3 by 2020

– 40% or qualified to at least Level 4 (2005 base - 29%)

Sustainable growth in GDP per head/per hour

IncreaseProductivity

(Output per worker)

IncreaseEmployment

(Adult economic activity)

Productivity Drivers

Enterprise Skills Competition InvestmentInnovation

The Drivers of Productivity

Moving Ahead

Comprehensive implementation plan*:– UK Commission for Employment and Skills– Sector Skills Councils– Vocational Qualifications– Diplomas– Apprenticeships– Train To Gain – The Skills Pledge– Universal adult careers service– New Legislation

*Cmn 7181(July 2007) DIUS “World Class Skills: Implementing Leitch Review of skills in England”

The Leitch challenge for HE“World class high skills, exceeding 40% of the adult population qualified to Level 4 and above.” (By 2020)

• Everyone of working age

• Shared responsibility for funding – employers, individuals and Government

• Focus on economically valuable skills

• Demand-led rather than centrally planned

• Adaptive and responsive to market needs

• Building on existing structures.

The economic contribution of HEUK HE is worth £45 billion to the economy on a public investment of £15 billion.

Income in 2005-06 from:

• Collaborative research - £440m

• Contract research - £555m

• Consultancy - £200m

• CPD - £335m

And mainstream HE already a major supplier of an economically valuable workforce.

Where the focus of HE is critical:

More than 11 million adults in work, most of whom won’t progress to HE unless we innovate, gain the commitment and investment of employers, and take HE into the workplace.

* Working Age ‘000s

Level 4+

%

Level 3

%

Level 2

%

UK 34,306 30.0% 19.5% 20.5%

Eng. 28,752 29.9% 19.3% 20.4%

*DIUS Labour Force Survey 2006,Q4 – Working age adults 19 to 59/64

• SSC collaborative projects, including Cogent, Summit, GO Skills, LLUK Skillsmart and others;

• Joint projects with major employers across the range of skills and qualification levels;

• Development of employer-led consortia, including rail, utilities, aircraft maintenance and bio-pharmacy;

• Partnership with British Chambers of Commerce – now 8 SME focused projects;

• Innovation in accreditation of in-house training and qualification frameworks

FDs have led the way in employer collaboration with HE:

Meeting the challenge:

Growing the new market of employer co-funded provision for people in work who may otherwise never experience HE through:

• Part-time and short course accredited modules/units

• APEL, progression and credit accumulation

• Validation of employer in-house training and shared delivery with employers

• Innovation in teaching and learning delivery.

We shall be spending more than £100m on a programme of action research: to test employer market for higher skills, increase employer investment and building the HE response to supplying it; together with building new capacity and capability in the HE sector.

“HE transforming workforce development” Programme 2008-11:

Our goals for 2008-11

• 20,000 extra entrants to HE based workforce development in 2010-11, backed by strong employer investment alongside public funding (5,000 in 2008-09 and 10,000 in 2009-10)

• Transformational development of the HE sector aiming for a third or more of English HE providers involved in shared investment workforce development with employers

• Increase Foundation Degree enrolments to at least 100,000 by 2010

• A new funding process to support future growth

Co-funding…In return for innovative, flexible, customised provision which responds to business and workforce needs - we ask employers to pay towards the cost:

– Not the full cost. HEFCE will contribute half of what it would normally pay for a mainstream funded learner;

– Therefore an employer only pays only the difference between the amount of the HEFCE funding and the HE provider’s price for a learner on that provision;

– An HE provider delivering employer co-funded provision should develop a sustainable cost/price model which will at least cover its costs through the combination of employer and HEFCE funding contributions.

How might employers pay?

• Contribution towards capital and recurrent costs of provision (e.g. shared funding of joint venture operation);– Or cost sharing through agreed division of teaching, supervision,

assessment and premises between provider and employer• Pay agreed price ‘per employee’ or ‘per course’;• Contributions/payments in cash or in kind or a

combination of both;• Other possibilities not listed here

The over-riding principle will be one of sustainability. HE providers will be expected to develop sustainable cost/price models for employer focused provision which do not require the continued input of development funding in order to survive.

HEFCE Funding 2008-11Employer Engagement Fund• At least £105m over 3 years• Operated outside mainstream funding arrangements• Ring-fenced within our Strategic Development Fund• Two components

Employer Engagement Capacity Fund• Contributes towards a provider’s set-up and early stage

fixed costs associated with an employer engagement transformational project

Employer co-funded provision fund• Fixed - funding for a core of provision • Variable - easy access to funds to meet higher demand

HEFCE Development Funded projects - breaking new ground – the first steps

• Coventry University– Organisational development inside major national

and international organisations

• University of Hertfordshire– Creating the “Business Facing University”

• London South Bank University– Central employer engagement unit brings together

all employer an business services in one place

• Salford University– Transformational programme, creating a university-

wide workplace learning infrastructure for business

HEFCE Development Funded projects - breaking new ground – the next steps

• University of Leicester– Integration of workforce and organisational development for medium

and large enterprises, through responsive and flexible provision• University of Derby

– “UoD Corporate” offers comprehensive business improvement, customised skills development and lifelong learning services

• De Montfort University– Enabling SMEs to grow and prosper through customised knowledge and

skills packages• Thames Valley University

– Onsite workforce development for companies on three of the most economically active business/industry parks in the UK

• University of Bradford– A progressive programme to create learning organisations in the public

and private sectors