Held at the Royal York Hotel, Capita was pleased to once again sponsor the
sell-out UVAC Annual Conference.
This year’s event focused on the role of higher education in addressing employer and individual demand for higher level skills. Occurring in the same week as Peter Mandelson’s Higher Education (HE) Framework release, ‘Higher Ambitions’, there was much focus on the role higher education will play in supporting economic recovery.
Key goals identified in achieving this recovery were the engagement of businesses, alongside more flexible study methods for learners.
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A highly anticipated and beneficial component of each UVAC conference is the offering of working case studies, allowing organisations to demonstrate their successes and achievements. This year’s conference was no exception:
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Barry Howarth and Neil Dickinson of eaga (
Employer Action Grants Agency) and Ruth Leggett of Northumbria University provided an overview of how their partnership enabled them to achieve a Masters in Leadership.
Their
presentation outlined benefits of lessons learnt throughout the process of development, from the perspectives of the employer, employee and Universitys.
Dr Philip Frame and Dr Heather Clay of Middlesex University joined John Cunningham of The Recruitment and Employment Confederation to
present how, in just 6 months, they developed a degree programme in Recruitment Practice.
Encountering many challenges along the way, the process demonstrated how responsive higher education can be in problem resolution, whilst also showcasing the success of employer collaborations.
The UVAC Annual Conference also aims to offer delegates a greater understanding of the National Policy Context – particularly poignant this year, as the UK is guaranteed a general election before 2010’s conference takes place. In light of this, each political party’s vision for the future became a very important focus:
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Due to diary commitments, the Minister of State for Lifelong Learning - Further and Higher Education MP, David Lammy - was unable to attend. Instead, Adrian Anderson of UVAC led a session reviewing the
‘Higher Ambitions’ HE Framework.
The session explored various approaches to be taken, such as targeting larger employers,
‘bite size’ chunk delivery and promoting the professional development market, for which HE currently only accounts for 8%. The session also raised concerns over inconsistencies within the paper and channelling funding away from universities and toward employers.
John Hayes, MP - Shadow Minister of State for Education - presented the Conservative stance on the framework paper. John commented that the framework was strong on rhetoric but masked a lack of progress, with an unmet 50% in HE target and unaltered results in widening HE participation.
He outlined the desire to free education providers from bureaucracy and improve initial advice and guidance through the introduction of a national careers service. He also voiced his belief that increasing apprenticeships was the strongest available vocational pathway, targeting an additional 100,000 vocational opportunities in the future.
Overall, the Conference has been reviewed as a great success - thoroughly well-executed with engaging, practical and thought-provoking presentations. Leading innovations and talks to inspire higher education, organisations within all aspects of the industry can undisputedly learn a great deal from UVAC.