Working higher
3 Sep 2010
A consortium of sector skills councils, universities and ’industry champions’ is working with employers to create new sector-specific Working Higher Foundation Degrees (WHFD) for the process industries. The qualifications are to be designed by business for business, with employers shaping the content and delivery.
A feature of the WHFD is that much of content will be delivered in the workplace, so that a learner’s skills and knowledge can be tested on the job. The WHFDs will also accredit in-house training and education, and focus new development on gaps that cannot currently be met. Delivery methods will include on-site delivery, block release and distance learning.
Each of the six industry champions is working with a leading university to develop a sector-specific WHFD. The first two WHFDs - for the polymer and nuclear industries - will be launched in autumn this year, with those for the chemicals, pharmaceutical and bioscience, and refining and petrochemical sectors following in 2011.
Part of the WHFD content will involve verifying the core skills that are common to other sectors, to make it easier for people to make career moves between sectors.
The £2.9-million Working Higher initiative is funded by the Higher Education Funding Council, and is a collaboration between Cogent Sector Skills Council, the Higher Education Academy UK Physical Sciences Centre, the University of Hull, and SEMTA, and the Sector Skills Council for science, engineering and manufacturing technologies.
The National Skills Academy Process Industries is also a stakeholder in Working Higher, and they have been working together to raise demand for WHFDs and engage with employers on curriculum development and design.
“For the pilot stage, across each of the five strands, we expect intakes of between 12-15 students per year,” said Pauline Maden, Cogent’s higher education curriculum manager. Employer numbers, she added, will depend on the sector, for example, the number of employers in the petrochemicals sector is quite small, whereas the polymer industry is made up of many hundreds of SMEs.
“There is good support for an foundation degree (FD) that is specifically developed to meet the needs of each sector,” said Maden. “Employers are keen to get involved in development and work in partnership with the universities to ensure the FDs deliver flexible provision, and in a way that balances workforce development with operational needs.”
Grow your own
According to Maden, employers see the potential returns “from using the workplace as a learning environment to grow their own talent”. She added: “Many of them have said they do have potential students in mind, but need more details of the curricula, delivery and pricing mechanisms before they can make any decisions. “
FDs were first created in 2000 in response to the then UK government’s Leitch Review, which identified an urgent need to address the skills issues, particularly the need to upskill the existing workforce at technician level.
“In contrast,” said Maden, “WHFDs are all about an employer-led approach that widens access to high-level skills, with the emphasis on work-based learning.”
However, Gareth James, ’industry champion’ for refining and petrochemicals, said the WHFD team has sought to learn from existing initiatives in the process industries, such as the Engineer of the Future at INEOS.
“The Engineer of the Future scheme is a combined apprenticeship and higher-education programme that optimises the opportunity for work-based learning.
“Working Higher operates in a similar way, combining work-based and academic studies and allowing apprentices to gain higher education qualifications,” said James, who has a 30-year career in senior operational roles at BP.
“However, our WHFD will be available nationally to all employers and employees within the sector, and entrance onto it will not be conditional on combining it with an apprenticeship,” he added.
