1.5 MARCO REFERENCIAL
1.6.8 El examen de las sociedades vegetales
With the increased emphasis on higher level skills for the workplace (see Sections 1 and 2) and the Leitch Review’s focus on improving the UK’s place in the world economy, work- based learning has taken a higher profile in HE programmes. The Leitch Review highlighted the fact that higher education expansion has been concerned with young people at the expense of engaging with employers and increasing workforce development. It recommended an increase in employer investment in level 3 and 4 qualifications in the workplace, and argued that future expansion in HE should be based on programmes offering specific job-related skills, such as foundation degrees (see Section 6.7). HEFCE has prioritised co-funding for allocation of new student numbers.
Work-based learning
An essential part of many HE programmes is the inclusion of work-related learning elements. These may be ‘work placement’ or ‘work experience’, usually associated with full-time modes (and historically with HNDs), or ‘work-based’ (sometimes described as ‘work-located’), which is a defining characteristic of foundation degrees (see Section 6.7). FECs are in an excellent position to provide work-based learning through their contacts with local communities and employers in their further education work. Non-prescribed HE work creates opportunities to engage with employers on professional courses. Colleges need to confront, clearly and systematically, the significant challenges raised by placement or work-based learning.
QAA’s ‘Code of practice for the assurance of academic quality and standards in higher education: Section 9’ advises that it is difficult to make hard and fast definitions, but ‘that each institution should decide what it understands by and how it uses the terms’
(paragraph 14). Work-based and placement learning is not restricted to undertaking work experience or going on a placement. It is primarily concerned with identifying relevant and appropriately assessed learning, expressed in the form of learning outcomes that can be linked to that work or placement. QAA proffers the following guidance.
… work-based learning is regarded as learning that is integral to a higher education programme and is usually achieved and demonstrated through engagement with a workplace environment, the assessment of reflective practice and the designation of appropriate learning outcomes. Work-based learning is often accredited, ranging from a single module within a programme to an entire programme that includes, at its core,
activities and learning outcomes designed around the individual’s occupation, whether paid or unpaid.
period of learning that takes place outside the institution at which the full or part-time student is enrolled or engaged in learning. As with work-based learning, the learning outcomes are intended as integral parts of a programme of study. It is important that each student is supported by the institution throughout his/her placement experience, to ensure that specific learning related to the programme can be achieved.
QAA, ‘Code of practice for the assurance of academic quality and standards in higher education: Section 9’, paragraphs 15 and 16
It is important to have clear guidance for students and employers regarding work-based learning and assessment, as both need to have a good understanding of what is expected of them.
The QAA guidance indicates that work-based and placement learning ‘typically’ take place off campus in a workplace. This suggests that various forms of ‘work-related’ learning, frequently classroom based, do not really meet the challenges of developing work-based learning. If a college wants to be recognised for its good practice, it needs to put into place an institution-wide:
• policy and strategy to support the development and management of partnerships with employers
• staff development policy to generate common understandings of work-based learning and its practice.
At course team level, a shared purpose should be developed regarding the integration of work-based learning into the programme of study.
Employer engagement
HEFCE published an employer engagement strategy in 2006, and in 2008 took forward a workforce development programme to create a platform for achieving the higher skills ambition set out in the Leitch Review. Growth in employer-led provision is available for the future under co-funding arrangements (see Section 4.4).
In the context of curriculum development, employer engagement refers to work-based learning and activities where employers are engaged through working directly with course teams in developing courses. Employers should be consulted on the development of foundation degrees, and courses may be devised for specific employers involving them in delivery, assessment and reviewing the programme.
Employers are engaged in some or all of the following:
• discussions about skills, qualifications and training requirements in their industry • involvement in curriculum working groups
• designing course modules • delivering degree units
• offering students work-based learning opportunities, projects, placements and work experience
• mentoring in the workplace • assessing students’ work
• acting as representatives on employer panels.
The following examples demonstrate employer involvement in programme design and delivery, including assessment.
City and Islington College
Over the past three years, City and Islington College has been working with the
Metropolitan Police to develop a unique employer-led curriculum for the foundation degree in Forensic and Crime Scene Investigation. This enables students to develop over two years the skills required for a career as a crime scene investigator.
Together, the curriculum team at the college, its partner HEI Queen Mary, University of London and the Metropolitan Police outlined a framework for the course, taking in components of the Met’s existing training structure to cover the practical aspects.
The course is now in its third year and the partnership between the Metropolitan Police and City and Islington College has gone from strength to strength. In November 2007, 80 per cent of applicants from the course applied for jobs with the Metropolitan Police; many have secured a position.
The Metropolitan Police and the college are ‘thrilled’ with the way in which the partnership and the course have developed, and are keen to see how they can develop further.
South Tyneside College
The emphasis on employer engagement is clearly stated in the college’s strategic objectives and permeates all aspects of curriculum delivery, not just HE. Considerable efforts are made to maintain and develop close, fruitful working relationships with employers, and there is a clear ‘employer focus’ throughout, with a strong strategic direction from management.
Staff actively engage employers in developing programme structures, module content and assessment and in ongoing dialogue about the delivery of programmes. Many staff have extensive industrial experience, which ensures that they appreciate and understand employers’ perspectives on their staff training needs. In the marine provision, marine employers and the Merchant Navy Training Board have clear influence on the design of the programmes, and employers are weekly college visitors. Study is a mix of work-based learning at sea and college attendance.
The SSC and marine employers are willing to contribute to the preparation of framework documents that stipulate and regulate course content to meet their needs. The
programmes devised often require the college to adapt previous programmes, through unique centre-devised units or industry-accredited syllabuses, to meet their current and anticipated training needs.
Training programmes are reviewed every five years. This ensures the currency of the curricula, but imposes a high workload on employers, the SSC and curriculum developers and delivery staff.
Wiltshire College
Employer involvement in Wiltshire College’s foundation degree in Animal Science is significant, and often results in students gaining employment with an employer with whom they have built up a relationship through the course. Employers were heavily involved in the initial design of the course and continue to comment on the relevance of the curriculum through an Industrial Liaison Committee.
The college has an animal centre stocked with species to represent those kept by local employers, and employers work with the college to determine care and management procedures in the centre. In their first year, students develop appropriate care and
management skills to employer standards through working in the animal centre. In between years one and two, students undertake a 10-week placement with an employer; the course team matches students and employers carefully in terms of skills developed and needed. Students are able to undertake managerial, supervisory and training roles in these
placements because of the skills they have developed in the animal centre, and start their second-year research project with a live brief commissioned by the employer.
The employer provides feedback to the college on the student’s performance on the placement. The personal development journal which is used to assess the work-based learning incorporates these comments, and therefore affects the student’s assessment. Students continue their relationship with the employer through the research project, but many often also gain part-time jobs and/or the promise of full-time employment on completion of the programme.