Capita’s FHE 2009 National Conference returned to the popular Chesford Grange Hotel in Kenilworth. This year’s theme was looking at the challenging times the sector is facing and what actions can be taken to stay ahead.
Day one
Adrian Anderson, acting chief executive of the Universities Vocational Awards Council (UVAC), kicked off the day by outlining the UVAC role and the part that several FE colleges were already playing in the Council’s activities. He saw three main challenges ahead:
- the need to widen participation
- the need to develop the skills of the UK workforce
- the requirement to produce graduates equipped to take their place in the workforce.
In Adrian’s view there was much that the HE sector could, and should, be doing to address these issues. He was also concerned that there was a demographic issue ticking away in the background with the numbers of 18-20 year olds due to fall sharply between 2009-19.
Adrian was followed by an energetic and inspiring presentation by Microsoft’s Ray Fleming. Ray’s interactive and multimedia format, posed many of the issues raised by Adrian but from another perspective. He discussed the structural changes taking place. He debated the world of work and suggested that we needed to develop a third way of dealing with the issues and tensions between the old and new models.
The final keynote speaker of the day was John Shaw from the South East of England Regional Development Agency (SEEDA). John illustrated how the regeneration plan for Hastings led to significant developments in the FE sector and how RDAs are likely to have a key role in the new framework for post-19 education and training. John’s view was that there was always a need to ensure skills were linked to business needs and that activity was focused on key business sectors.
Day two
Roger McClure, from the
Learning and Skills Improvement Service (LSIS), started day two. He began by outlining how the LSIS had formed from the merger of the Centre for Excellence in Leadership and the Quality Improvement Agency. Roger commented that the LSIS’s aim was the dissemination of the excellence across the whole education and training sector. This would mean looking to improve a number of areas such as teaching, learning, equality and respect. He emphasised the importance of performance data as this demonstrated the success of the sector as well as placing the emphasis on cost effectiveness and economies of scale. Roger finished his speech by stressing that the National Improvement Strategy would drive change forward.
Graham Hoyle, chief executive at the Association of Learning Providers was the last key note speaker of the day. Graham touched on issues raised by the other speakers and emphasised that employers would always demand work-based learning within their own terms and conditions and that providers had to respond appropriately. He advocated that providers must always strive for an employer focussed approach that was truly ‘demand-led and market based’. Graham also felt that a roll-on-roll off model could also be an essential development.
Conference highlights
Capita presented its yearly Site of Excellence Gold Award to Hull’s Wilberforce College. In making the presentation to Bob Overment, Assistant Principal, and the college team, Chris Cooper, director, Capita FHE, said “the college had demonstrated a very comprehensive and innovative programme of development work”. This was supported by a video presentation of the work at the college.
In the conference’s wide-ranging programme of breakout sessions Tenon’s Vicci Cadwallader-Webb provided an analysis of the new funding proposals. There was a presentation on recent developments from the information authority by Peter Ashton and Lisa Mcdougall. Simon Harrison from Becta discussed SIF, data handling and 14-19 collaboration with some of these issues being considered further by Malcolm Edmonds from MIAP. The changes to the funding regime were also discussed by John Bolt from KPMG.
From an HE perspective there was a presentation by HEFCE on developments relating to employer engagement and UCAS which explained recent changes in their operational methods.
As always at the Conference there were a number of important contributions from educational institutions and this year we were very pleased to feature presentations by Bournemouth University, on how they use Intranet Builder and Professional Placements and Wilberforce College who discussed the background to their Capita Site of Excellence Award.
There were a number of workshops run by members of the Capita team and partners including funding and course planning tools, e-Portfolio and VQMT, electronic signage and Microsoft Technology Environments.
Conclusion
Conclusion
Conclusion
Conclusion
Conclusion The conference came to a close for another year. It was very interesting and informative; bringing together a wide range of experts from around the sector. Despite the challenging times ahead we should all feel a little more prepared for what the future brings.