2009 Conference Report

The challenges facing both employers and the education sector to continue investing in higher level skills in a tough economic climate were the main themes of fdf's 2009 conference.

Delegates drawn from the private and public sector, along with representatives from Higher and Further Education, heard of the on-going debate about how education and training can be developed to meet the needs of employers and employees in order to suppport economic recovery and enhance social opportunity and mobility.

The conference was told that the focus of fdf's activity has been to build and sustain employer partnerships with higher education that will help tackle these challenges.

Conference opening: Javier Bajer

Javier Bajer, the Conference Chair, opened the event by outlining:

the importance of investing in people through developing, recognising and rewarding skills
the concept of leadership and its importance in shaping the higher education sector to meet the needs of the UK economy, its employers and workforce

Derek Longhurst, Chief Executive fdf

Derek Longhurst's conference address focussed on the context in which the higher education sector is currently operating. He highlighted:

the significance of the recession for the higher education sector
that despite difficult economic conditions, employers have continued to invest in workforce training and development and that this possibly signals a culture change within the broad context of UK education and training
the huge latent demand for employer-supported work-based qualifications among UK employees who have not chosed to engage with full-time campus-based higher education
the need for a higher degree of flexibility in our higher education systems and a broader focus than the current concentration on the 18-25 age range
that what employers expect from higher education is greater ambition, flexibility and responsiveness in creating learning opportunities that will enable existing and future employees to sustain their employability and achieve professional progression

Download Derek Longhurst's presentation

Setting the context (video presentation)

This presentation featured messages from Ministers, employers and the Chief Executive of the UK Commission for Employment and Skills (UKCES)

Chris Humphries, Chief Executive of UKCES, made the following points:

that higher education plays a crucial role in delivering the skills that are needed by the UK economy
that higher education will, in future, have to meet the needs of more people with a reduced public resource
that there needs to be greater alignment between the further and higher education sectors and sector and spatial agencies to ensure that the skills needed by different regions and sectors are developed

Keynote address: Sir Alan Langlands, Chief Executive, HEFCE

Sir Alan Langlands' address considered how we can invest in higher level skills in the current economic climate. He described:

the difficult economic conditions faced by the UK economy and its higher education sector
the need to meet the higher level skills needs of a diverse range of employment sectors, including 'sunrise industries' such as low carbon technology and biosciences
the need to review the HEFCE teaching funding methodology and tackle anomalies in the system (such as funding for part-time students)
key trends in future higher education teaching and learning, including: a shift towards more flexible learning; wider and fairer access; a focus on employability; a continuing commitment to STEM subjects; and support for enterprise education
the need for increased dialogue between employers and providers
future key challenges for the higher education sector including: an ageing population; climate change; energy security; and global and national health issues

Download Alan Langland's presentation

Debate

The following employers debated a number of issues concerning higher education and workforce development:

Nic Greenfield, Director of Workforce (Education, Pay and Pensions and Adult Social Care Worforce), Department of Health
Terry Corby, Accenture
Paul Daynes, HR Director, Saint-Gobain

Key points from this debate included:

higher education needs to develop products (training and education programmes) that employers want to buy, rather than trying to sell products that higher education institutions want to provide
that whilst an employer was delighted with a Foundation degree developed for his company, the process of developing the programme had been difficult and lengthy
the responsiveness of higher education to employer needs (and the needs of the wider economy) is far too slow
higher education providers don't need to convince employers of the need to train and develop their workforce - they need to help employers to carry out training needs analyses and develop solutions for workforce training
employers would like to see higher education providers collaborate and compete appropriately - for example, by making good programmes available to other institutions
that the cost of higher education provision is important to employers but that quality and value are more important - employers will pay for high quality provision that provides a good return on investment

Will Hutton, Executive Vice Chairman of The Work Foundation

Will Hutton gave an assessment of the current recession and an indication of how the UK economy could recover. He suggested:

the areas hit hardest by the recession are those with the lowest skills and this is not a white collar crisis, it is impacting more on the working class and the young
unemployment is unlikely to get back to 2008 levels until 2020, but the situation could have been far worse without some of the Government intervention of the last 18 months
the UK needs a national innovation system, which includes increased provision of Foundation degrees, to help it recover from recession
the Knowledge Economy will lead the UK out of recession, as it has done in the past, with Foundation degrees as one of the cornerstones of an innovative lifelong learning system

Download Will Hutton's presentation