"When I sit in board meetings these days I have a much better understanding of the broad concepts being discussed and the impact my team and I can have on them. I have found the whole experience really energising. Already I am much more willing to innovate."
Barry Vineall, Foundation Degree Graduate, AF Aerospace
"Giving up my job to go to university was not an option, so finding a course offering a flexible mix between part time attendance and home-based study was my priority. My colleagues have really noticed a difference. I am much better at making my own decisions and then getting on with the job, rather than always seeking a second opinion first. I am a more effective employee as a result, and that can only be good for my career."
Alison Etherington, Foundation Degree Graduate, Darlington Building Society
Learning for Leadership factsheets
A series of factsheets about Learning for Leadership are available. Click on the link below to download these.
Learning for Leadership factsheets
Learning for Leadership with BCC
fdf embarked on a strategic partnership with the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) in 2005 to combine the expertise of the two organisations to understand and meet the higher-level skills needs of small and medium sized businesses.
The BCC is a powerful network of accredited Chambers of Commerce across the UK, offering advice and services to businesses with and through its Chamber members.
Working across the UK, the fdf/BCC partnership undertook small research projects and promoted the benefits of higher-level skills development at work. From this work, the Learning for Leadership programme was developed.
Learning for Leadership invites chambers of commerce and universities to form partnerships, guided and supported by fdf, to develop education provision aimed at the SME market, using their combined expertise.
Small to medium sized enterprises (SMEs – employing up to 500 people) play a strong role in the UK economy. While up to 90% of SMEs do not employ graduates and the majority ‘resist’ training with a qualification outcome, data from the UK Commission for Employment and Skills indicate that there is a substantial minority – around 60,000 – small companies which are interested in offers of leadership development with a qualification.
Learning for Leadership has evolved into a national programme which aims to fill these skills gaps in SMEs.
Two pilot projects were initially developed involving the chambers in the North East and Coventry and Warwickshire to create Foundation degree provision in Leadership and Management. In the last two years those projects have gone from strength to strength, now fdf and BCC are engaged in encouraging practice based on the lessons learned from the Leadership and Management projects at both the North East Chamber of Commerce and Coventry and Warwickshire Chamber of Commerce.
The Foundation degree is ideally suited to the diverse range of SMEs that form the core membership of the BCC. The programme provides significant benefits for both employees and employers:
Alison Etherington - Arrears Advisor at Darlington Building Society.
Barry Vineall - Business Developemnt Manager at AF Aerospace.
There is a large degree of flexibility in how the course is devised, delivered and promoted. Both Coventry and Warwickshire Training and North East Chamber of Commerce adopted different models, but have each enjoyed significant success.
CWT’s Foundation degree in Leadership and Management complements the organisation’s highly successful management development programme and enables Managers and Directors to gain a degree-level qualification. The Chamber itself delivers the Foundation degree, which is accredited by Staffordshire University.
The partnership between Teesside University and NECC created a programme which was unique in its route to market and its delivery pattern, and both of these innovations were co-dependent. The vision was to create a delivery pattern which allowed cohorts of students to start their programme at several points across the year, so there was never very long to wait to enrol. In order for this ambitious aim to be achieved, the programme needed to continuously recruit students to make the multi-cohort approach sustainable. Achieving this was one of the NECC’s major contributions to the partnership.
The Learning for Leadership project itself has already won national recognition, with Teesside winning the Employer Engagement category in the 2009 Times Higher Education Awards. The awards provided a double success for Teesside, as it was also named University of the Year.
Research carried out through the project shows there is an appetite for skills development amongst SMEs, particularly in Leadership and Management, and that qualifications would be welcomed. Other points of particular interest include:
- potential students from SMEs are wary of attending a university campus
- there is a strong interest in curriculum which inspires and underpins delegates’ capabilities for innovation
- an assessment strategy which uses workplace opportunities is favoured
- a delivery style which creates cohorts for support and sharing was seen as important, but the delivery approach offered needed to take into account the demands of busy working lives and allow individuals to succeed even if their work demands interrupted the cohort experience.
Contact
For more information please contact:
Charles Pickford, Director of Employer Partnerships (Private Sector), fdf
07917 052 335
c.pickford@fdf.ac.uk