Dr Alison Felce  A.E.Felce@wlv.ac.uk 

Beverley Fielding Beverley.Fielding@wlv.ac.uk

• To share and disseminate best practice amongst Schools and Corporate Service departments to simplify business and community engagement processes to develop the work-based learning aspects
• Evaluate the existing systems and processes to establish and implement areas for improvement
• To achieve improved and effective communication channels across the Schools and Corporate Service departments of the University 
• To develop the University infrastructure and expand engagement with business and the community for work-based learning 

(External) Revised QAA Quality Code, Chapter B10 Managing Higher education provision with others.

(Internal) Collaborative Process Review

Anecdotal evidence of missed opportunities to build capacity in the area of work-based learning might prove to be unfounded.

Staff not having sufficient free time outside of their work allocation to commit to business and community engagement and work-based learning.

Key stakeholders have been identified: 

• Academic Staff
• Corporate Services staff
• Quality Management Division
• Registry
• Pro-Vice Chancellor (Research and Enterprise),
• Associate Deans with responsibility for Business Engagement and those with responsibility for curriculum development.

Stakeholder interviews are complete. No new information was emerging and it was felt there was no value in continuing.

Three target groups were identified:

• Key staff from Schools
• Staff from Coporate Services
• FE College

A cross section of staff were included from across the the various Schools and departments of the  University. Information was collected from the 18 interviews and analysed. From this we were able to identify the top three issues faced by staff when engaging with business and community engagement.

• Communication
• Systems & Process
• Strategy & Governance  

The initial development of the communications strategy is underway and still work in progress. Peter Chatterton provided a template for the project  and a communication strategy written by Oxford University. This example was useful to assist in developing our own strategy. 

I have made contact and introduced myself to the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. Like us, they are hoping to achieve enhanced organisational capability for business and community engagement through their project. I'm interested in comparing the two projects and hope to get ideas to use on the UoW project and vice-versa.

In our opinion we thought the toolkit was most helpful when used as a primary resource as it helped in identifying the gap between where we want to be and where we are as an institution in providing work-based learning opportunities. It also assisted us in asking the relevant questions of ourselves and our systems and processes.

We have introduces enhancements to the processes and procedures for the accreditation of employer-based training and courses delivered by other providers.

We have successfully completed a number of such accreditations.

We have developed alternative routes onto and into existing University courses.

We have developed a new model for engaging with organisations to offer a framework to achieve work-based qualifications from sub-degree to masters and doctorate level.  

Collaborative process review: in preparation for the next QAA audit the University Quality Enhancement Committee set up a task and finish group to review current processes in relation to the requirements of the revised Chapter B10. The work that we have undertaken in the JISC project have helped inform the review, particularly in relation to collaborations involving WBL curriculum developments.

We recognise that although we have met the primary goals of the project there is still more work to do to embed into the University.

The early successes of the project have shown the potential of this type of activity to provide an income stream for the University, an alternative mode for accessing HE (that aligns with our Widening Participation Mission), and that meets the University vision to be The Opportunity University where learning can be recognised wherever it occurs. Further evaluation and development are needed but the clear alignment to University Vision & Mission should provide a sound foundation from which to continue.  

The University of Wolverhampton would like to see an increase in the number of work-based learning opportunities and that these should rise steadily over the next 12, 24 & 36 months.

We found that the toolkit contains a plethora of information and whilst this is all useful and relevant we thought there was some repetition /duplication that could be avoided.

It would be useful to be able to download a version of the toolkit that could be edited - not to change the toolkit content but to allow us to comment and reflect on our self-evaluation and changes overtime.