Case study: University of Glamorgan


Project Information    
Project title     Learning through Employment Change Acadamy phase 2
Start date  September 2012
End date May 2013 
 
Project URL   http://celt.glam.ac.uk/does/LTE/ 
Design Studio URL     
Lead institution University of Glamorgan
Project Lead Contact Name Peter Green
Contact e-mail address pgreen@glam.ac.uk
Programme Name Embedding Benefits Category  
Programme Manager Ruth Drysdale    

 

 

1 Summary

Provide an executive summary of your project (max 200 words).


 

The University of Glamorgan’s Learning through Employment (LTE) framework is a framework which allows individuals already in employment to work towards a university level qualification relevant to their specific area of work. Its main feature is that the majority of learning takes place through active and reflective engagement with work activities, underpinned by the appropriate academic knowledge and skills. Courses can be tailored around any subject and are negotiated between the learner, the university and the employer. The framework is for those who are employed and want to use their work activities as a vehicle for higher level learning and to gain a university award. During the LTE Change Academy phase 2, the main aim was to ensure that the LTE framework was successfully embedded within the Faculty of Advanced Technology and the Faculty of Business and Society. This would provide more flexible learning opportunities for students and provide greater opportunities for employers. The aim was to use/test elements of the Work Base Learning Maturity Toolkit in order to help faculty staff in embedding LTE.

 

 

 

 

 


2  What resource(s) did you package/collate/disseminate for use by other institutions?

This may include:


 

For this project we were initially interested in using the ‘Action Workshops’ element of the toolkit, however we did find ourselves ‘dipping in and out’ of other parts of the toolkit. Some of these other areas included 2-2 Partnership working2-3 Business and commerical approaches, 1-7 Staff development, recognition and reward, 1-8 WBL procedures and processes for programme validation, 3-4 Alignment with professional standards , 4-3 Assessment and progressive achievement , 5-4 Understanding employer and employee needs and readiness, 6-6 Transition and Progression.

When ‘dipping in and out’ of the toolkit, this enabled the LTE team to explore with academics how LTE may be embedded within their faculties. The team did not make any formal changes to the toolkit (before presenting it to academics) however we did stress that the entire toolkit did not need to be used and that the academics could just take from it what they found to be useful.

 

 

 


3  How did you go about embedding your resources / outputs / outcomes into the wider community?

Give details here of:


 

Although the University has already developed its own tools (on Blackboard and at http://celt.glam.ac.uk/resources/lte/) for supporting LTE, the LTE team is able to use the WBL maturity toolkit as an aid to both employers and academics. This toolkit can be used as both a guide and a check list and it is therefore useful for promoting discussion about how LTE might be embedded and delivered successfully.

 

Throughout the change academy, academics were invited to submit an expression of interest in using LTE modules within their faculties. These expressions of interest then went to a panel who awarded some funding to those expressions of interest which demonstrated a viable case for embedding LTE. The funding was then used by the academic to further develop how LTE might be embedded.

 

One of the most successful ways in which we engaged staff to think about embedding LTE was to hold ‘LTE drop in sessions’ to all staff. This was a useful forum for presenting ideas about how LTE might be embedded and as a result of the discussions came many creative ideas and suggestions as to how LTE is embedded and delivered successfully.

 

The stake holders were further engaged though the development of Learner, Employer and Lecturer’s LTE Toolkits, these can be found at http://celt.glam.ac.uk/resources/lte/.

 

 

 

 

 

 


4  What impact has your embedding benefits project had and who are the beneficiaries? Include evidence of impact wherever possible (e.g. survey results, evaluation, cost benefit analysis etc.)

Give details here of, for example:


The main benefit is that LTE is now firmly embedded within the faculties and academic staff are aware of the opportunities that LTE modules present and can now provide more flexible learning opportunities to students. The other main benefit is that we have been able to be even more responsive to the needs of employers in providing accredited learning opportunities to staff in a timely manner.  The WBL maturity toolkit has provided benefits in that it has given staff and employers an additional tool for WBL and LTE.

 

 

 

 

 

 


5  What outputs has your project produced?

Give details of any additional outputs and resources  that your project has produced that can be used by others, including a link to your code repository where this is applicable. How have they been used in your project and what benefits have been achieved? Ensure you include a link here to your Design Studio (DS) page from where all of these should be accessible, even if your DS page simply includes a link to your outputs.


 

Further outputs are expected to be recorded in terms of the student experience as once students have had the opportunity to experience the flexibility that LTE provides, we are expecting that students who otherwise might not be in a position to access traditional class room style learning might now have further opportunities for learning and progression of learning.

 

 

 


6  How will the embedding benefits activity be developed further/sustained?

Give details here of ways in which your resources


Now that LTE has been successfully embedded within the faculties and academics are using LTE modules, it is expected that more academics will begin to use more LTE modules as they become more familiar with them.  The LTE team also intend to hold further workshops in order to showcase how LTE is being used across the university. At these workshops the WBL maturity toolkit can be promoted as a tool and a check list for WBL. It would be useful to explore the use of the JISC Viewpoint Cards (adapted for use with the WBL Maturity Toolkit) as a workshop session.  

 

 

 


7  Summary and Reflection

Suggested topics to consider:


The use if the WBL Maturity Toolkit has been useful for the LTE Change Academy phase 2 project in that it has provided academics with a checklist and promoted some good discussions around WBL and LTE. Upon initial inspection of the toolkit it may well appear daunting to some as it is a rather large toolkit and it may therefore deter some academics and employers from using it. Therefore it is necessary to stress that the toolkit does not have to be used in its entirety and that you may well ‘dip in and out’ of the toolkit and use the parts of the resource that you see fit.  

 

 

 

 


Additional Information for QAA Case Study

 

 

Discipline and occupational field 

 

 

Centre for Excellence in Learning and Teaching (across faculties and disciplines’)


Name of module/programme/course 

 
Learning though Employment (LTE) 

SCQF level (Scotland only) 

 
 

Model of WBL 

 

Can you describe how WBL is integrated into your curriculum? How does this impact on curricula structure and development? It would be useful to estimate the proportion of the curriculum WBL contributes to (100 words)

The Learning though Employment (LTE) framework is a series of validated shell modules. These modules may be used to give academic credit to learning which takes place though employment. The modules may be used at any level and are between 20 and 60 credits each. A learner might just do one or two modules of LTE or, in theory, could complete an entire programme using  the LTE framework.


Aspects of WBL covered in case study

(see Notes at the bottom of this page)

 

Please indicate which aspects of WBL you will cover as part of your case study and why you have decided to cover them. These are listed in bold in the Notes at the bottom of this page. You may find that your practice maps against more than one, but you need not cover all of the aspects.  You may find that your provision maps onto several aspects, and we would expect you to cover more than one.  The structure of Work Based Learning Maturity Toolkit has been used to inform the type of aspects we wish to cover. The Notes below give the full list of the aspects along with some prompts against each one.  These have been cross-referenced with the appropriate section in the WBL Maturity Toolkit and are there to hopefully stimulate thinking rather than being prescriptive.    Note if you do cover particular aspects then they should be made explicit in the main case study text where the aspect is discussed.   

 

For this project we were initially interested in using the ‘Action Workshops’ element of the toolkit, however we did find ourselves ‘dipping in and out’ of other parts of the toolkit. Some of these other areas included 2-2 Partnership working2-3 Business and commerical approaches, 1-7 Staff development, recognition and reward, 1-8 WBL procedures and processes for programme validation, 3-4 Alignment with professional standards , 4-3 Assessment and progressive achievement , 5-4 Understanding employer and employee needs and readiness, 6-6 Transition and Progression.

When ‘dipping in and out’ of the toolkit, this enabled the LTE team to explore with academics how LTE may be embedded within their faculties. The team did not make any formal changes to the toolkit (before presenting it to academics) however we did stress that the entire toolkit did not need to be used and that the academics could just take from it what they found to be useful.


Practice

 

Please describe the practice you are presenting. It would be useful to focus on the ‘how to’ messages that comes from your practice.  

As mentioned above please make explicit reference to the aspects of WBL you are describing.  Include any details that would be useful to colleagues; in particular we are very interested in details about how the practice was developed and implemented. Some questions that might be useful are:

 

  • What were the drivers for the development of the practice?
  • What were the aims and objectives?
  • What did we actually do when delivering these aspects of the provision?
  • What obstacles got in the way and how were these overcome? What was learnt? What helped and how? 
  • Has this practice been evaluated and by whom?  What would we do differently next time?
  • How do you see this practice being developed in the future – what will happen next?
  

Throughout the change academy, academics were invited to submit an expression of interest in using LTE modules within their faculties. These expressions of interest then went to a panel who awarded some funding to those expressions of interest which demonstrated a viable case for embedding LTE. The funding was then used by the academic to further develop how LTE might be embedded.

 

One of the most successful ways in which we engaged staff to think about embedding LTE was to hold ‘LTE drop in sessions’ to all staff. This was a useful forum for presenting ideas about how LTE might be embedded and as a result of the discussions came many creative ideas and suggestions as to how LTE is embedded and delivered successfully.

 

The stake holders were further engaged though the development of Learner, Employer and Lecturer’s LTE Toolkits, these can be found at http://celt.glam.ac.uk/resources/lte/.

 

 

The main benefit is that LTE is now firmly embedded within the faculties and academic staff are aware of the opportunities that LTE modules present and can now provide more flexible learning opportunities to students. The other main benefit is that we have been able to be even more responsive to the needs of employers in providing accredited learning opportunities to staff in a timely manner.  The WBL maturity toolkit has provided benefits in that it has given staff and employers an additional tool for WBL and LTE.

 

Further outputs are expected to be recorded in terms of the student experience as once students have had the opportunity to experience the flexibility that LTE provides, we are expecting that students who otherwise might not be in a position to access traditional class room style learning might now have further opportunities for learning and progression of learning.

 

Now that LTE has been successfully embedded within the faculties and academics are using LTE modules, it is expected that more academics will begin to use more LTE modules as they become more familiar with them.  The LTE team also intend to hold further workshops in order to showcase how LTE is being used across the university. At these workshops the WBL maturity toolkit can be promoted as a tool and a check list for WBL. It would be useful to explore the use of the JISC Viewpoint Cards (adapted for use with the WBL Maturity Toolkit) as a workshop session.  


References

 

Please use the Harvard referencing system.  

 

http://celt.glam.ac.uk/resources/lte/

 

 

Notes

 

Aspects of Work Based Learning