INDUSTRY / BUSINESS

Since the Robbins Report (1963), there has been an acknowledgement of the importance of UK higher education to the national and regional economy. In recent years the connection has become increasingly prominent, being voiced by both government and employers. More recently, the DfES White Paper, “The Future of Higher Education” focused specifically on the need for greater collaboration between universities and industry. It highlighted the role Universities have in fostering the establishment and growth of new companies. Funding to support expansion of these relationships has followed through Higher Education Reach-out to Business and the Community (HEROBIC) and similar initiatives.

The National Employers Skills Survey 2003
commissioned by the Learning and Skills Council (LSC), shows that almost half of the employers reporting “skills shortage vacancies” said they were losing business to competitors as a result of the lack of skilled workers.

The Learning Organisation Network
is a government funded initiative led by Business to encourage greater co-operation and understanding between Higher Education (HE) and Business.

HE-IT is a UK National Communication Portal designed for Universities, Business IT departments and the telecommunications industry. This site aims to provide information and provoke discussion on the skills needs of IT and telecommunication professionals to meet industry requirements.

EEVL’s OneStep Industry News provides the latest industry news headlines from the top sources in engineering, mathematics and computing aggregated together in one place.

Innovations Digest
Preparing students for the world of work in the 21st century - an overview of the inovations inititive. A guide which both recognises and promotes the work that was undertaken though the innovations initiative that ran between 2000 and 2002. It was funded by the then Department for Education (DfEE) and managed by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE). The Innovations Team that ran the initiative comprised of representatives from Action on Access, The Narional Disability Team, and The National Co-ordination Team. The initiative was sought to assist the Higher Eduction sector in themeeting a number of key challenges, namely to secure greater social inclusively and to enhance the fit between individual graduate capability and the world of work. The progrees towards these challenges made by some 49 project, which made up the initiative, is detailed in this publication.

Universities for Industry (Ufi) was established in 1998 to take forward the concept of a "university for industry". Its mission is to use e-learning to boost the employability of individuals and the productivity and competitiveness of organisations.

Council for Industry and Higher Education (CIHE) aims to encourage mutual understanding, co-operation and support between higher education and business. They were influential throughout the Dearing review of Higher Education and other areas including the work of the Employment Skills Overview Group (ESOG).

Recently, CIHE commissioned a pilot study Employability: Employer Perceptions of Subject Benchmark Statements by Peter Forbes and Bianca Kubler (http://www.cihe-uk.com/forbes.pdf) across three subject disciplines (English, Engineering and Hospitality, Tourism and Sport).on how far their curricula help develop employability skills. CIHE are also helping to define the employability characteristics that employers seek in the graduates they recruit (http://www.cihe-uk.com/employability_wdeseek.htm) Full details of all CIHE documents and publications are available at: http://www.cihe-uk.com/publications.htm

Bridging the Gap is a DfEE Innovations Fund Dissemination project based at the Open University Center for Higher Education Practice and whose theme is graduate employability. The focus of this research and development has been on preparation of students and recent graduates, and their recent transition from HE to the workplace. Key areas of interest for these projects include:

• Graduate Business Start-ups
• Key Skills in HE
• High Level Lifelong Learning
• Guidance for Graduates
• Recording Achievement
• Labour Market Intelligence
• Innovation and Creativity in the Curriculum
• Work Experience

Final Reports for the majority of the Bridging the Gap projects may be accessed from the following page on the original DfEE (Department for Education and Employment) web site or the ‘projects’ area of the Bridging the Gap website

Entrepreneurship
In order to promote entrepreneurship further government is making the Higher Education Innovation Fund (HEIF) a permanent third stream of funding for higher education institutions alongside funds for teaching and research. Similarly the concept of entrepreneurship has been in widespread use for a long time but its resurgent popularity implies a “sudden discovery” (Holt, 1992). However there is still a lack of clarity and differentiation in the way HEIs use the terms enterprise, employability and entrepreneurship. Whichever term is used, McVie (1998) argues that “entrepreneurship is not simply about business start up; increasingly employability and entrepreneurship have become an indivisible pair”

GO Wales As part of its programme to encourage graduate employment in the small business sector in Wales, Go Wales provides paid work experience placements to students studying or living in Wales. Students are supported with online learning resources for personal and business skills development including a "reflective diary" to help them to record and manage their achievements and maximise the value of the experience.

For more information in this area please visit the HE Academy network for ICS website