UVAC Annual Conference 2009
5 - 6th November
Employer and Individual Demand for Higher Level Skills –
The Role of Higher Education
Royal York Hotel, York

Sponsored by

Approximately 220 delegates enjoyed a blend of plenary, keynote sessions and discussion-based workshops on both days. The conference dinner, held at the Royal York Hotel, was a tremendously well attended and enjoyable occasion, providing fantastic networking opportunities in a social setting and an opportunity to dance the night away courtesy of 'The Strangers'.

A copy of the conference programme is available here.

Keynote presentations:

Professor Mike Campbell OBE, Director of Research and Policy, UK Commission for Employment and Skills
Keynote address: Recession, Recovery and the Future Skills Needs of the UK Economy 2010 and Beyond
(Powerpoint presentation)

Plenary panel session: Higher Level Skills - What Employers and Employees want from Higher Education

Northumbria Unversity and eaga
(Powerpoint presentation)

Speakers:
Ruth Leggett, Senior Lecturer, Newcastle Business School
Barry Howarth, Director of Learning & Development, eaga
Neil Dickinson, Commercial Director, eaga Digital Services

Middlesex University and the Recruitment Employment Confederation
(Powerpoint presentation)

Speakers:
Dr Philip Frame, Director of Work-Based Learning Programmes, Middlesex University Business School
Dr Heather Clay, Associate Dean – Academic Development, Middlesex University Business School
John Cunningham, Head of Qualifications, Recruitment and Employment Confederation

David Sweeney, Director of Research, Innovation and Skills, Higher Education Funding Council for England
Keynote address: Higher Level Work-Based Learning and Employer Funding
(Powerpoint presentation)

John Hayes MP, Shadow Minister of State for Higher Education

Professor David Young, University of Derby Corporate
Innovation in Higher Level Work Based Learning, Qualifications and Approaches to Credit


Workshop sessions:

Marketing to bridge the gap
Helen Pennack, Head of Marketing Communications and Linda Mee, Business Development Manager,The Leading Edge, University of Leicester

Three approaches to bringing Higher Skills into the workplace
Tony Howard, Head of Higher Skills@Work, Anglia Ruskin University

TIE Technique Explained
Bruce Bolderson, Project Manager, Teesside Manufacturing Centre, and Dr Elaine Hooker, Workforce Development Consultant, both Teesside University

Mind the gap! - A learning journey in Environmental Health
Helen Corkill, Fellow, Centre for Excellence in Teaching & Learning and Steve Kendall, Director of Widening Participation, University of Bedfordshire with Concepta Palk, Consultant: Environmental Health, CPC Ltd

Tailor-made learning for employers through ‘Advance’
Mike Lomas, Head of Business Development and Partnerships, University of Bolton and Cath Walsh, Director of the Greater Manchester Strategic Alliance

Sunderland City Council Leadership Programme
Gail Unsworth, Head of School Business, Management and IT, New College Durham

Developing Skills in the Workplace – Defining the need – delivering the outcome
Geoff Anderson, Head of Centre for Work Based Learning, University of Greenwich

Conquering co-funding
Charlie Woodcock, Executive Director of Business and Community Development and Jenny Bubb, Director of the Employer Engagement Lifelong Learning Network, both University of Chester

i-CD Units – unchaining higher education
Kim White – Chief Executive, Intelligent Career Development Limited (i-CD Ltd)
University of Wolverhampton

Developing effective work-based learning and employer networks through partnership: A case study presentation based on the development of Foundation Degrees in Metallurgy and Materials at Bradford College
Richard Brown, Project Development Executive and & Head of Metallurgy and Materials, Bradford College 

Disaggregating the curriculum - from “full meal” to “bite sized” provision
Ann Minton, Workforce Development Fellow and Jeff Braham, Head of UK Partnerships, both University of Derby

The Rural Employer Engagement Development Network (REEDNet)
Lydia Arnold, Work-based Learning Developer , Harper Adams University

Production of a flexible ‘shell’ framework for a Professional Development degree to meet the needs of accredited CPD activity
Helen Millican, Assistant Academic Registrar University of the West of England and Mel Joyner, University of Plymouth

A ‘Moving’ Tale of Partnership Working in the Logistics Sector
Sarah Gribbin, Higher Skills Team Leader, Yorkshire and Humber East Lifelong Learning Network and David Orrell, Regional Manager Yorkshire and Humber, Skills for Logistics

UVAC Annual Conference 2008
13 - 14th November
Higher Education - Skills in the Workplace
Delivering employer-led higher level work-based learning

Sponsored by

Click here for keynote speeches
Click here for workshop presentations

The UVAC 2008 Annual Conference was our most successful and best attended yet. Full places sold out in August and almost 250 delegates enjoyed a blend of plenary, keynote sessions and discussion-based workshops on both days. The conference dinner, held at the Royal York Hotel, was a tremendously well attended and enjoyable occasion, providing fantastic networking opportunities in a social setting. A copy of the conference programme is available here.

Our conference DVD - UVAC TV News - produced in collaboration with NICE TV - is now available. With conference footage, interviews, examples of good practice, comment, delegate reaction and much more, it provides a very positive picture of the health of work-based learning and employer engagement. Click here to view UVAC TV News.

Photos from our conference are now available to view, click here to see our photo album.


Keynote presentations

Pauline Thompson MBE, Head of Professionalism in Decision Making and Appeals, Department for Work and Pensions, Disabiity and Carers Service

Stewart Regan, Chief Executive, The Yorkshire County Cricket Club and Helen Whitrod Brown, Associate Dean, Leeds Metropolitan University

Richard Parsons, Programme Leader - High Level Skills Unit, Higher Education group, Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills

Hugh Tollyfield, Special Advisor, Employer Engagement and Skills Team, HEFCE

Professor Simon Roodhouse, Technical Director, HE@Work

Wendy Stubbs, Assistant Director, Development and Enhancement , Quality Assurance Agency

Day 1 Session 1

Theme 1 - Defining employer/employee skills needs, diagnosing need and recognising and delivering provision
Demand-led Education: from understanding to action
Aled Williams, Deputy Director Centre for Education in the Built Environment/Senior Lecturer University of Salford and Tim Lees, CEBE Research Fellow  

Theme 2 - Focusing on the needs of SMEs
Employer Engagement in the Creative Media Industries
Martina Porter, FDMX Project Manager and Chris McIntyre, Dean of Creative and Cultural Industries, University of Hertfordshire

Theme 3 - Marketing to and recruiting employers and employees
Understanding the demand for higher level skills from employers
James Kewin, Director - Skills and Innovation, CFE  

Theme 4 - Developing regional responses to employer/employee skills needs
Supporting Regional Regeneration and Workforce Development: Establishing a new University Centre in Folkestone
Tim Barry, Programme Area Director in Management, University of Greenwich (former Project Manager of the University Centre, Folkestone)

Theme 5 - Widening participation and developing work-based progression for Apprentices and those following 14 – 19 Diplomas
Apprentices: the Isolated Cohort – Breaking down the Barriers
Suzanne Leech, Step-In to HE Project Leader, Aimhigher Greater Manchester, The Open University in the North West

Day 1 Session 2

Theme 1 - Defining employer/employee skills needs, diagnosing need and recognising and delivering provision
Perspectives on Employer Engagement – Working in Partnership
Jan Carmichael, Head of Division of HR and Professional Programmes, University of Huddersfield and Cheryl Simons, Skills Framework Manager, Royal Mail HR Services

Theme 2 - Focusing on the needs of SMEs
The Customer is Always Right? Determining Employers Wants and Needs
Dr Steve Wyn Williams, Director of Academic Development and Research, Gill Howland, Executive Pro Vice Chancellor, Ian Jones, Market Research Manager – all University of Staffordshire

Theme 4 - Developing regional responses to employer/employee skills needs
Regional responses to meeting employers’ demands for higher level skills
Dr Ruth Helyer, Head of Workforce Development, Teesside University, Katharine Paterson, Director, North East Higher Skills Pathfinder

Theme 5 - Widening participation and developing work-based progression for Apprentices and those following 14 – 19 Diplomas
Diplomas, Apprenticeships and vocational higher education: Are they working for the South Yorkshire engineering sector?
Dave Berry, Area Projects Manager, Aimhigher South Yorkshire

Theme 5 - Widening participation and developing work-based progression for Apprentices and those following 14 – 19 Diplomas
Apprenticeship progression to HE – a research project – UVAC and fdf
Adrian Anderson, Acting Chief Executive, UVAC

Day 2 Session 1

Theme 6 - Delivering what employers and learners want and flexibility in delivery
Living the Partnership – the experiences of a learning partnership between an NHS Trust and a University
Gillian Shiel, Senior Lecturer, Northumbria University and Sally Corbett, Senior Research Health Psychologist, Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust

Theme 6 - Delivering what employers and learners want and flexibility in delivery
Development of a degree work-based learning programme (Clinical Leadership):- the challenges of meeting the needs of employers and learners
Drewe Phillips, Associate Head Care Sciences, and Marianne Cowpe, Head of Division, Policy, Leadership & Clinical Governance, both Faculty of Health, Sport and Science, University of Glamorgan

Theme 6 - Delivering what employers and learners want and flexibility in delivery
Binary discourses – exploring work-based learning through opposites
John Brady, Principal Lecturer - Regulatory Studies, Alison Ballantyne, Senior Lecturer, Anglia Ruskin University and Joe McGhee, Regulation of Care Co-ordinator, Scottish Commission for the Regulation of Care

Theme 7 - Innovation in curricula design and flexible approaches to validation
Using a work based learning curriculum across subject disciplines
Dr Barbara Workman, Director, Centre for Excellence in Work Based Learning and Alan Durrant, Head of Work Based Learning, School of Arts and Education, Middlesex University 

Theme 8 - Partnerships working/LLNs
Making Partnerships Work - LLNs in Practice
Adrian Parry, Director, North East Higher Skills Network

Day 2 Session 2

Theme 6 - Delivering what employers and learners want and flexibility in delivery
Developing and Delivering a Portfolio of University Qualifications for the Corporate Sector: A Partnership between Britvic PLC and Staffordshire University
Professor Hanifa Shah, Professor of Information Services and Chris Watson, Head of Sales, University or Staffordshire

Theme 6 - Delivering what employers and learners want and flexibility in delivery
Workforce development – what works and what doesn’t
Professor Jonathan Garnett, Director IWBL, Dr Barbara Workman, Director CEWBL, both Middlesex University, Professor David Young, Head of Flexible Learning, University of Derby and Dr Ruth Helyer, Head of Workforce Development University of Teesside 

Theme 6 - Delivering what employers and learners want and flexibility in delivery
Delivering employer led higher level work based learning: A consortium approach for the UK travel sector
Helen Dewhurst, Sector Manager - Tourism, Hospitality and Retail, Leap Ahead Lifelong Learning Network for Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire; Angela Maguire, London Region Co-ordinator FDF; Andy Smyth, Accredited Programmes Manager, TUI UK and Ireland  

Theme 7 - Innovation in curricula design and flexible approaches to validation
The Inter-Disciplinary Inquiry-Based Learning Project (IDIBL)
Stephen Powell, Reader in Inquiry-based Learning, Dr Margaret Nelson, Reader in the Built Environment and Richard Millwood, Reader in Distributed Learning – all University of Bolton

Theme 8 - Partnerships working/LLNs
‘OneDoor’ – Partnership Approach to Employer Engagement
Dr Elaine Hooker, Workforce Development Consultant, University of Teesside and Steve Brady, Assistant Principal, Higher Education & Higher Education Skills Network, Middlesbrough College

Click here for keynote sessions
Click here for workshop presentations

Feedback shows that yet again the UVAC 2007 Conference surpassed expectations!

2007’s theme was ‘excellence’ in higher level, work based learning delivery and we celebrated what has been achieved and, we hope, provided inspiration for the further development of higher level work based learning provision. We featured our members' showcasing their innovative examples of excellence in work based learning in interactive workshop sessions. More than 200 delegates enjoyed a blend of plenary, keynote sessions and discussion-based workshops on both days. The conference dinner, held at the Royal York Hotel, was a tremendously well attended and enjoyable occasion, providing fantastic networking opportunities in a social setting. The presentations follow, click below to view. A copy of the conference programme is available here.

Keynote sessions:

Ministerial Address - Bill Rammell MP
This speech is not a direct transcript of the one made by the Minister. Please do not quote any part of this speech without the express consent of the DIUS Press Office (contact Emma Griffiths 0207 215 2566).

Employers, SSCs, Sector Skills Agreements, The Higher Skills Agenda and Higher Education - Peter Martin, LANTRA

HE@Work - Cathy Dunn and Lyn Brennan

The operational funding and policy challenge for higher level work based learning - Hugh Tollyfield, HEFCE

Work Based Learning and employer engagement - a vision of the future - Professor Freda Tallantyre, HE Academy

Foundation Degree Forward - Professor Derek Longhurst, FDF

The regional skills agenda in relation to higher level work based learning - Ewan Rowland, NWDA

Workshop presentations:

From acorns to oaks? Branching out from Advanced Apprenticeships to Foundation Degrees - Steve Kendall and Helen Corkill, University of Bedfordshire

An HE work based learning project - diagnosing, supporting and validating learning in the workplace in adult healthcare - Claire Thurgate, Canterbury Christ Church University

Engaging employed learners - Dr Ruth Helyer and Dr Elaine Hooker, University of Teesside

Working with professional associations - a process to facilitate employer engagement with HE - Amanda Selveratnam, University of York

Making progression happen: priorities for effective inter-organisational collaboration - Julie Wintrup and Tracey Pugh, University of Southampton and Helen Evered and Kyle Smith, Portsmouth University

What is work-based learning? Lessons from the uniformed services - David Skinner, Anglia Ruskin University

The implications of the new foundation degree awarding powers - Stephen Jackson, QAA

The implications for colleges of the restructure of the LSC and the funding regime - Liz Burdett, LSC

Making higher level education and training opportunities accessible to a broader range of employers in the East Midlands - Professor Stephen Baskerville, De Montfort University

How to retain work based learners - Deborah Allen, Kathryn Bond and Trish Houghton, University of Bolton
Abstract here

Towards a second generation of work-based learning - supporting social knowledge - Dr Peter Critten, Middlesex University
Paper here

PG certificate in e-learning design - Angela Rabone, University of Sussex

Work based learning in sport development - Higher education working in partnershipwith local school sports partnerships to enhance student employability - Gawaine Hogg, York St John University and Andy Pope, Ebor School Sports Partnership

Aiming University Learning @ Work - getting graduates better prepared for the workplace - Irene Bell, University of Glasgow.

Centres of Excellence in FE - Richard Blackwell, HEFCE

Train to Gain -Identifying and sourcing skills solutions for employers - Sarah Millett, LSC

Learning from part time work - a curriculum development - Dr Philip Frame, Middlesex University
Abstract here

The new standard for employer responsiveness and vocational excellence - Michele Roberts, LSC

To see the published proceedings of the 2007 conference, click here.