Research Activities that support Training of Researchers and Post Graduate Studies

A £6.25m CUC Research Programme has been approved for £4,685,492 of ESF Convergence investment, with the remainder of the money coming from the CUC partner universities and colleges. The project is led by University of Exeter (UoE) and has overall aims of supporting the expansion of opportunities for individuals to access and undertake Level 5 (postgraduate) training and research in Cornwall, linked to the Cornish Economy. The project will maximise its benefit to the Cornish Economy with a research programme that supports the development of Cornwall's Knowledge Economy and facilitates the transfer of knowledge, skills and expertise between the CUC and businesses. All CUC partners contribute towards the ESF Research Objectives and the delivery of the required outputs and results.  By the end of 2010 the project is profiled to deliver 265 participants undertaking postgraduate research training with 50 of these achieving a level 5 qualification.  It is too early to report on participants on Masters courses, but already a dozen proposals for PhD research or research clusters have been considered by a multi organisational e-panel set up for approving research proposals.  These have included clusters around Biosciences,  literature relevant to Cornwall and its environment, law relating to care for the elderly and understanding youth behaviour, sustainable communities, business based agri food research and energy efficiency in mineral processing (comminution) industry.  The first project Management group met on 23^rd September 2009 and has agreed that a structured link will be established within the approval framework for projects by the e-panel between the research proposals and the main areas of research envisaged within ESI, AIR , ECEHH,  CIE and PRIMaRE.  

Developing Entrepreneurship & Enterprise

This £1.25 million project is led by Cornwall College on behalf of the CUC partnership and employs a dedicated Enterprise Project Manager (EPM) with substantial academic experience, credibility and a strong interest in Enterprise & Entrepreneurship education to oversee programme activities.  The project aim is to increase the level, effectiveness and profile of Enterprise and Entrepreneurship skills and culture in Teacher training in Cornwall.  It will achieve this by working closely with employers to ensure that E & E programmes meet existing and emergent industry requirements, to develop the enterprise knowledge and skills of new teachers and the serving teaching workforce and to develop new E & E activities suitable for HE students/ programmes of study.  The so called "ICE House" part of the project will raise the quality of E & E skills training by bringing high profile experts from around the world to exchange their knowledge with Cornwall based practitioners.  It is planned that by the end of 2010 this project will have secured 133 starters onto HE short courses at Level4 or above, with 37 achieving a full 120 credit level 4 +award.  While the project has only commenced under contract within the last quarter the delivery of project outputs and results commenced earlier and the first claim, due imminently will include a batch of results from previously which should lift the project onto a healthy delivery trajectory.

Employer Demand Led Provision

This project is led by Truro & Penwith College and aims to develop employer demand-led provision that meets key skill and sector needs at level 4 and above.  It will do this by raising the level of technical skills for those in employment to meet current and potential sector skills shortages, by tailoring HE courses to the needs of Cornwall's Knowledge economy and also by providing support for learners wishing to study HE modules outside of Cornwall, where no provision exists in Cornwall to meet business demand.  The project is expected to deliver 208 participants in bite sized courses by the end of 2010 with 115 of these feeding into Foundation Degree starts and 92 of these achieving a full (120 credit) level 4+ award.  While the project has not yet received a finalised contract, in preparation for the development of short courses for businesses in Cornwall both Truro and Penwith College and Cornwall College have explored a range of good practice in engaging employers in higher education and developing demand led provision. This information has been applied as appropriate and used by Truro and Penwith College in the development of SUCCESS (short university credited courses enabling sustainable success) courses and at Cornwall College in the development of ‘Bitesize' University level short courses.  Both Colleges have researched good practice in the area of knowledge sharing for business:

Dr Gail Thompson from Sunderland Business School talked to us and sent information about their BA in Applied Management which is predominantly delivered as a work based learning qualification. It was clear from discussions that our target markets were quite different, Sunderland has a number of large organisations compared to the SME dominated market in Cornwall. However, it was clear to see how many of the same principles and practices used by Sunderland Business School could be applied to our work and to the work of Cornwall College.  Gail shared the research they had carried out into the barriers that prevent businesses accessing training and education. It was clear that these barriers could apply to both large organisations and SME's.   The Identified barriers were:

• Lack of time for employees to engage in training
• Academic course often not related to world of work
• Location of course not convenient to employee/employer
• Timing of courses did not fit with working hours
• Perception that University is ‘not for them'

These factors have been taken into account in the development of our new modular provision, the SUCCESS courses at Truro and Penwith College and the University short courses at Cornwall College. Gail also referred us to Margaret Gibbons who is Director of WBL at Leeds. We aim to contact Margaret at the start of the next academic year.

Dr Carol Jarvis, Deputy Director of Executive Education and Principal Lecturer in Organisational Studies for Bristol Business School, University of West of England made a visit to the college. A key part of the discussions with Carol focused on the pool of external industry experts that UWE use to deliver the business focused provision. Specifically how the University encourages these lectures to stay working for them when they could be paid more elsewhere.  This is a dilemma we share, we need to keep costs down for businesses but also want to employ high quality lecturers who will add real value to businesses.

University of West of England relies on the kudos associated with teaching on their programmes to attract employers onto their courses. We discussed using University of West of England to deliver CPD sessions to a pool of external lecturers; the first session would focus on how to use action learning as a method to engage adult learners. Carol has offered an opportunity to arrange a reciprocal visit to progress discussions further and this is likely to happen in the new academic year.

The Lead Programme at Lancaster University welcomed our enquiry but was too busy at the time to take part in knowledge sharing activities with Colleges so far away. However, they indicated they would be happy for us to visit them in the future. Currently the majority of their work is with their own local colleges. We will approach Lancaster again at a later date to arrange a visit.

 The process of development of modules initially required each College to work collaboratively with their business development teams to identify the needs of local employers. This market analysis was then cross referenced with existing foundation degree provision at both Colleges and a range of modules were identified that were the best fit for employer need. Also as part of this process a number of modules were identified that could be adjusted to fit employer needs. Where gaps still existed work has started to create appropriate modules using the University of Plymouth permitted changes process. New modules required at Truro and Penwith College included; importing and exporting, e-commerce, sustainable business and enterprise.  A set of core principles for the development and delivery of modules were adapted by both Colleges based on identified good practice and barriers to learning;

• Where possible modules taught and delivered by industry experts
• Flexible timetable designed to meet employer need
• Assessment designed to meet employer need and support business growth
• Curriculum content is a balance between academic principles and practical application

The process of marketing to employers has included a range of Information, Advice and Guidance events for local employers and for the unemployed, organised by Truro and Penwith College. These events include open days, business breakfasts and special careers days. Information gathered at these events has been used to identify local need and inform the development of new modules. Cornwall College held a Survive and Thrive event this year which provided potential delegates with in depth information and tasters about degree level short courses and enabled them to collect feedback on potential modules and thus refine their programme accordingly in response to this feedback. Both Colleges also used these events to recruit students onto their short courses.

Examples of modules from SUCCESS courses:  

• Project Management ; Currently the College have a successful Project Management seminar which has run a number of times and received good business feedback. A number of learners from this module had expressed a wish to extend their learning. The Project Management module designed as a SUCCESS course covers the core principles from the seminar but in much greater depth, guiding learners through the application of the principles in real time projects. The Project Management module ran in April and learner feedback was really positive. One learner applied a stakeholder analysis tool within a workplace project, her manager was so impressed that they decided to apply the method to all projects.
• E-Commerce; This module was developed from scratch as a direct result of market analysis and discussions with our Business Development Advisers who flagged this up as a key business need and an area that causes many young businesses to fail. We are currently in the process of working with e-commerce related businesses and Digital Peninsular Network to finalise the content of this module which will run in October.
• Business Environments in Advertising; This course is being specifically designed in response to the Penwith Business Survey 2008. This survey of 4000 business carried out by Penwith Council showed that the greatest training/ coaching need in Penwith is Marketing. We have been working alongside Penwith Council (now Cornwall Council) to develop this course. They have carried out a further telephone survey of the businesses who replied to the survey to provide us with more detailed information on business needs regards marketing.
• Working with Young People; A number of organisations provide youth services within Cornwall, many of the people employed within these organisations are keen to develop their skills and other are keen to enter this line of work. The majority of qualifications within this sector are NVQ based which means students do not have the opportunity to further develop their skills and people not already working on the sector have limited options. We have employed a new member of staff to develop and deliver this module who has headed up a number of youth work centres within Cornwall and who has a vast network of contacts within this sector.
• Nutrition; This module is attached to an existing foundation degree and ran this summer. This has been a popular module for people involved in sport and fitness, such as gym instructors, life coaches etc. This module has proved to be really popular and we will be working with students and employers who have taken the module to see if there are additional modules we can develop to support them in their business.

Raising Aspirations

The contract for the project was issued by GOSW to Cornwall College, on behalf of CUC, on 01 June 2009 and adverts were immediately placed for the post.  Interviews were held on 22 July 2009 and the successful candidate, Julie Williams, started work on 10 August 2009.  Her work  will help by providing a coordinating resource in CUC partners' WP efforts to motivate individuals to participate in higher level skills through activities such as;  student volunteering and mentoring programmes where HE students act as role-models; enhancing, co-ordinating and possibly supplementing high quality information, advice and guidance (IAG) to raise awareness of the opportunities and benefits of participation in HE; Co-ordinating relationships with external agencies such as Union Learn to help raise awareness of the benefits of HE amongst employers and the workforce and Cornwall Neighbourhoods for Change (CN4C) to help raise awareness of the benefits of HE amongst hard-to-access communities across Cornwall.  Both UnionLearn and Cornwall Neighbourhoods for Change have SWLLN funded projects which are closely linked to our work in this area and  Julie is working closely with both organisations to integrate this effort.  There are no specific results targets set for this element of the Widening Participation agenda although engagement with 179 participants at above level 3 will be an output.  Overall this needs to be put in the context of the other elements of WP which are Co funded through the LSC and which do have targets and results to achieve within the ESF Programme.

Covered under the ESF programme Theme 3, Enterprise and Entrepreneurship (see above comments on progress)

Covered under the ESF programme Theme 2, Graduate Placements (see above comments on progress)

Planning for CUC phase 3 is ongoing.   The plans currently include the creation of a University of the Arts in Cornwall.