The world of work and the way we think about work are currently undergoing seismic shifts. Whilst much of the focus on this tends to be on the issue of automation, and what that might mean for both employers and employees, there is something that is perhaps even more fundamental. We’re talking about skills. […]
Further Education
Case Study: Leeds City College — Measuring the Impact of its Apprenticeship Provision
Ever since the introduction of the Apprenticeship Levy in April 2017, the apprenticeship landscape has been changing so quickly that many colleges have been left wondering how on earth they can begin to navigate the new reality. Here are just some of the challenges that have been created by the new system: 1. The […]
Introducing Course Vision — A New Online Tool to Help You Align Your Courses to Skills Demand
In our recent series — Three Steps to a More Relevant Curriculum — we demonstrated how Labour Market Insight (LMI) can be used by education providers to rise to the challenge of developing course provision that is both better aligned to the skills needs of employers, and which is likely to produce better employment outcomes […]
Three Steps to a More Relevant Curriculum: Step 3 — Identify Skills and Build a Business Case
This is the final part in this series (you can see Steps 1 and 2 here and here). In recent years, there has been a noticeable shift in the way employers view potential employees, with skills components, rather than simply qualifications or job titles, taking on a far more prominent place in hiring considerations. This […]
Three Steps to a More Relevant Curriculum: Step 2 — Explore Specific Course Areas
Having looked at curriculum as a whole in Step 1, identifying areas of oversupply, areas of undersupply, and even areas of high demand for which there is currently no provision, we can now show you how you can take a deeper dive into individual courses, in order to get a better sense of how they […]
Three Steps to a More Relevant Curriculum: Step 1 — Review Your Provision
How well does your current curriculum align with the local labour market? Or perhaps an even more pointed question, how much is your current curriculum actually serving the needs of learners and local employers in your area? For any provider looking to help its learners achieve better employment outcomes, and send out the kind of […]
Three Steps to a More Relevant Curriculum: Introduction
The endemic skills gap and low productivity across the nation have led to increasing calls from Government and industry leaders for Further Education providers to step up and ensure that they are providing the skills that employers really need. A number of solutions have been proposed, with perhaps the most obvious being the apprenticeship levy […]
Case Study: Walsall College — Tackling the Challenge of Skills Shortages With Better Regional Insight
In the 2018 joint report from Emsi and City & Guilds – People Power: Does the UK economy have the skilled people it needs for the future? – 47% of the employers surveyed said they believed that the issue that is most likely to affect their productivity over the next three to five years […]
Improving Your Employer Engagement Strategy: Part 3 — Target and Engage the Right Employers
Having identified growth industries to target (Part 1), and then looked at what occupations they employ (Part 2), the final step is to find out who the employers are, and what they are looking for, as this can help in opening the door for engagement. Ordinarily, identifying these things would be a painstaking business. However, […]
Improving Your Employer Engagement Strategy: Part 2 — Understand Which Occupations the Industries Employ
Being able to identify the growth industries in your region (as we demonstrated in Part 1) is a good place to start a more effective employer engagement strategy, since it can help you narrow down the sorts of industries that are likely to respond well to your approach. However, knowing that an industry is likely […]
