Did the Cert HE Employer engagement work? All learning hosts and most student respondents provide very positive feedback about the experience. …“The company was very grateful for my input ..and were ready to offer me an extension of the internship, however with the financial climate at the moment this was not possible as they could not afford an addition to the team and I could not afford to continue working for free”… (A Cert HE Learning hosts reported a wide range of activities that the students had helped with. In particular: …”Our student produced some well designed post cards of our artwork......Our student set out a working practise for us to follow when managing projects which will help our working practice become a lot more transparent.....Our student helped us with marketing our organisation which inevitably had a knock-on effect with increasing membership and revenue. He also offered new ideas about improvements for the business which were useful. ....New insights and fresh ideas”...(Various Cert HE Creative Enterprise Learning Hosts) Learning hosts’ main gripes related to unreliability of students and mismatched skills, but suggested improvements on both sides: …”We’d want a placement for a longer period...... We would need to have a proper office to welcome someone to work for us! as otherwise it could be very uncomfortable, or have the person come 1 day a week to the office and work from home with a laptop, to do the work”…
The Project Findings Achieved the three desired outcomes- see below right hand box Successes •Building a complex and effective employer engagement system on five levels with a wide breadth of activities •Collaborating internally with other UAL department •Creating sustainable and relevant qualifications •Creating positive and useful experiences and results for students in terms of improved level and breadth of skills, employment outcomes, personal development and direction •Creating positive and useful experiences and results for learning hosts in terms of business benefits and appetite to host more placements
Employer Engagement
Issues Lack of project champion at strategic institutional and college level means lack of support Restructuring at UAL through the redundancy and reallocation of academic staff weakens support for Cert HE students and provides disappointing retention rates for vulnerable students Placement support and communication with tutors and mentors could have been better Many Cert HE students had problems with finances, leading to a large number of early leavers Do students value free learning? Single placements work better in small organisations The Programme attracted a wide variety of applicants, including many looking to change career or already with a first degree. This suggests a new market for programmes like this and a source of talent for the creative industries Recommendations o Exploring a wider potential market for the course
Exploring the role of employer engagement in up skilling creative sector talent for enterprise and widening participation in Higher Education
o Engage larger business organisations e.g Business Link o Conduct more internal marketing to promote understanding o Growing a subsector-specific pot of learning hosts o Charging the student o Improving communications and placement support o Single placements only unless the organisation is large o Review entrepreneur/arts practitioner language differences
About the project Launched in April 2007 and managed by the then School of Creative Enterprise at the London College of Communication University of the Arts London, the E2 project aimed to: •Engage creative industry employers in the design and delivery of graduate courses relevant to the skills needs within the creative industries. •Widen access and opportunity to these courses to groups under-represented within the creative industries and within HE, as a career entry support. •Create accredited professional development opportunities for people already working or volunteering within the creative industries.