Opening Opportunities For Local Business

The pioneer of supported distance learning, The Open University, is a unique institution offering people the opportunity to reach their potential; inspiring learning and opening up education to all. As a result, it is arming businesses with the intelligence and talent to grow. Senior Manager, Skills and Partnerships, Dr Lynsey Quinn and Assistant Director, Michael Bower, Student Support and External Engagement, The Open University in Ireland, talk to Emma Deighan.

For half a century The Open University has been operating in Northern Ireland with its base standing tall on May Street in Belfast City Centre.

Throughout its history, its ambition has remained the same, “to make learning accessible to all” and as a result, it has helped more than two million students nationwide to realise their academic goals.

Locally The Open University employs 100 fulltime staff, as well as 130 associate lecturers who are based across Northern Ireland. Its services and courses have evolved over the decades to embrace the needs of the business community too while its structure has stretched to offer blended learning and a flexible service to its students.

“We try to have groups of students based in Northern Ireland so we can have that mix of face-to-face tutorials and online learning dependent on the subject,” Michael begins. “We are a modular-based university that offers high-quality teaching and learning,” he continues. “We offer more than 300 accredited modules that allow students to build up their qualifications which allow people to dip in and out of education as it suits them and/or their employer. We call it stackable learning that builds up to qualification.”

Virtual classrooms, a lack of pressure to travel and non-typical entry qualifications make The Open University an accessible institution and it shows in its statistics.

For example, the average student age is 30, 20% of students have disabilities and 75% of its students are currently in work.

“Today we have over 6,000 undergraduate students and we have had over 100,000 unique visits to our free learning platform OpenLearn from citizens in Northern Ireland which has more than 1,000 courses all of which are at higher education level and are completely free. It offers snippets of undergraduate modules that are helping people in Northern Ireland to upskill and engage in education,” comments Michael.

Talking about the university’s USPs, he adds: “The Open University allows students to balance studies alongside their jobs and commitments and because our courses don’t typically have pre-entry requirements, it is openly accessible and allows for a more diverse student. We really do reach individuals that others struggle to. We bring the learning to the student.”

Michael describes typical Open University students as “self-motivated and committed to their educational pathway and learning” supported by personal tutors and a Belfast-based student support team.

What’s more, the fees are more competitively priced compared to the typical university setting assisting lowerincome individuals to access its courses.

A degree at The Open University costs just over £6,000, comparing favourably with a full-time degree programme elsewhere which can cost more than £12,000.

This price point is now appealing to school leavers as the age demographic becomes younger and that’s an area The Open University is keen to develop.

“We are attracting those students who don’t want to draw down a massive student loan, or they want to work while learning. Perhaps they’re not looking for the traditional university experience and given the brain drain in Northern Ireland which sees a lot of our young people move to Great Britain to study, this is an option that keeps them here and supports the Northern Ireland industry.

“But what differentiates us, even more than our online model and price, is that we deliver supported online learning. We pride ourselves on that students aren’t left alone,” says Michael.

At present, The Open University offers a number of qualifications (including individual modules) across a range of key subject areas, including various degrees in business management. It also offers “microcredentials” which are short, accredited courses for those who want to upskill over a period of 12 weeks.

“These are succinct sector-relevant and industry-endorsed courses including organisational behaviour, finance, CISCO networking and marketing and one that is particularly popular is our agile leadership and management course. We’re finding people want to sign up for those shorter courses and put them on a pathway towards qualifications,” Michael continues.

Among its most popular courses today are science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) and life sciences which sync with the current needs of industry.

Lynsey says The Open University has strong relationships with the business community, helping it to understand its challenges and provide solutions to skills shortages through a wide range of learning and development programmes. It’s a relationship the university will continue to strengthen.

“We are working with industry and we are keen to develop that. For instance, our microcredentials are supporting businesses, being responsive to their needs while not infringing on company time,” she says.

A relatively new partnership between The Open University and Northern Ireland further education colleges is supporting the business world here.

Lynsey adds: “We have five of six further education partners who are not able to deliver higher level qualifications so we have collaborated with them to reach the people in their areas who have other commitments and can’t travel to a university. This partnership has been particularly popular with those studying computing software and cyber courses as well as vocational courses including motorsport, culinary arts, fashion, sport and fitness as well as life-sciences.

“What we offer through those further education colleges is driven by the needs of their local industry and it allows us to be responsive.”

Addressing businesses here, Lynsey says now is the time to invest in staff and support them to scale up. She continues:

“We’re in a recession this year and nine out of 10 people will need to reskill by 2030 so I think there is a message that your people are your most important asset and it’s never been as important to invest in them to allow you to take advantage of post-recession opportunities.

“We offer those scaling-up learning opportunities that allow your team to perform better and ultimately create a better business.”

Michael says the relationship between business and the university is a multifaceted one. He adds: “A number of employers come to us to recruit from our talent pool too. The Open University student pool is very diverse. It has students who have a lot of skills that they’ve already developed including previous employment and a number of employers have tapped into that and see the benefit.”

Local SMEs including Datactics and Core Systems are among the names to tap into this pipeline of skills and talent.

“We would advise businesses to come and talk to us, we can work with you to provide that flexible learning with minimal disruption. What we have and how we work breaks down barriers for employers who want to upskill but find it difficult,” adds Michael.

“We look forward to developing new innovative partnerships, continuing to work with businesses to support the development of our workforces, through high-quality supported learning, and applying that learning to work and life”

Key contacts/information: Michael Bower, Assistant Director, Student Support and External Engagement: michael.bower@open.ac.uk

Dr Lynsey Quinn, Senior Manager, Skills and Partnerships: lynsey.quinn@open.ac.uk

For more information visit: www.open.ac.uk/northern-ireland/