University of Suffolk Business Engagement, Careers and Employability Towards 2030

TRANSFORMING LIVES: UNIVERSITY OF SUFFOLK BUSINESS ENGAGEMENT, CAREERS AND EMPLOYABILITY TOWARDS 2030

Transforming lives through education, research, knowledge exchange, innovation and entrepreneurship

INTRODUCTION

The Directorate of Business Engagement, Careers and Employability (BECE) is home to the University’s Alumni and Development activities, the provision of Careers, Employability and Enterprise support for our students and graduates; our business development and knowledge exchange activities to support local businesses; and our provision of Apprenticeships focused on employer-led education. Through significant investment into the team in 2021/22. we support the University’s mission to:

...be one of the key business support agencies in the region and the provider of choice for knowledge exchange, innovation, and entrepreneurship, and state-of-the-art training for our region. We aim to regenerate our local economy by transforming local productivity and targeted sectors, through skills and workforce development”.

And ensure:

...Our graduates will be confident thinkers and professionals ready for the world of work. They will have the breadth of knowledge and experience required; they will be socially conscious and value-driven individuals striving to make a positive contribution to society. In a technologically driven world, our graduates will be digitally competent, globally aware, forward looking, enterprising, enquiring and a voice of change for our future sustainable development.

Our priorities are:

„ To transform local productivity and targeted sectors through active alumni engagement and philanthropic giving, skills development, business and job creation and work-based learning including Apprenticeships, student and graduate entrepreneurship and support for innovation;

„ To transform and enhance the student and graduate experience and employment outcomes through the development of careers, employability and enterprise;

„ To transform our knowledge exchange and fundraising activity and gain recognition through the Knowledge Exchange Framework (KEF) and Higher Education Innovation Funding (HEIF) formula, achieving recognition as a distinctive university leader in local and regional economic development.

ALUMNI RELATIONS AND DEVELOPMENT (ARD)

Foundations have been laid for a robust Alumni and Development Office at the University of Suffolk, in line with growth of fundraising in the HE Sector. We are successfully working to raise the profile and impact of the University and over the last year (2021/22), the University received its 3 biggest donations, 4 further significant pledges have been secured and 3 further 5 to 6 figure gifts are in cultivation stage.

Through the investment already made in the team, our ambition is to continue to create an active and engaged community of supporters, graduates and friends, building and strengthening lifelong relationships to foster a strong society of loyal ambassadors. We want to fundraise to support the University in its growth and its mission to transform lives, at the same time raising awareness within our communities of the need and impact of charitable giving and support.

Our alumni will continue to benefit the institution by sharing their skills and expertise with staff, students and each other providing invaluable promotion across their personal and professional networks.

Over the next five years the team will work to increase and improve communications with donors, alumni and other friends of the University and raise awareness of development and alumni relations

internally and externally, with the long-term aim of securing donations of both money and time to the University from a community of loyal advocates.

We will:

„ Establish an annual calendar of regular communications and events as part of a robust stewardship plan for Alumni, donors and other supporters, including the University’s first major Alumni Reunion in 2023

„ Improve the supporter experience by migrating records and communications to a relationship management system (CRM)

„ Establish a clear, impactful and informative Alumni Relations and fundraising website presence with online giving mechanisms

„ Support our graduating students in becoming Alumni and vary and deepen engagement with our graduates, ensuring our offer is mutually beneficial and matches the needs of our diverse Alumni community

„ Work directly with the Schools to ensure that Alumni have a significant impact on learning and teaching, the student experience and student recruitment

„ Launch and run a new Giving Circles programme, to recognise and celebrate the commitment of the University’s supporters

„ Coordinate philanthropic income, ensuring appropriate donor recognition and reporting, financial monitoring and adherence to the Code of Ethical Fundraising Policy.

CAREERS, EMPLOYABILITY AND ENTERPRISE (CEE)

From 2022/23 the University has committed a large investment into the CEE Team, enabling the expansion of the team and the creation of a physical CEE hub, due to open in 2023. We will double the size of the team with a new structure introducing the roles of Employability and Careers Consultants and Placement Consultants aligned to each of our academic Schools, providing targeted resource to students, academics and employers. Additional resource has also been created to support students seeking to start up a business or pursue freelance opportunities and will help us to ensure that enterprise and entrepreneurship (in addition to employability) is embedded into every degree. Our most recent Graduate Outcomes (GO) results saw 92% of students in employment or further study, with 82% in highly skilled roles, compared to a sector average of 78%, results we will maintain and continue to improve upon.

Through our enhanced service we want to continue to provide our students with impartial and equal access to support and opportunities that will empower them to be confident in making decisions about their future, and equipped to achieve graduate success. By 2030, we will ensure that every undergraduate and postgraduate taught student benefits from meaningful interaction with the CEE team and the team will have embedded a clear, physical presence on the Ipswich campus, providing a welcoming and inspirational space for students, staff and organisations to meet and plan their future.

As we move towards 2030, the team will work to increase and improve communications, and raise awareness of Careers, Employability and Enterprise with all internal and external stakeholders.

We will:

„ Ensure that our service provides the variety of support needed to match our diverse student community, recognising that one size does not fit all.

„ Working with the CELT Directorate, ensure that employability, enterprise, and entrepreneurship is embedded into all degree programmes, including a suite of career development and enterprise/entrepreneurship workshops and modules designed that can be embedded by course teams into their programmes, to the full benefit of students.

„ Provide opportunities for work experience appropriate to all student needs through collaborative partnerships.

„ Continue to expand our offer and provide extra-curricular opportunities for students to meet organisations and inspiring alumni.

„ Work with the wider BECE team to increase the number of internships and graduate jobs available to Suffolk students and graduates.

„ Expand the support for students wishing to start, or expand, a business, or establish themselves as a freelancer, empowering them to explore ideas and consider starting up (or expanding) a business or build a freelance portfolio.

„ By 2026, to annually support the creation of 20 academic student and/or graduate start-ups.

„ Provide students with the skills to confidently navigate a world in which ‘career’ no longer means a job or employer for life.

BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT AND KNOWLEDGE EXCHANGE (BDKE)

Knowledge Exchange (KE), innovation and entrepreneurship are fundamental activities for the University of Suffolk. Working with public, private and third sector organisations we will tackle current and future challenges (both commercial and societal), horizon scanning to ensure we meet future skills gaps and retain talent in the region. We will co-design solutions to meet the needs of individual enterprises, from sole trader start-ups to large, established companies and build long-term partnerships, providing access to our academic expertise and student talent, and our world-class facilities and resources. We search for funding opportunities to make ideas happen.

We have invested significantly in new staff with the right skills to support achievement of our ambition. Our revamped Business Development Team is already building relationships with external and internal stakeholders, identifying relevant knowledge and expertise, and increasing capacity. Already we have seen growth in our Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) portfolio and seen KE income increase by over 500% since 2017/18.

We have also invested in specialist equipment and facilities for external organisations to access as part of our KE offer. This includes access to highspecification laptops, software, creative technologies, and our 3D Productivity Suite for rapid prototyping. We are creating demand led CPD and short courses for various industries and sectors, to meet current and future skills gaps. We have

forged a new private sector partnership with Innovation Labs Group which aims to grow the innovation ecosystem, providing physical space along with events, training, mentoring and access to academic and student knowledge.

As we move towards 2030, we will use our areas of distinctiveness to drive innovation and increase productivity collaboratively, making Suffolk a competitive force within the UK.

We will:

„ Generate £7M of enterprise/KE income, ensuring the University can design and deliver projects to support the local business community and beyond.

„ Be recognised as the leading university in our KEF cluster ensuring significant progress and impact achieved in 50% of the priority areas.

„ Collaborate with 250 organisations through a range of KE projects.

„ By 2024, achieve national (external) recognition for our KE activity.

„ By 2024, be a top 30 KTP provider university.

„ Create a portfolio of services/programmes to meet the needs of the levelling up agenda, transforming local productivity through skills development, business and job creation.

„ Be an integral part of the regional business support network and the location of choice for start-ups in Ipswich.

APPRENTICESHIPS

Apprenticeships provide an opportunity for the University to offer employer-focused education to boost business performance and provide work-based learning opportunities as part of the University’s portfolio. We are committed to expanding our apprenticeship provision into new areas that are aligned with its strategic goals and by supporting the Norfolk and Suffolk Economic Strategy and have enhanced the support structures, both centrally and across our Schools, to support effective delivery of apprenticeship programmes. Achieving a ‘good’ Ofsted inspection outcome in 2022 has helped to raise the profile of the University and support our journey and vision of becoming an outstanding provider.

The University has an ambitious apprenticeship growth plan over the next 5 years which includes some very exciting projects with organisations such as Sizewell C and the introduction of a sub - contract with the Supply Chain Academy.

Our ambition is to become an Ofsted outstanding provider by the year 2025, which involves ensuring we have the right infrastructure and so the university has recently invested in a number of new posts to support the management of delivery and ensure the quality of provision remains robust and employer responsive.

To fulfil our vision of becoming an outstanding apprenticeship training provider of choice we will:

„ Focus on learners by providing them with an outstanding experience, delivering an accessible curriculum where delivery is creative, flexible, and responsive to the everchanging apprenticeship reforms.

„ Work in partnership with employers to improve the quality and efficiency of our curriculum to achieve outstanding results, ensuring there is active involvement from our employers in the decision-making process of curriculum planning to help shape our curriculum offer.

„ Grow our business through an innovative curriculum, developed in partnership with employers and the communities we work within to ensure we meet their needs, with particular emphasis on the digital, health, supply chain, leadership and management skills gaps.

„ Celebrate staff and student achievement through local, regional and national awards and skills competitions.

„ Continue to lift the profile of the University by supporting and presenting at national apprenticeship related forums and conferences.

„ Retain, reward and recruit a high-quality workforce by continually investing in staff development to ensure the appropriate skill- set is maintained to ensure the University achieves its vision of becoming an Ofsted outstanding training provider.

„ Achieve and maintain outstanding Teaching, Learning and assessment by providing apprentices with an outstanding experience so they can reach their full potential.

OUR AIM

The Business Engagement, Careers and Employability Directorate will achieve this through:

„ Our Approach

„ Our People

Our approach

„ Our Facilities and

„ Our Communications.

We will work with our external stakeholders to understand their requirements, developing interventions and programmes to meet their needs. Through this work, we will develop and strengthen high value commercial and public sector collaborative partnerships to deliver local economic development and strengthen the regional development of the East of England.

We will engage with our internal community, ensuring every student and graduate is supported to achieve their future ambitions, whether that be employment, launching their own venture, further study, or all three. Similarly, academics, researchers and PhD students will be supported to engage with, and deliver, knowledge exchange opportunities to enhance their teaching and learning, support their career development and increase income diversification. Our donor community will be engaged with the University’s vision and inspired by our case for support to give to University’s growth and its mission to transform lives.

Our people

We will enhance our capacity to deliver alumni and donor engagement, employability and enterprise, knowledge exchange and apprenticeships, by offering a portfolio of training opportunities that enable all of our staff to have a deeper understanding of the requirements, potential impact, and their role in driving this forward.

We will raise the profile of BECE activities with people case studies and awards that recognise individual and team contribution in delivering impact. As our activity and impact grow, we will continue to invest in the BECE team and academic community to ensure we have the right expertise to deliver our ambitions.

Our facilities

We will build engagement with our existing facilities, bringing together businesses, students, alumni and the wider community, designing and delivering training and community building events based on stakeholder feedback, engaging with partners to increase their use of the facilities. We will open a brand new one-stop shop for employability and enterprise support, bringing students, alumni, staff and our business community together. We will explore the potential for, and secure, a larger scale business incubation centre, offering grow-on space for the local business community.

Through external events such as the Festival of Suffolk and internal events where we host our supporters and stakeholders, we will play a leading role in opening our campus to the local community, enhancing opportunities for collaboration. This will be further supported by the promotion of our world class facilities available at the DigiTech Centre and the soon to be established EcoLab, delivering events and CPD sessions onsite.

Our communication

We will create an engaging ‘Working with Your University’ brand and show our stakeholders that we are serious about collaboration. We will create marketing materials that are suitable for our audience and share them through relevant channels. To support this, we will invest in a Customer Relationship Management tool (CRM), to ensure regular engagement with our collaborators and updates on items of specific interest to them. We will exhibit and/or present at relevant stakeholder events and host our own. We will apply for relevant awards and build a strong reputation.

We will partner with Schools and Professional Directorates to develop appropriate communication channels and methods, maintaining a collaborative approach to information sharing. We will ensure the website is updated and create case studies from each of our suitable engagements.