NewcastleCollege – Providing relevant and specific qualifications for Creative Industries

Background

The ‘vision’ for Foundation Degrees was to integrate skills with academic underpinning to provide vocational routes into industry. It married the placement and engagement ethos of the HND provision with more defined academic input and skills. This provided an opportunity to embrace and define industry practice and to use this as a rational for relevant academic change. This dialogue aligns Foundation Degrees with industry demonstrating over the last ten yearsthe aim that…

‘offering a quicker route to employment should be attractive to young people leaving schools and colleges, especially those with vocational A-levels and those seeking to study on a full time basis. FDs will also provide a valuable route into employment for labour market returners and the unemployed’

How did we respond?The school set out a strategy to engage with and support employers within the region fully endorsing the remit of the FDs as stand alone level 5 qualifications fulfilling industry needs and requirements.

To do this the school developed a number of initiatives.

Employer engagement strategy

Progression opportunity strategy

Skills based strategy

Employer engagement strategy

To facilitate this process the School of Art & Design developed a designated employer engagement team. The strategy of this team is to support academic delivery and development through contacting regional businesses to discuss a range of business and training opportunities. Theteam does this through their knowledge of theRegional Economic Strategy (RES)and SSC requirements as well as the schools curriculum offer. Working collaboratively to identify individual solutions to skill shortages or unexplored commercial opportunities, the Schools offer to industry includes:

  • Offering Real Working Environments (RWE) that enhanced theWork Based Learning (WBL) experiences of students. This in turn supports the Regional Economic Strategy (RES) by supporting students in making informed choices about vocational careers within their region
  • Identifying and recommending bespoke training packages to businesses and industry enhancing products, brand, market share, or help to re-position the organisation for growth or movement
  • Identifying and developing long term placements / Knowledge Transfer partnership (KTP) opportunities by analysing business/skill needs and working in partnership with an organisation to find solutions. Programmes delivered to employers can be tailored to individual requirements and form part of a portfolio of courses on offer which can be either ‘off the shelf’ or bespoke
  • Encouraging interaction with industry whether micro, small or medium employers (SMEs) or sole traders to identify and map creative sector skills against their own needs and through this informing our own curriculum development in response to industry need.

This benefits students through:

  • Simulating real life experiences in the world of work making students more employable and knowledgeable of the skills they have to offer to industry.
  • Offering curriculum activities informed by current industry developments
  • Visits, talks, seminars enabling practical experiences to be passed on through collaborative WBL opportunities.
  • Sustaining long term placements for Level 5 and 6 students which lead to full time employment whilst on long term placements.
  • Enabling students to complete projects that have real benefit to participating companies and to check they have valid industry related skills.

This benefits companies through:

  • Providing skills training to employees as identified through diagnostic with the employer
  • Matching employers skill needs against student experiences to provide placements that enable companies to take on additional work or to support employers and employees on contracts
  • Enabling employers to engage with a range of students on placements or long term placements when searching for an employee
  • Enabling employers to develop in a new area or develop a new business strategy by taking on a student with skills that no other employee has.

All of our Foundation Degree courses have employer forums and industry advisers which offer support and act as a critical friend. This feedback supports the purchasing of new equipment maintaining industry relevance and also reviewing the academic content of the course.For example within a specific sector our current fashion and textiles forum members are regional companies with different focuses and are aware of the skills that the students have and as many of these companies are repeat business they show the value industry puts on the level of skills the school provides.

Progression opportunity strategy

The College actively supports entry into employment strengthening its position through supporting entrepreneurial skill and independent development by creating a unique, exclusively industry facing BA, one year top-up award. A key aim of this strategy was to ensure that the gap (as identified in the Cox Review) between industries requirements and education was bridged by the learner. Business Link actively supports this programme by operating from the same building with students and clients.The level 6 programme was developed to allow employees to gain higher skills in association with their employer aims and objectives whilst also gaining a BA Honours qualification. The vision is further articulated for full time students who take up long term industry placements, 40% of which have naturally led to employment. Additionally, employment has been offered to level 5 students whilst on placement if they were willing to undertake training at level 6 as part of their employment contract.

Skills based strategy

To support the aims of the SSC the school took the step to ensure that Fashion and Textiles courses mapped the skills they offered against the National Occupational Standards (NOS) where appropriate. At level 4 and 5 the course teams mapped the modules delivered against the skills needs of the industry as set out by the SSC this ensured that students progressing through the levels met industry skills needs.

Through this the school closed the gap between the skills industry say they need and what education offered. These free standing skills (skill sets) were dropped out of the full time Foundation Degrees and used as ‘bite sized’ full cost training packages for industry.

When talking about interacting with the market place and industry… ‘The foundation Degrees will respond to this need by equipping students with the combination of technical skills, academic knowledge, and transferable skills that employers are increasingly demanding’.

Foundation Degree Prospectus (2000)

The company sector

Using our fashion and textiles cluster as a sector based case study we define the current market place through our knowledge of this sectors, skills needs and regional business activity. Information gained from analysis of data provides a picture of recruitment trends in fashionand textiles and skills gaps as identified by SkillFast – UK using the last available data reviewed April, May and June 2009.

Within the report there are three main sections:

1. A picture of overall vacancy trends in the manufacturing side of the sector

compared to the wider economy, drawing on Office of National Statistics data

2. A profile of the type and location of vacancies in the manufacturing/service side ofthe sector, drawing on Jobcentre data

3. A picture of recruitment trends in fashion, drawing on SSC research into

vacancies advertised in the trade press.

Section One: UK Vacancies within the sectors.

The Fashion and Textile marketplace within the regional largely represented by micro businesses with few key SME’s and macro businesses such as Visage and BEBE. The School is in constant contact with these major regional companies and has successfully worked in partnership for many years providing students from levels 5, many of which have not only been offered full time employment but supported the companies in developing their strategies for growth.

Data from the SSC on performance last year shows that overall vacancy trends in fashion and textiles manufacturingduring the second quarter of 2009 (April, May, June), appears to have been hit hard by recession, compared with theeconomy as a whole.On average, there were only 300 vacancies a month in the period – a fall of over 80 per cent compared with the same quarter in 2008. By contrast, the wider economy experienced a smaller decline of 36 per cent. The number of vacancies per 100 employees has also fallen from 1.7 vacancies per 100 employees in quarter 2 2008, to just 0.3 vacancies per 100 employees in quarter 2 this year. This compares with a current average for the wider economy of 1.6. This data matches our own experience of placing and securing employment for graduates. Within the region in 08-09 data indicates that there were approximately 20 graduate jobs advertised in Fashion and Textiles in the North East. During this period 11 of our students went into employment within these sectors accounting for 55% impact in the region.

Section 2 Profile of Fashion and Textiles industries

Our foundation degrees in fashion and textiles are mapped to the National Occupational Standards ensuring that relevant skills are delivered to full and part time students. This enables our placement team working in partnership with regional businesses (many of which are repeat customers) to discuss the skills needs of the company and match a number of students who proceed through an interview process to secure the placement.

This information helps to shape our strategy for engaging with regional businesses. Through checking employer data against practical skills offered on our FD programmes we ensure our fashion and textile courses remain valid and that the skills requested by employers can be matched against student experience. During this period, just below 2,400 fashion and textile vacancies were notified to Job centres across Great Britain. This figure is 31 per cent lower than that recorded for the equivalent period of 2008. Two occupations dominate the profile of vacancies: sewing machinists (965 vacancies) andlaunderers/dry-cleaners (743 vacancies), which together account for more than 70 per cent of the total. This reflects the prominent position of these jobs within the sector as a whole. While we are currently unable to offer training within the specialist area of Dry Cleaning we have strategically aligned our courses to provide pattern cutting, sewing and textile processes and have recently invested in pattern grading software to match international standards and provide training that supports regional micro and macro business requirements. Finally we offer skills pulled from the Foundation Degrees and the NOS as unaccredited full cost courses which provide core employability skills needed to work in industry but also to apply for Foundation Degrees.

‘Foundation degrees will play a vital role in meeting labour market needs for technicians and associated professionals. Employer needs are constantly evolving, and it is important that HE keeps pace with these changes. This calls for close collaboration between employer and provider’.

(pg 7) Foundation Degree Prospectus (2000)

We monitor the skills used and requestedfrom graduates; employersand placement providers and also through advertised job vacancies. The type of vacancies offered across the country is mirrored in a microcosm within the North East region. The most advertised job category in the quarter was “design”, which accounted for more than one-third of advertised opportunities. This broad category relates to a wide range of roles and levels, from design assistant to senior designer and design director. Across the year 08-09 the areas of wholesale and design accounted for over 60% of all jobs within the industry with pattern cutting accounting for 5-10%.

The Foundation Degree

The range of skills across the sector cannot be duplicated by any one educational institution so we have to monitor our curriculum offer and engagement strategy to provide a realistic and relevant experience to students and support for employers. Through this focus we define our offer looking as design and making skills, sewing, pattern cutting digital pattern grading and hand skills in embroidery etc.

The occupations that require a significant element of sector-specific technical skills, and are therefore of greatest interest to the Sector Skills Council, are as follows: Blue indicates skills that need addressedin our programmes:

Production / technical manager

Higher level technical personnel, including:

Designer

Garment technologist

Fabric technologist

Sample technician

Shima programmer

Buyer

Skilled trades, including:

Soft furnisher

Tailor

Pattern cutter / grader

Embroiderer

Sewing machine mechanic.

Operative level staff, including:

Sewing machinist

Garment cutter

Knitwear linker

Garment presser

Clothing packer.

Relationships with Business Link and Entrust plus regional textiles and fashion businesses help us to define the market. Information gathered through systematic feedback fromemployers and students on completion of a placement confirm that we are delivering the required skills. We also receive feedback from employers undergoing full cost and bespoke training that identify new opportunities.

Further information is gathered from our more informal employer contacts through course leaders.This intelligence and research is fed back into the curriculum through an ongoing cycle of curriculum reviewand performance monitoring, all of which is part of the College Business Plan.

The schoolsemployer engagement team further developsand enhances our established links with employers. Each of our 11 Foundation Degrees has a core of companies or industry advisers which form their individual employer forum. In total these forums provide us with approximately 45 companies who are additionally supported by over 500 companies regularly contacting and engaging with us as part of our student placement programme.

Applications of skills in the workplace as defined in the essential features of a Foundation Degree.

  • Students must demonstrate their skills in work relevant to the area of study
  • Work experience should be sufficient to develop an understanding of the world of work and be validated, assesses and recorded.
  • the awarding HEIs should award credits, with exemptions for students with relevant work experience

Benefits

By working with One NorthEast, the Regional Development Agency, SSCs and other strategic partners including employers we are able to continually monitor our provision next to internal and external strategic aims. Skillfast-UK’s vision for the Fashion and Textiles industry is that ‘The Fashion and Textiles industry will have access to technically relevant, employer-led qualifications and products’

This vision will be achieved based on the following aims and objectives:

  • Improve and develop the capacity of the learning supply to ensure the workforce has the skills required by the sector through programme and course design and the use of smart technologies and materials

•Set out specific strategic actions and develop sector plans that will lead to the improvement of productivity and sustainability through competence in the areas of leadership, technology, craft and business – all of which are required to meet the business needs of the sector

•Understand that the workforce characteristics and skill development needs differ between the Skillfast-UK sectors

•Influence the learning supply network to ensure it is responsive to the needs of its employers, employees and new entrants and is flexible in its delivery

•Support the work readiness and employability of potential employees by ensuring qualification structures and content

The Way Ahead

The school identified against these core themes anindustry integration strategy for working within the sector; the actions are identified within the key performance criteria below. It informs the Schools business and risk plan and has targets throughout:

Industry integration strategytargets:

  • To meet the needs of the SCCin providing relevant work related skills to students and employers infashion and textiles in the North East
  • To offer consistent reliable delivery of these skills to students. Ensure teaching staff have the highest level of skills and experience.
  • Toprovide students with industry standard equipment to develop theirpractical and IT skills and to offer the highest standard of ILT to allow learners access to world wide information to develop their skills
  • To provide Work Based Learning (WBL) or Real Working Environment (RWE) experiences for all students through structured placements or live projects through partnerships with regional businesses

How do we evidence our integration?

Throughmonitoring repeat business;currently up to 40% of companies return each year for further placement or interaction with the college. Through monitoring customer satisfaction; currently 90%+ we demonstrate positive feedback from employers. The increase of student placements within the sector reached 60% last year. These placements are based on the ability of students to fulfil industry needs and the capacity of companies to provide support for placements.

Through monitoring our investment in; Digital pattern cutting and grading software; a wide format material printer and a digital automatic embroidery machine we provide students experience of using and training in industry relevant machinery.

Finally we measure Foundation Degree impact on the sector in three ways:

  • Monitoring the number of companies that work with the college each year and positive feedback
  • Monitoring the amount of repeat business placements each year showing sustained benefits to companies
  • Monitoring the number of students progressing into industry against data produced from SkillFast – UK. This allows us to calculate the number of actual graduate jobs in the North East. This then allows us to measure impact through the success of our students in entering a competitive market

The target for repeat business shown below has been increasing steadily over the last four years as the quality of students and our provision make an impact on the market. This is especially impressive as these are hard to reach micro businesses.