Wednesday 1st December 2010, Guoman Charing Cross Hotel - London, 09:15 - 16:00

A New University Challenge: High Level Skills for the Future

N.B. Despite the current weather conditions, this event is still scheduled to take place.

Overview

High level skills – the skills associated with higher education – are good for the individuals who acquire them and good for the economy. They help individuals unlock their talent and aspire to change their life for the better. They help businesses and public services innovate and prosper. They help towns and cities thrive by creating jobs, helping businesses become more competitive and driving economic regeneration. Universities have an essential role in ensuring that the country has the skills and knowledge necessary for its long-term success.

According to the CBI’s Stronger together: Businesses and universities in turbulent times report, published October 2009, success for the UK in the global economy will increasingly depend on the development of high-value added sectors in services. These in turn will require a highly trained workforce, rich with graduate-level skills. Yet at the same time, the CBI estimates that by 2014 there will be unmet demand for 775,000 roles requiring higher level science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM). Around 60% of businesses expect problems recruiting staff with STEM skills over the next three years. However, Dr Vince Cable, the Secretary of State for Business, outlined that the state does have a role in funding specific subjects – where there is evidence of large social and private return, but which are costly to teach (for example science, engineering, technology and maths).

Dr Cable also outlined that the government will remove the “bias” of funding traditional three year degree courses over vocational education and apprenticeships and encourage more distance learning, with students combining work and study and more employer input in courses to drive up high level skills.

A survey undertaken for the CBI Higher Education Task Force also showed that many recent graduates felt that they had not received high-quality careers advice. Others thought more could have been done to help them develop the employability skills necessary to secure the jobs they wanted. Responding to the need for greater transparency from universities, Universities and Science Minister David Willetts, announced that higher education institutions will need to publish employability statements. These statements will summarise what universities and colleges offer students to help them become job-ready in the widest sense and support their transition into the world of work.

Agenda

This timely and informative forum will offer delegates the opportunity to discuss and examine how employers, and higher education providers can work together to equip the workforce with the skills required for an innovative and competitive economy.

09:15	Registration and Coffee
10:00	Chair’s Welcome Address Professor Lorna Unwin, Chair in Vocational Education and Deputy Director of the ESRC-funded Research Centre, LLAKES, Institute of Education (CONFIRMED)
10:05	Future of High Level Skills Rt Hon Lord Knight of Weymouth, Former Minister of State for Schools (CONFIRMED)
10:25	Questions and Answers Session
10:30	The UK’s Higher Level Skill Needs: Today and Tomorrow Our international skills position Ensure that England has the skills that employers need now and in the future High levels skills and our future economic recovery Current skills mismatches Addressing the skills gap The key drivers for change Professor Mike Campbell OBE, Director of Research and Policy, UK Commission for Employment and Skills (CONFIRMED)
10:50	Investing in High Level Skills, Investing in our Economic Recovery Who we are and what we do HE developing the workforce: past experience HEFCE investment in employability and Higher level skills Learning from HEFCE’s investments HEFCE in a post Browne/CSR world Paul Hazell, Policy Adviser, Skills Policy Team, Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) (CONFIRMED)
11:10	Future Agenda for High Level Skills Government’s aspirations for higher education and high level skills Preparing people for the professional skills that will be in demand in the future Working with Higher Education institutions to equip students with employability skills Ways forward: Partnership working between HE and employers Claire Pierce, High Level Skills Unit, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) (CONFIRMED)
11:30	Questions and Answers Session
11:50	Coffee and Networking
12:10	Investing in STEM: High-level skills Needed For the Future STEM skills are vital to areas of future growth and employment including advanced manufacturing and low carbon industries Addressing employers difficulty recruiting STEM-skilled staff Importance of STEM skills as the bedrock for innovation in business and industry Encouraging more undergraduates into STEM subjects What can business do attract more student into STEM related careers Investing in skills through the upturn Leo Ringer, Education & Skills Policy Adviser, Confederation of British Industry (CBI) (CONFIRMED)
12:30	Universities and Businesses: How Value Can Best Be Generated Expanding workforce skills Working with businesses and communities to deliver employable graduates Strategies for effective HE-employer engagement Employer engagement with higher education: sustaining the relationship Education providers to be more responsive to business needs How best to bring businesses and universities together to create economic and social value Developing flexibility in the system David Docherty, Chief Executive, Council for Industry and Higher Education (CIHE) (CONFIRMED)
12:50	Questions and Answers Session
13:00	Lunch and Networking
14:00	Case Study: Workforce Development Through Employer-Higher Education Partnerships University of Salford’s 'Enabler model' for effective employer engagement Creating a responsive and flexible infrastructure to ensure that the high level skill needs of employers can be effectively addressed Strengthening partnership working with the local business community Establishing the Business Services Unit: support schools and faculties in developing and delivering employer-led learning and Professor Martin Hall, Vice-Chancellor, University of Salford (CONFIRMED)
14:20	Case Study: Skillset Academy Network - Partnership Working Between HE and Employers The Skillset Media and Film Academy Networks: enabling education and industry to work together to produce the innovators and leaders of the future Creating centres of excellence Developing the new wave of media talent Accelerating the response to meet articulated demand; aggregating and focusing customer demand How can employers engage more effectively in supporting courses, through offering placements, sandwich programmes, internships Dinah Caine, CEO , skillset (CONFIRMED)
14:40	Coffee and Networking
15:00	Combining Vocational and Academic Learning to Meet the Needs of Students and Employers Meeting the higher vocational learning needs of individuals and employers Validity of work-based routes into vocational higher education The value of work-based and work-related higher education learning Meeting the government’s aspiration to combine work and study and more employer input in courses How can how vocational and academic routes complement one another Attracting more students into STEM subjects through vocational learning Progression from vocational and applied learning to higher education Adrian Anderson, Chief Executive, The University Vocational Awards Council (UVAC) (CONFIRMED)
15:20	Case Study: Preparing Students for Employment Creation of a specialised employer-face ‘FutureSkills’ Unit Embedding employability skills in the curriculum Meeting the graduate and skill requirements of local businesses Expanding work-based learning opportunities Establishing Knowledge Transfer Partnerships Providing a demand-led and responsive service Supporting the Government’s Skills Agenda Dr Ian Tunbridge, Deputy Vice-Chancellor, (Enterprise and External Services), Thames Valley University (CONFIRMED)
15:40	Questions and Answers Session
16:00	Coffee and Networking

*programme subject to change without notice

Audience

Delegates will include vice chancellors, pro vice chancellors, skills directors, partnership directors, heads of strategy development, heads of knowledge transfer partnerships, apprenticeship managers, directors of technology and engineering services, careers advisors, talent managers, directors and managers of enterprise and business development, and be drawn from public central government departments and agencies, academia, research councils, research and development organisations, regional development agencies, learning providers, businesses and employers, voluntary and community sectors and social enterprises and the private sector.

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