Institutional Innovation

Flexible negotiated frameworks for accreditation: Designing courses for work based learning (WBL)

Why is this important?

Universities need to provide a course framework which will marry employer and employee needs with regard to HE qualifications. Negotiated Course Frameworks for work-based learning allow employers to select courses that meet their needs, get recognition for courses delivered in-house and allow (work-based) learners to achieve a recognised qualification from a selection of training, experience and credits.

Context

In developing and implementing a course framework for work based learning the institutional processes for accrediting and designing courses need to take account of the specific needs of work-based courses. The validation and design of work based learning courses can be made more effective and efficient by making small changes to existing systems and processes; developing processes and technical systems that allow for more flexible course deliver in terms of length of time and start and end points; and enabling existing systems to handle the requirements of work-based learning.

Technology can support these processes and make them more efficient and effective in dealing with the complexities of engaging with the needs of employers to deliver tailored courses and qualifications. Existing barriers within institutional processes and providing the necessary training and support to members of staff will also be required.

Developing a suitable framework and adapting existing systems and processes increases the institution’s opportunities to see growth in the number of work-based courses and learners.

What are the lessons for institutions

Provide an agreed set of modules and processes

Provide an agreed set of modules and processes that is accepted by the institutions quality and validation processes for the negotiation and development of courses for individuals or employers in work based learning.

Support WBL strategically and drive it by senior managers

Institutions′ policy and strategy needs to support WBL, specifically to allow negotiated frameworks for courses to be developed. When developing a framework an institution may also need to:

• Review existing strategy and policy that relate to work based learning and the related processes to ensure there are no barriers of anomalies.
• Review existing processes and systems for validation and accreditation
• Consider the relationship between the framework structure and the current funding method from the funding council, which may change.
• Ensure the minimum credit level of a unit/module/chunk within the framework is appropriate and decide to handle smaller units of learning and recognise these within their framework.
• Consider how learning outcomes need to be aligned with competency descriptors used by employers, sector skills or professional bodies.

Improve efficiency

Efficiency in processes and systems are required to allow institutions to compete or collaborate with commercial providers in the WBL market. Areas that may allow institutions to be more responsive and competitive are:

• Ensuring frameworks support rapid course development. WBL courses often need to be developed in days or weeks, so existing institutional processes need a means of rapid course validation to support LLL/WFD.
• Including quality assurance processes within the framework. There is a need to formalise the quality assurance process to speed up the response time to employers.
• Ensuring the course descriptions and learning outcomes are in a language that makes sense to employers and learners. This will speed up the course development process and also improve marketing.
• Integrating existing course information systems. It may not always be an easy process for the higher education institutions to define their CPD provision, as they had a combination of centrally organised provision, plus additional courses in departments or faculties, making collation difficult.
• Adopting a common template for programme and module descriptions and consistency in it use, will support course comparison and recognition of employer based courses.
• Maintaining an electronic course database. Course information needs to be available in format that can support multiple processes and be shared across systems (using the course information standard XCRI[ref])

Increase flexibility and agility

Flexibility of frameworks, and institutional agility are required as employers have diverse needs and work based learners have different modes of learning to traditional students. In meeting these needs an institution may:

• Consider how the frameworks will add value to existing short courses, be more than a system of adding up credits, by providing a means to integrate a variety of learning towards a recognised award.
• Consider how the framework will operate across the institution; meeting the needs of individual faculties or subject areas that may need to conform to existing requirements from professional bodies or working private training providers; work across institutions or regionally where learners may be undertaking learning across several providers.
• Ensure that the student management system can able to handle variable module start and end dates.
• Consider how existing systems will deal with non-completion of learners (as many may attend CPD but not complete assignments), balancing assessment regulations while ensuring the WBL are not disadvantaged.
• Support and stimulate Employers to sign-up to courses, i.e. the framework needs the flexibility to allow them to get involved slowly and to be able to see clear benefits for their staff. There needs to be a clear return on investment for the employer and some of this will need to be agreed contractually.
• Consider how the institutional processes will handle learners who move jobs, lose jobs, etc.
• Include provision with the framework to enable the collation of evidence and assuring coherence in awards based on credit gained from various courses (including employer-based training) and APL.
• Consider how best to develop systems that can store course and module descriptors that meet the needs of academic quality processes and also provide text that can be used for marketing and communication with employers and learners.
• Support a variety of modes of learning and assessment, with the framework and the pedagogy of work based learning.

This is being done by...

Developing curricula with employers

The Gloucestershire Framework for Personal & Professional Development is a ‘shell’ framework supporting the development of co-generated curricula. The Gloucestershire Framework was validated by the University of Gloucestershire in May 2009

The University then developed a toolkit to support academics in their negotiations with employers when developing a new course or recognising existing training that will be validated within the Gloucestershire Framework. The tools allow for the development of courses using language and terminology which is familiar to employers. They support the development of courses and allow learners to provide evidence to demonstrate that they have met the learning requirements of the course.

The toolkit consists of four separate elements: Vocabulary Builder; Outcome Builder; Task Builder and Design Builder[ref]. The tools integrate the vocabulary from several academic qualification frameworks as part of the process and can be linked also to professional standards and competency statement.

An important element of the framework is that the tools support the development of course and outcome descriptions that are meaningful to the employers and learners as employees, whilst at the same time satisfying the quality assurance requirements of higher education institutions. This has been achieved in part by being able to fold a separate description mapped to the relevant academic framework descriptions and level descriptors.

Developing a learning framework for work-based learners

The University of Central Lancashire have developed a learning framework for workbased learners that has been used to design, develop and validate part-time awards that allow learner to gain accreditation of prior learning.

In developing courses they found a lack of understanding amongst employers about what HE courses can offer their employees and the need for a common language. One approach taken has been to remove as much of this complexity from the interaction with employers. An example of this is how the framework also supports the accreditation of in-house training delivered by employers. To make this process more efficient they have developed an “expert system” tool. The Credit Mapping Tool (ref) provides employers with preliminary guidance and advice regarding future accreditation applications. A series of on-line forms are accessed and completed by the employer, providing data necessary for the UCLan advisor to develop initial feedback via e-mail.

The framework also allowed for all modules on all awards to be studied by negotiated learning. Negotiated learning can be agreed on an individual basis or at employer level. The framework also supports modules to be achieved through the accreditation of prior experiential learning. Having a framework with integrated processes for negotiation, APEL and credit transfers provides a more demand led course to be created that meets the needs of individual learners or employers for their employees.

Providing short courses flexibly

At the University of Wolverhampton short course study units have been developed for Small and Medium Size Enterprises and delivered via an online portfolio platform. The ability to deliver shorter courses has enabled the University to provide learning opportunities to work-based learners that are bespoke to the individuals learning needs whilst being cost-effective and sustainable business for the University. The framework allows learners to combine units of study and submit summative assessments to achieve 20 HE credits.

To remove existing barriers to work based learning, the University of Wolverhampton has further developed a number of internal systems and processes such as alternative learner identities, short-term and intermittent access to learner services and quality and validation processes that can be used or adapted to meet other demands for work-based learners. They have drafted regulations for the recognition of the work based units as part of a named award, or a negotiated course, to ensure academic integrity as they are combined into modules and build towards an HE award.

The institution has used this to inform and support their future curriculum development in the new marketplaces in which they will seek to have an impact.

Changing Institutional Culture around WBL

The University of Bradford are using an innovative curriculum design and delivery approach to ensure work-based learning courses are meeting the needs of employers and employees. The approach has been used to address the barriers to work based learning within the institution. The review process address looks at the HEIs administrative framework to enable greater flexibility for work-based learners and WBL programmes, in terms of responsiveness, fitness for purpose, and flexibility by looking at alternative delivery modes.

The approach seeks to prompt change in each of the following aspects when implemented:

• employer/provider engagement
• programme design
• aspiration raising and pre-entry engagement
• induction and orientation
• delivery
• progressive achievement
• completion and transition

In the School of Health Studies a Certificate in Reablement Support, has been developed using this approach. The course supports workers currently employed in health and social care to build on work-based competence training. The course has been designed as a series of small packages of learning that can build into full awards through an incremental learning progression. The design provides a flexible framework that allows for learners to undertake learning when it suits them and their employer, so learning can be spread over time or taken in larger blocks.

This approach challenges the barriers in institutional processes to enable work based learning opportunities to be provided more efficiently and effective, meeting the needs of the employer and work based learner.

Developing course information standards and course comparison tools

The University of Middlesex have a well established Institute for Work Based Learning, that has developed a framework for validation and design of courses to meet the needs of employers.

Developing a specific course for an individual employer is a costly and time consuming proposition. A WBL Framework provides a structure within which existing modules and employer based training can be brought together to form a customised course within an existing validated framework. However the process of mapping employer requirements to existing courses within the institution or with external courses requires individual knowledge and expertise. So an approach has been developed using software tools to look for a best possible match between requirements and existing institutional courses. This will stream line the process and improve efficiency, allowing courses to be developed quicker and cheaper.

To enable the tools to be sued effectively it was found that courses needed to held or transformed in a standardised format, the course information standard XCRI was used for this purpose. However at present not all institutions have adopted this new standard and course information is still held as documents in separate systems. Access to existing courses databases can also be difficult to obtain within an institution and even more difficult across institutions to make comparison between similar courses. The existing comparison tools also require a level of expertise and understanding, so require a trained user.

The approach of course matching has been shown to be effective however to realise the efficiency gains that would benefit an institution, existing processes around the data collection o courses information would need to be address and the adoption of the XCRI standard.

Learning through work

Learning outcomes achieved through means such as projects, problem solving, enquiry-based learning, reflective/ analytical accounts, work-based research. Existing Domain knowledge is deployed – any required augmentation is likely to personalised and enquiry-based. Qualification routes may be defined via a Professional practice “shell” framework.

Mapping to professional competency frameworks

The University of Hull integrated systems that support personalised initial/qualifying professional development (IPD) and continuing professional development (CPD), applicable to professional competency frameworks.