1. Building Effective Staff Development to Support Employer Engagement Jane Timlin & Renata Eyres The University of Salford

2. Employer Engagement: Impact on the HE Sector The ability to successfully deliver employer engagement activities will become essential for the majority of H.E.I.’s. Government funding may well be targeted at those H.E.I.’s who can deliver employer engagement. Employer Engagement may provide new sources of income for H.E.I.’s at a time of budget cuts.

3. Employer Engagement: The Impact on Future Staff Need to develop specific skills and knowledge to deliver employer engagement. Need to identify career paths for both academic and professional staff that reflect and reward expertise in employer engagement. Need to identify staff who have a natural ability in this area.

4. Staff Development as an Enabler Builds confidence of staff to deliver in this new area. Targets the specific skill sets, and knowledge needed for successful employer engagement. Creates Professional standards and frameworks to enhance external delivery and internal career development.

5. Dedicated Staff Development: Where are we now? Staff development is a deliverable in several HEFCE employer engagement funded projects. Staff development is often ad-hoc and delivered in line with project goals. AURIL Professional Framework: but not much emphasis on WBL or EE. Specialist Training from Training Gateway etc.

6. 2009 Survey Findings (1) >77% stated employer engagement was important to their H.E.I. >70% stated that their H.E.I. planned to increase dedicated staff development for employer engagement in the next 12-24 months. >60 stated their H.E.I. currently delivered dedicated staff development for academic staff.

7. 2009 Survey Findings (2) > 70% want collaborating employers to be involved in staff development. >95% believed administrative and professional staff should also participate in staff development. >75% would welcome more opportunities and forums to share best practice.

8. Staff Development: Key Challenges (1) Developing the capacity and capability to deliver staff development. Developing professional frameworks and sector standards. Identifying the complex and varied skills and knowledge required.

9. Staff Development: Key Challenges (2) Ensuring institutional support & alignment. Creating staff development that has a positive impact on practice. Effectively targeting staff development at the right people. Getting the content and delivery right.

10. The University of Salford Approach Customer Focused. Practical & Relevant. Celebrated our existing best practice. SD programme vehicle to promote EE internally and change attitudes.

11. Our Solution Programme of 6 linked Sessions. Focused on 2 key areas: i. Working the Curriculum ii. Engaging with Employers.

12. Our Solution  Delivered face 2 face in half-day sessions – open to all.  Creation of supporting learning materials.  Development of on-line materials.

13. Key Benefits Improved confidence & capability for staff. Platform to promote employer engagement and our new work based learning framework. Enabled communities of best practice. Key mechanism for changing culture!

14. Impact & Evaluation Feedback was extremely positive with participants recognising both the relevance of workshop content and the quality of delivery: Initial evaluation of the programme demonstrated a high level of satisfaction (average 80%) with the content, format and delivery of the workshops. “The workshop [was] an excellent balance of effective group activities and interesting anecdotes/experience from the workshop leaders. It has given me lots of food for thought.”

15. Impact & Evaluation Across all the workshops, the evaluation indicated that 90% of respondents stated that the workshops would make a positive difference to the way they approached employer engagement. “More confidence on issues to consider…early on in the development process.” “Given me more confidence when speaking to academics in the faculty planning new programmes…”

16. Lessons Learnt Awareness of the growing importance of EE/WBL and most want to address this and learn new skills to help them develop their careers. Staff Development in this area needs to address the practical needs of staff to enable them to ‘better do their job’ - it can also be fun! In terms of content its beneficial to include both face to face and on-line aspects, and to ensure that provision is reviewed and improved in line with staff requirements.

17. Summary Effective Staff development needs to: Enhance practice. Create support and goodwill. Have institutional support & meet institutional needs. Provide opportunities to share best practice.

18. Summary Ways the sector could enhance staff development: Development of professional frameworks Development of occupational standards and career development paths related to employer engagement Provide forums for sharing best practice

19. Questions