16 Mar 2010
Six individuals with business experience have today been named as industry champions to help develop a Foundation Degree Framework with the polymer, chemical, petrochemical, nuclear and bioscience sectors.
The six champions will work closely with their lead Higher Education Institution, as well as collectively as a consortium, to ensure that the Working Higher Foundation Degree Framework is flexible in its delivery and meets the needs of employers by engaging closely with industry in both the development and delivery of a work-based programme.
The project will develop a set of generic modules to be used across Foundation Degrees relevant to a wide range of science-based industries. It then seeks, by means of utilising academic and industrial expertise of the champions, to develop and deliver specialist modules which together with the generic modules will complete a suite of discrete foundation degrees targeted at the needs of specific sectors.
Pauline Maden, Project Manager said: “The Industry Champion team is the perfect choice for our knowledge intensive industry; the team has a truly broad understanding of the science based industries, comprehensive access to research and well-established networking capabilities. I am delighted that the team is now in place and I am extremely excited about working with them to drive forward this project.”
David Smith, Head of Training at Murco Petroleum Ltd Milford Haven Refinery: “We see Foundation Degrees as crucial to the recruitment, maintenance and development of the workforce, empowering them with the skills required to respond to the many changes and challenges the sector is facing. These new qualifications will be of particular importance for the development of the existing workforce and will be of benefit in attracting new talent to the industry. The foundation degree will be an alternative to the normal route of Bachelor degrees. Consequently, funding and support to get a coordinated approach across the Cogent footprint is essential”
University Partners and Industry Champions
The universities chosen to deliver Working Higher under the leadership of Hull are:
- University of Central Lancashire (Nuclear)
Martin Wells and Alli Hunt
- University of Kent (Bioscience)
Brian Szukala
- London Metropolitan University (Polymers)
Jeremy Pingstone
- Manchester Metropolitan University (Chemicals)
Robert Green
- University of Hull (Refining and Petrochemical Engineering)
Gareth James
The foundation degrees will consist of a number of core common modules,
as well as bespoke elements for individual workers, and will be a
mixture of university and work-based learning.
About Working higher:
The £3m project piloting bespoke courses for the science-based industries is being led by the University of Hull. It is called ‘Working Higher’ and is a collaboration between Cogent, the Higher Education Academy (HEA) Physical Sciences Centre and the University of Hull. The project fund includes a subsidy of the cost of the provision to the Sector. Working Higher is funded by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) under their Employer Engagement Fund.
Foundation degrees are degree level qualifications designed with employers and combine academic study with workplace learning to equip people with the relevant knowledge, understanding and skills to improve performance and productivity.
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