UK Education and Employers Taskforce Research Conference, The Point of Partnership: Understanding Employer Engagement in Education, University of Warwick, UK, October 15, 2010

Citation

Mann, A. (2011), "UK Education and Employers Taskforce Research Conference, The Point of Partnership: Understanding Employer Engagement in Education, University of Warwick, UK, October 15, 2010", Strategic HR Review, Vol. 10 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/shr.2011.37210bac.004

UK Education and Employers Taskforce Research Conference, The Point of Partnership: Understanding Employer Engagement in Education, University of Warwick, UK, October 15, 2010

Article Type: Resources From: Strategic HR Review, Volume 10, Issue 2

What happens when employers engage with schools and colleges? This simple question was at the heart of 25 papers presented at the inaugural UK Education and Employers Taskforce research conference, The Point of Partnership: Understanding Employer Engagement in Education. Attracting many academics prominent in the field from British and European universities, the conference considered both macro level motivations for employers to engage and the detailed experience of young people, schools/colleges and employee volunteers as participants in work-related learning.

Employer engagement with education a vital strategic intervention

Two keynote lectures provided compelling economic perspectives for engagement. Professor Hugh Lauder (University of Bath), editor of the Journal of Education and Work, spoke about his new book, The Global Auction (written with Phil Brown and David Ashton), which questions many closely held assumptions about the causal link between traditional educational provision and the national prosperity of OECD countries as self-declared knowledge economies. A comparison, for example of median, rather than mean, graduate wage premiums shows very different results.

Later Hans van der Loo, vice president (EU Liaison), Shell International, looked at the critical issue of talent flow into science and engineering professions. The world of 2050 will face unprecedented challenges, and it is people entering school this decade who will be asked to address them. Unfortunately, across the OECD countries, increasingly boys, and especially girls, are turning their backs on scientific study and professions. To both speakers, employer engagement with education is a vital strategic intervention, helping to manage more efficient distribution of labor across the workforce and inspiring and enabling a new generation of talent, from the most diverse range of backgrounds, to consider priority vocational options.

Presenters across the conference, including eight research professors, touched on themes of national vocational strategies, the impact of part-time working on educational success, career aspirations, graduate employability, apprenticeships and schools-based qualifications. A number of papers looked explicitly at the motivation of employee volunteers and the benefits they secured in staff development and engagement from working with schools as mentors, reading partners, governors or as leaders of enterprise activities.

Anthony MannDirector of Policy and Research at UK Education and Employers Taskforce.

For more information

It is hoped that this event is the launch of a new “community of interest,” bringing together academics, analysts, policy-makers and practitioners, all interested in what happens when employers engage in educational activities. To help spread awareness of the best quality research in the area, full papers and video of key presenters, are available at www.educationandemployers.org/researchconference Conference participants opted into a new mail group designed to highlight publications, seminars and tenders and provide a platform for focused discussions on questions of shared importance. The mailgroup membership is international – to join, e-mail researchmail@educationandemployers.org