A study of the key drivers in workforce engagement with HE level provision in the Aerospace sector > Project Summary

A study of the key drivers in workforce engagement with HE level provision in the Aerospace sector

Lead Institution: University of the West of England

This is a sub-project of Progressing from labour market intelligence to HE level provision that is well supported by employers

Project Summary

This project was set up to try to identify and tackle key issues facing employers and Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) when creating and developing learning resources to minimise skill gaps and enhance the lifelong learning opportunities for employees in STEM-related industries, specifically in the Aerospace sector.

The SW Spoke HE-STEM project in workforce development provided an opportunity to try to identify the problems apparently blocking the production the level of employee learning both want to see.

The proposal was to tackle the activity in three separate ways:

Identify what University processes are important to successfully offer learning to industry, and whether any of these processes can be enhanced
Meet with Aerospace employers to try to understand why HEI - Industrial links are not as effective as they could be
Find out from potential students from industry how and why they would look for learning / training.

UWE - Frenchay Campus

Combining the results of these three activities has produced a snapshot of the issues involved, and enabled the creation of a “Employer Engagement Process Checklist” to guide new and existing HEI providers when developing Continuing Professional Development (CPD) opportunities for industry, aiming to avoid known pitfalls and produce the required learning to required timescales.

This was one of six sub-projects that make up the Marchmont Observatory-led, SW HE STEM project ‘Progressing from labour market intelligence to HE level provision that is well supported by employers’.

Staff involved

Wendy Fowles-Sweet
Project lead, University of the West of England

Mark Austin
University of the West of England