Welcome
This conference, held in London on 15th January was the culmination of an employer engagement project, ‘Engage’, that has sought to facilitate dialogue between employers and academics and to develop an understanding of the higher level skills agenda relating to engineering, physical sciences and materials.
Engage Project Report – (PDF – published July 2008)
Over 80 delegates from industry, academia, professional bodies and sector skills councils came together to get an overview of the various drivers for employer engagement within higher education, with a specific focus on engineering and physical science. Sir David Melville, Chair of Lifelong Learning UK and Universities Vocational Awards Council, in his keynote speech, described the implications for higher education of the Leitch Review of Skills (2006) and the challenges of work-based learning.
Mike Pilbeam, Vice President of Cisco Systems, gave a challenging presentation through his employer perspective. He stated that, “It is vital that every member of the Cisco technical team is on a path of continuous education and improvement” and challenged universities to be more responsive and flexible in the provision that they can offer to industry and ‘to speak English’.
Delegates also learnt about the perspectives of the Higher Education Funding Council for England, the Engineering Council UK and two students talked about the benefits and conflicts of work-based learning.
Parallel sessions in the afternoon provided an opportunity for research and exemplary activities to be discussed. Finally, a panel of experts answered questions from delegates that had been collected during the day.
Videos from the conference
Main sessions
- Keynote Speech – Sir David Melville
- Industry perspective – Mike Pilbeam
- Panel Summary – led by Professor Freda Tallantyre
- Professional Bodies’ perspective from ECUK – Richard Shearman
- The Student Perspective – Neal Carter
- Work Based Learning – John Blundell
Conference interviews
Views taken on the day of the conference from academics and industrialists.
- Bill Glew (Kingston University)
- David Hellier (EU Skills)
- Jonathan Ling (ECUK)
- Professor Fred Maillardet (EPC)
- Emma Mirrington (BSkyB)