CFE has published a report suggesting that some universities must do more to penetrate the vocational and professional training markets if government is to fulfil its ambition for four in ten adults to have experienced some form of higher education by 2020.
The research report, ‘Beyond Known Unknowns: a further exploration of the demand for higher level skills from businesses’, builds on previous research from CFE, Known Unknowns, that found universities deliver more higher level skills training to businesses than training providers in the private sector.
The original research found that although universities dominated the market for delivering ‘traditional’ academic qualifications, businesses were more likely to use providers in the private sector to deliver vocational or professional training - this is what Beyond Known Unknowns explores.
The research included consultations with a cross-section of 76 businesses, which found there to be little awareness of the diversity that exists within the higher education sector.
Universities are primarily viewed as providers of academic qualifications, delivered in a traditional ‘chalk and talk’ way and contrastingly, private sector providers are closely associated with the delivery of vocational and professional training.
The research found that the challenge for universities is to deliver to the same standard as the private sector and differentiate on the basis of brand, quality and qualification.
The full report 'Beyond Known Unknowns: a further exploration of the demand for higher level skills from businesses' can be found here.
January 2009