Page 83 - Regional Employment & Skills Plan

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These issues could be contributory factors in the 4% decline in UCAS applications for the coming academic year, this is coupled with the high proportion of graduates with student debt who are not anticipated to pay back their student loans.
Delivery Models
Unanimously, institutions believe that courses should be more responsive to student needs. The duration of courses and nature of delivery should be more flexible with an increase of part time courses, accelerated programmes and distance and blended learning all being cited as the main factors in flexible delivery.
There is demand for an increase in creative systems to enable students to drop in and drop out of programmes without penalties. The American ‘build a degree unit by unit approach’ was cited as an example of good practice which provides a great deal of flexibility for learners.
In addition, an increased recognition of prior learning (including experiential learning) and greater freedom in credit transfer between institutions would allow learners to attend courses in several venues are reported as changes that could remove many of the barriers to learners pursuing a HE course.
‘We see potential for growth in short courses/bite sized/weekend/short and concentrated courses – in short very flexible learning in all ways - duration, time, online, residential/multiplatform etc. with movement between different modes of delivery during a single programme becoming more common.’
Suitability of Provision for Delivery
On the whole, institutions feel that their provision for delivery is fit for purpose. The greater level of flexibility that comes with being an awarding body is cited as allowing the offer to be designed and amended to meet changing demands.
The effectiveness of the provision offered is measured using a range of methods;
‘We evaluate our effectiveness through various means e.g. performance in the National Student Survey, our performance against benchmark in the Destination of Leavers Survey, and comparisons against peer institutions in the levels of graduate start-ups.’
‘....underpinned by effective quality assurance systems developed over many years and refined in light of the QAA frameworks and guidance.’
One institution stated that they whilst their offer is supported by their employer partners and unions, they would like to develop a wider range of modules with a credit value of less than sixty.
Curriculum Offer
Institutions indicate that their offer is driven by local labour market intelligence, employer feedback, regional skills priorities and local, regional and national needs. As awarding bodies delivery is ‘flexed’ to meet these changing needs resulting in a dynamic and fit for purpose offer.
One institution stated that they are taking active steps to develop their offer in respect of Higher Level Degree Apprenticeships, however there is demand for WG to provide more detailed intentions on how it intends to fund these.
Regional Employment & Skills Plan South West & Mid Wales Learner and Provider Consultation Analysis