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Professor Lorna Unwin has helped to produce a remarkably valuable framework for thinking about apprenticeships and workplace learning that has influenced governments, employers and training providers — not only in the UK but around the world. Her research has encouraged closer consideration by both government officials and training providers of the process of developing expertise in work-related education and training and in designing more effective workplace learning environments. Her appointment as a Select Committee specialist adviser led to the first public admission that `conversions' — where existing employees are given apprentice status partly to ratchet up stocks of qualifications in the workforce — comprised 70% of all UK apprenticeships.
Practitioner research into Work Based Learning (WBL)* undertaken at Chester since 1993 has seen the University established as a national leader in this field of study and the impact has affected both the private and public sectors. During 2008-2013 practitioner research at Chester has underpinned consultancy and developmental work. This has resulted in significant impact on workforce development including transforming policy and efficiency within a large Government department, a NHS Hospital Trust and with businesses in the private sector.
*(WBL defined in this context as fully accredited, negotiated, modules or programmes of planned learning through work delivered by HE providers)
A persistent issue in UK government and policy has been national performance on development and improvement of workforce skills for international competitiveness, highlighted by The Learning Age (1998) and the Lisbon Agenda. Strengthening and alignment of workplace dialogue have been shown to lead to better understanding between those designing and those receiving training and development programmes. This case shows how research part-funded by trade unions has contributed to directly and indirectly shaping policy, leading to further funding targeted at changes in support by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS). The result is improved performance in learning and training.
The Transforming Learning Cultures in Further Education (TLC) project, which UWE researchers led the design of and played a key role in undertaking, informed policy debates on a range of issues including the quality of teaching and learning in Further Education (FE) settings. Several FE sector teacher training programmes (e.g. Cardiff University) have changed aspects of their content as a consequence of this research, for example to help trainees better understand and develop a positive learning culture in their classrooms. This benefits the trainee teachers and, as a consequence, the learning outcomes for the students they work with. Processes to enhance the practice of established teachers in FE have been implemented as a consequence of this research, for example, City of Bristol College's peer mentoring scheme improves the skills of lecturing staff and outcomes for learners. The project also produced a book that has been widely adopted by FE managers and tutors to help them better understand and enhance the learning context in contemporary college and adult education environments, resulting in more effective teaching and learning. On a wider level the research findings have influenced national policy debates on issues around the funding, practice, and management of teaching and learning activities across the post-compulsory education sector, particularly in further education.
Research on unions and workplace learning has informed government and unions on the effectiveness and distinctiveness of union-led learning (ULL) in promoting adult learning and skills. On the basis of the research, the then Scottish Executive decided to provide funding for union-led learning from 2008 to 2011. The research findings have also contributed to priority setting for union learning funds, notably by directing funding towards the longer-term sustainability of ULL across Scotland, benefitting adult and particularly non-traditional adult learners. The research has also impacted on trade union policy on workplace learning and skills by informing strategic deliberations about how unions can generate member and union benefits from learning activities. It has also influenced union and employers' practices by linking skills acquisition and deployment, leading to improved working practices that benefit employers, employees and unions. Moreover, the evaluation framework developed in this research has informed approaches to evaluating ULL elsewhere in the UK, and robust evaluations using the framework have generated additional funds for learners in England at a time when other funding for adult learning has diminished.
Research conducted between 1997 and 2013 at the University of Edinburgh has examined qualifications reforms designed to make education and training systems more coherent, unified and flexible. This research has influenced policy developments in Scotland and internationally, and especially the development of National Qualifications Frameworks (NQFs). It has achieved three types of impact: i) analytical tools and conceptual frameworks developed in the research have informed and guided policy development; ii) it has encouraged greater realism in the aims and objectives of qualifications-led reforms; and iii) it has encouraged policy designs and implementation strategies based on a better understanding of the processes of qualifications-led change. The reach of the impact has extended to policy-makers, education providers, learners and other stakeholders in Scotland, the UK and elsewhere, especially in countries introducing or considering NQFs.
Research by Melanie Nind of the University of Southampton and her collaborator (Hewett) has had a national and international impact on the practice of professionals who teach people with severe learning disabilities. The Intensive Interaction approach is included in UK National Curriculum guidance, the Government's Strategy for people with learning disabilities, and it is used across education, psychology, social care and speech and occupational therapies. Nind's research has shaped the implementation of Intensive Interaction, and provided practitioners in Eastern Europe, New Zealand, and Australia with new data and concepts that help to inform practice to enrich the lives of a vulnerable population.
Our research has created a framework that sustains new forms of effective collaboration for distributed workers and learners in `live environments'. The framework has resulted in a software toolkit and online guidelines designed for the new collaborative spaces: from avatar and embodied worlds to live video meetings. One part of the framework has transformed the work of international universities and multi-disciplinary research institutes, improving their 3D, avatar-based work and `embodied' learning spaces, while another aspect has created our FlashMeeting (FM) video-meeting tool. Released in 2003 (predating multi-party Skype™ by seven years), this research brought multi-party, in-browser, video meetings to thousands worldwide, including recording and analytic features that have only now started to emerge commercially.
For decades, museums tended to describe and present their social and cultural value through simplistic measures such as visitor numbers; understanding the impact of museums on their visitors was elusive and there was no means of collecting this evidence and presenting it in a rigorous, coherent and useful way. The Generic Learning Outcomes model (GLOs) was developed as a tool for museums, libraries and archives to demonstrate the outcomes and impact of users' learning experiences. The framework has revolutionised the way in which visitors' experiences are understood by providing practitioners, government and funders with a meaningful way to describe and evidence the impact of museum experiences on visitors and to report on these collectively. This research has had a significant and lasting impact on museum policy and practice by providing both a language to describe and present the learning that takes place in museums and a flexible tool for capturing and measuring a range of visitor experiences across the cultural heritage sector.
The Literacy Research Centre works to understand the role of literacy in all areas of life and to improve communication and collaboration between researchers and educational practice. It focuses on people and contexts such as prisoners, disaffected young people, job seekers and health care settings. Its research impact includes raising awareness of user issues, making recommendations regarding changes to public services and improving educational attainment among disadvantaged groups. Its work has shaped national curricula and contributed to the development of teaching staff and other professionals, helping the government achieve its national target for adult literacy early.