Higher Level Skills

Overview

The Cogent sector needs people who have pursued the Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) educational route. The high value-adding industries in the Cogent footprint are skills intensive, and are dependant upon the UK science base for the supply of trained scientists and engineers. They also need close interaction with Higher Education to stimulate new ideas and promote innovation

Cogent is working in partnership with employers, Higher Education Institutions and Colleges to transform a fragmented network of provision into a responsive, accessible higher level skills offer throughout the UK.

Higher Level Skills in the Cogent Sector

Higher Level skills are classed as those at Level 4 and above, and apply to those partaking in Higher Education, and some sections of Further Education. Since the Cogent industries are so knowledge- and skills-intensive, we rely heavily on higher level science, engineering and innovation. Graduate recruitment from science and engineering subjects is typically about half of the total graduate recruitment in the sector, and is steadily increasing.

Focus on Science and Engineering

Analysis of data from the Higher Education Statistics Agency shows the following:

The proportion of Science or Engineering graduates typically entering the Cogent workforce accounts for between 45-50% of the total graduate recruitment within the sector.

  • Of these graduates, the largest proportion of graduates entering the Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals industry had studied Chemistry or Biology;
  • Of those entering the Oil and Gas industry, the largest proportion were from Mechanical Engineering and Chemical, Process and Energy Engineering;
  • The most popular non-science subject was Business Studies.

Although the graduate supply in science and engineering has risen, based on an average steady state supply of 4,000 graduates per annum, a minimum further 60,000 graduates are required between 2005 and 2020 to meet the Leitch target.

Cogent Higher Level Skills

Typical Destinations for science and engineering graduates within the Cogent Sector*

Typical Job Titles: Cogent research shows:
- Production Managers
- Site Managers
- Maintenance Managers		 - 8% of graduates from Cogent-relevant science and engineering subjects entered Manager and Senior Official Occupations in 2005-06
- Manager and Senior Official occupations are typically Level 5 positions
- Chemists, Physicists, Biochemists, Biologists
- Mechanical Engineers
- Production and Process Engineers
- Chemical Engineers		 - 46% of graduates from Cogent-relevant science and engineering subjects entered Professional Occupations in 2005-06
- Professional Occupations are typically Level 4 positions
- Laboratory Technicians
- Engineering Technicians
- Quality Assurance Technicians		 - 21% of graduates from Cogent-relevant science and engineering subjects entered Associate Professional and Technical Occupations in 2005-06
- Associate Professional and Technical occupations are typically Level 3/4 Positions

* Defined by standard occupational classification (SOC)

Cogent Higher Level Skills Strategy

Cogent has been developing its Higher Level Skills strategy in recent months, which aims to build and extend frameworks for greater employer engagement with higher and further education institutions. These frameworks will enable providers and the Cogent workforce to identify clearly routes to education and training that meet their employer needs at a number of levels. Cogent will be concentrating on:

  • Advancing employer-led frameworks for Foundation Degrees in key sectors
  • Cultivating post-graduate level training and continuing professional development provision
  • Encouraging skills for innovation within higher level training programmes
  • Increasing careers guidance and information for higher level skills, through the development of careers pathways and interaction with careers services

Through this strategy, Cogent will prioritise working with learning providers, in conjunction with planning agencies and professional bodies, to develop new approaches to course delivery that meet a range of employer requirements for the workforce. This will include:

  • Developing short courses with bite-sized credit accumulation
  • Incorporating modular, flexible and blended delivery (e-learning, academic and workplace learning)
  • Accreditation of bespoke programmes, prior learning, and in-house training
  • Identification and marketing of employer-led courses to customers through Cogent and the National Skills Academies
  • Introducing co-funded places with clearer presentation of the costs associated with higher education courses
Workforce Development

In 2005-06, the supply of graduates with a Science and Engineering qualification broke down as:

  • 950 Foundation Degrees
  • 34,230 First Degrees
  • 18,020 Higher Degrees

Although current graduate supply would be sufficient to meet the industry’s needs for now, there are potential problems caused by entry into other sectors in preference to science-based roles. This indicates a need to increase the attractiveness of Cogent industries to the graduate workforce.

  • 78% of HE provision for the top 5 subjects illustrated is from traditional full time courses
  • Part-time HE provision is scarce in Science and Engineering
  • The expected graduate supply to 2020 matches the retirement rate in our sector, but is variable
  • There is a skills gap that requires 85,000 employees to be up-skilled from the current level 3 workforce
Government Policy on Higher Level Skills

Following the publication of the Leitch review, there has been an emphasis on increasing the number of graduates within the UK to over 40% of the total workforce by 2020, specifically in science and technology areas.

In England, the Department of Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS) is working with the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform and the Technology Strategy Board to take forward the recommendations of the Lord Sainsbury review to maximise innovative capacity through the identified pathways detailed in the Innovation White Paper of March 2008. This details the issues and routes to overcoming the longstanding weakness in the skills base and in the numbers of employers investing in training.

DIUS Consultation Process

In England, DIUS recently undertook a consultation process that aimed to assess employer engagement with Higher Education Institutions. Cogent actively took part in this, and sought feedback through its industry and academic links, in order to aid in the delivery of a Higher Level Skills strategy. From this process, Cogent aims to improve and influence engagement between employers and higher education, and will focus on:

  • How employers value broad employability skills, such as communication, motivation, independence, analysis, confidence and problem solving;
  • Increasing graduate numbers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics;
  • Developing better national, regional and sectoral problem solving;
  • Testing of national, regional and sectoral approaches to employer co-funding, including a co-purchasing role for Sector Skills Councils in the expansion in employer co-funded places.
Working with Higher Education

Higher education has a vital role in increasing UK competitiveness through the promotion of knowledge based aspects of the economy, driving up productivity and growth, and improving skills levels. However, Higher Education Institutions needs to collaborate more effectively with employers to maximise the benefits for learners, employers, employees and, the economy and society. Across the UK, all funding councils are encouraging business engagement activity, in order to develop the employer-responsiveness of the higher education sector.

Although the detailed policies on higher education and higher level skills vary between the nations of the UK, they share the general approach of increasing collaboration between business and academia at higher levels. Cogent is engaged with partners in all four nations and we expect to continue to discuss policy with each of them over the coming year.