SummitSkills, the Sector Skills Council for building services engineering (BSE), has welcomed the publication of the Government's Higher Ambitions framework for higher education (HE).
The framework, issued earlier this week, sets out a number of key priorities including businesses engaging in the design of HE programmes, special support for science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) subjects, a continued commitment to foundation degrees, taking account of students' aptitude and potential, and encouraging collaboration between universities on research.
The UK participation rate in higher education is still below that of many other developed economies, and widening participation including for adult learners may bring about significant opportunities for higher level learning in the BSE sector.
Higher Ambitions emphasises the importance of both teaching and research, and the need for both to provide the knowledge and skills that industry needs. The framework highlights that Government will increasingly look to employers to contribute towards the cost of HE, and programmes with a strong work-based element such as Foundation degrees, which can only work with employer commitment.
Catherine Elliott, development manager at SummitSkills, comments: "The commitment to Foundation degrees and other qualifications which can support the upskilling of the existing workforce, and the recognition of the need for HE to respond to industry is most welcome. Both the importance and challenges of developing HE provision that is responsive to the needs of industry should not be underestimated, particularly for sectors such as ours where the pace of change is fast and many employers are micro businesses."
Despite the pressure on public spending, it is a particular concern to SummitSkills that employers in the BSE sector, who have themselves been adversely affected by the current economic climate, may be asked to contribute more to the cost of HE than they can sensibly afford. Additionally, access to suitably qualified recruits or HE programmes to upskill the existing workforce could be in jeopardy if funding is not available to support new or existing BSE programmes. SummitSkills' support of higher level skills in the sector is clear through its sponsorship of a visiting professor in work-based learning at London South Bank University.
Keith Marshall OBE, chief executive, SummitSkills concludes: "As a Sector Skills Council, we support the potential for higher level skills in our sector. As the sector driving the green agenda and skills in environmental technologies, it is particularly relevant that the framework recognises universities' need to establish themselves as intellectual leaders on environmental sustainability, and I hope that future funding will specifically take into account the role our sector plays in helping to meet targets to reduce carbon emissions. Building services engineering needs to be treated as a strategically important and vulnerable subject in the future in recognition of its role in combating climate change, and consequently receive more of the prioritisation it requires."