Summary of the key messages from RSC London’s Employer Engagement event.

Lorraine Collins (Director of Employer Engagement and Employability – Uxbridge College) explained their employer engagement strategy and how groups across the college are involved in the implementation.

Key points of her message:

• Curriculum area targets set to support the strategy
• Employer services’ targets look at an increase in employer responsiveness and satisfaction rates
• The communication framework for employer responsiveness is comprehensive and involves various groups including SMT, Governors and Marketing .
• Effective account management using the CRM database
• Personalised reports for all the groups enable monitoring
• Marketing are seen as a key player in on going Customer Relation Management
• Use of CRM Champions across the college including Staff Governor
• Dissemination through a regular  e-bulletin to all staff which includes CRM update
• The aim is to build on the success of achieving  the  Training Quality Standard Part A and pursue TQS Part Bs in agreed curriculum areas

The second presentation from Ian McDonald  (Head of Information and Learning Technology – Westminster Kingsway College) focused on their use of the  “Interactive Web”   to deliver a curriculum to several employers  - the case study featured was about the Foundation degree for Army chefs located at different locations in the world.

The Key points from Ian’s presentation:

• Demand for flexible delivery led to looking at the “interactive web” as a feasible method.
• Challenges for staff, learners and use of technology were identified and overcome.
• All delivery and support via the web and VLE – training on using the IT also done remotely
• Students’ experience was very positive despite some technology issues.
• Useful lessons learnt to inform future developments.

To hear the archive of the session:

1. Follow this link
   http://78.136.59.158/launcher.cgi?room=EE_2009_1015_1407_10
2. Enter the room as a participant – no username or password required.

Taking advantage of the opportunities presented by the current economic climate, learning providers continue to develop innovative ways of using technology to overcome the challenges they face.
Through the RSC London’s engagement with local organisations we have identified that there is growing use of technology to support employer activities, such as the use of e-portfolios for assessment purposes. Faced with paper-based tasks such as form filling and the production of evidence of work, organisations are becoming used to operating with technology to gain cost-effective results; particularly in the way NVQ courses are being assessed.

In one learning provider, for example, assessors are being given laptops or netbooks by the organisation to aid the assessment process. An example of that is Redbridge College, where all teaching staff receive a laptop anyway. In another organisation, there is innovative use of virtual learning environments (VLEs) to aid employer engagement. One interesting such development is the use of a  VLE to engage with  Armed Forces personnel serving abroad.

The RSC London is planning to bring these developments together in an event in October that aims to share best practice in the region. Uxbridge College, recently awarded Beacon Status, have kindly volunteered to lead on one presentation. We would welcome expressions of interest from any provider in the region wanting to contribute to this event.

Just launched, ‘Hiding the wiring – a best practice guide for communicating with employers’ has been produced by the Association of Colleges to help business development and communications professionals in Colleges strengthen ties with business through more effective communication.

The guide focuses on relevant marketing and public relations research and covers topics as diverse as branding, reputation, internal communications, social marketing, market research and support software.

Link to AoC webpage and PDFs of the Guide for downlaod