University of Brighton

A collaborative solution to employer demand: the centre for work and learning

The centre for work-based learning will help establish collaborative solutions for employers and employees seeking to access higher education courses in Sussex and the South East.

The aims of the centre are extensive and all-encompassing, and add value to the investment already made in the Sussex Learning Network and ProfitNet.

The collaborative nature of the project allows employer engagement to be developed in such a way that it can impact on nine institutions across Sussex, rather than in one locality only. It therefore provides scale and range - in geographic, sectoral and curriculum coverage.

The centre also serves as a vehicle for testing out the challenging issues surrounding this whole area of policy. Such issues include funding models, shared delivery across further and higher education, supporting brokerage networks and extending credit to work-related learning.

Finally, it addresses the critical task of making this coherent for both employers and employees (and also for the institutions). It tackles the issue of sustainability by embedding the results of the centre’s work across all nine partners, underpinning this with staff development and action research, and by enabling a ‘fit’ for each institution within a common framework.

Funding award : £1,726,587

Web-site : http://www.centreforworkandlearning.org.uk