De Montfort University

Training with education: a vehicle for developing higher-level skills in the small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) workforce

The project aims to make higher-level education more accessible to business, especially for those employed in SMEs. De Montfort University is already working with many large employers and has extensive and innovative knowledge transfer activities with SMEs. This project aims to increase the demand for tailored and flexible courses that will help SMEs to grow and prosper.

The main goals of the project are to:

• engage with employers and employees to identify their workforce and career development needs
• tailor courses to meet these needs on a co-funded basis
• deliver the courses using a ‘blended learning’ approach
• provide progression to related programmes.

The resulting suite of small-scale programmes will develop a range of ‘graduate attributes’ in workplace learners, linking training and education, integrating intellectual theory with operational practice; and combining work-based pragmatism with academic rigour.

Funding award : £4,379,000

Web-site : www.dmu.ac.uk