Widening Participation and Social Mobility: Encompassing and Integrating Learning Opportunities

Abstract

Abstract Many regional universities occupy interesting positions between hi-tech, urban employers and learners, and learners from less socially or economically advantaged (including rural) backgrounds. Many such institutions have maintained their pre-92 roots in widening participation and providing employer-focused learning, and these are driven today through the inclusion of practice-oriented learning in their teaching strategies. Such institutions have a very strong presence in regional widening participation activities, and social mobility has a major part to play in who is likely to study at them. The aim of this paper is to consider two distinct types of learners who are enabled in their studies by widening participation opportunities: a) full-time undergraduate students who are beginning their lifelong learning b) mature learners, already within a workplace environment, who enter higher education to enhance their careers. Participation from both traditional and non-traditional groups in further and higher learning is considered essential to encourage economic growth and long-term social mobility. However, engaging the differing types of students to meet employers’ requirements needs varying approaches. Our findings show that: a) Social mobility plays an important part in how full-time students develop and how they consider long-term careers in terms of their current focus on education. b) Flexibility of learning is important for learners and employers to focus learning on both specific business requirements and individual professional development without losing the academic underpinning. In both cases, employer needs have to be recognised when developing and delivering education to ensure professional as well as academic requirements are met to create ‘graduate attributes’. This paper examines the balance between educational integrity and employer requirement. It focuses on examples of existing good practice within a specific institution that are designed to encourage those from non-standard academic backgrounds to achieve their potential. This is becoming particularly important with the advent of degree apprenticeships, which are likely to introduce a new demographic to higher education who might never have considered adult learning before. It also requires close collaboration with employers to ensure education provision meets the fundamental business needs within the local region. Key words Degree apprenticeships; placements; work-based learning; pedagogy; econometrics