Vocational Higher Education in the UK

This report details an investigation into the role and significance of vocational, sub-degree higher education in meeting the needs of the economy and employers. [link to previous entry]

As the qualification types are different in the UK, some of the data in this report is not directly transferable to the Australian situation, however information about employer and student perceptions is useful.

The study found that:
- in engineering people with a HND {Higher National Diploma - a diploma given for vocational training that prepares the student for a career in a particular area; good students may progress to a course leading to a degree} are employed at the interface between design and manufacturing, or manufacturing and customer support, where their combination of high level engineering knowledge and practical skills is required.
- in areas such as computing and business vocational HE qualifications seem to be less valued by employers as a direct route into employment.
- small businesses in particular perceive a gap between qualifications and practical application in a business settig, and it is the latter they seek on recruitment.
- small businesses do not necessairly understand what set of practical skills and knowledge, academic knowledge, and general skills any specific qualification signifies.
- employer preferences between degree and sub-degree qualifications tend to be based more on knowledge of particular departments, programmes, and previous track records within the company of recruits from particular universities.
- this study found SMEs (small to medium enterprises) that were highly critical of external training for high-level technical skills: employers spoke of insufficient hands-on experience, inappropriate content and insufficient assessment of learner's progress.
- the (student) respondents who were currently employed were often not on formal staff training programs but studying to further their own career within or outside an organisation, rather than responding to its immediate business needs.
- students on specialised or more vocational courses appeared to receive less ambiguous support from their employers.