Widening participation from the workplace: designing small awards that are employer and employee responsive

Much of the emphasis in current widening participation policies has been on the traditional student, who is young and enters university to take a full-time degree straight from school or college. However, the Government points to the fact that “around three-quarters of the 2020 workforce have already left compulsory education” (DIUS, 2008, p6) and acknowledges that current policies overlook the needs of many potential learners who are already in the workplace and who could not/would not consider full-time higher education. The ability to recognise learning in the workplace, and to develop small employer-responsive awards, offers such learners the opportunity to engage with higher education at the same time as they undertake required professional development. For many work-based learners the ability to assess experiential learning in the workplace for higher education awards is “a liberator for [those for] whom first chance education had not delivered success” (Braham and Pickering, 2007, p. 45). They have the opportunity to develop graduate skills and enhance their qualifications without having to sacrifice their employment.