THE OPEN UNIVERSITY – WRITTEN EVIDENCE (YUN0020)

Youth Unemployment Committee inquiry

 

  1. The Open University (OU) welcomes this opportunity to contribute to the House of Lords Youth Unemployment Committee inquiry on creating and protecting jobs for young people.

 

  1. Our response covers the questions relating to further education, higher education, and training. We are responding in our capacity as a higher education provider.

 

  1. There is a large and growing number of younger people choosing to study at the OU across the UK: in 2019/20 one in three of our new undergraduate students were aged 24 and under. This represents our fastest growing demographic with a 11% increase between 2016/17 and 2019/20. The OU is also now the 5th largest provider of undergraduate higher education for English students aged 20 and under from disadvantaged areas[1]. As seen across our student population more broadly, our younger students are also drawn to OU study by the ability to study flexibly alongside other commitments (75% of our students are in full or part-time work).  Equally it appeals to those that want to avoid the cost of re-location to a residential university or commuting to a local university while fitting study around a part-time or full-time job.
     

What more needs to be done to ensure parity of esteem between vocational and academic study in the jobs market and society? How can funding play a role in this?

  1. In England, a strong policy focus on putting the employer at the centre of tertiary education is being translated into a commitment to linear progression along a single occupational pathway with everything depending on the final assessment, and based on largely short-term needs. There is, as a result, no provision for credit transfer and exchangeability of “academic” and “technical” credits, and only limited provision for progression to further levels of study. This in part explains the lack of parity of esteem between vocational and academic study, as young people are forced to pick a path at an early age, and are likely to pick the more visible academic route.

 

 

  1. The traditional ladder model of job preparation, common in England, contrasts with what we might call the climbing frame model favoured in both Scotland and Wales. This encompasses a stronger commitment to putting the learner at the centre and recognising that pathways need to be flexible and permeable.

 

  1. It is possible and desirable to achieve parity of esteem. Enabling educational pathways that don’t enforce a choice between academic and technical study, allowing a mix of modules from both that – as credit accumulates – can be cashed in at various stages for a qualification, would stop young people from being stuck on one path (either academic or vocational) for the rest of their lives. This would allow them to accrue the benefits of both routes, and create greater parity of esteem.

 

  1. The Open University follows this model with our Open programme of certificates, diplomas and degrees[2].  This provides the largest multidisciplinary offer in the UK where students can combine nearly all modules into pathways to suit their needs and interests, including mix of academic and more vocational topics.

 

  1. The new lifelong loan entitlement in England to be introduced from 2025 (funding 480 credits – 4,800 hours - of tertiary learning over a lifetime) is a great initiative in principle.[3] Yet it has the potential to embed a disparity in esteem between vocational and academic study as the scheme posits that academic and technical programmes should be separate and impermeable. The lifelong loan entitlement must allow flexibility to move between the two to stay competitive in the job market and ensure parity of esteem.

 

  1. Furthermore, higher technical qualifications – a focus of the Government’s current efforts with reforms to encourage more people into them - must not focus solely on specific technical skills needed for a single occupation. Instead they should offer a core range of transferable employability skills that all employers value and need their staff to have. This will improve the flexibility and adaptability of the future labour force, making them more attractive to learners.

What is the role of business and universities in creating a thriving jobs market for young people? How should they be involved in developing skills and training programmes at further and higher education level?

  1.                     Universities like the OU enable a jobs market to thrive by allowing individuals to engage in lifelong learning to upskill and reskill as necessary. This includes young people reskilling and – particularly – upskilling to stay competitive in the jobs market.

 

  1.                     By allowing individuals to learn in a flexible manner, and by encouraging individuals to study in smaller, more bite sized chunks of learning such as modules, they can upskill and reskill as the economy changes, and as business demands change. This will allow young people to stay competitive. The OU currently provides learning through modular study, and also provides flexible short courses on our OpenLearn platform and paid-for microcredentials (10-12 week courses generally carrying 10 credits) on the OU’s jointly owned FutureLearn platform. As the Universities Minister stated in her speech at the UCAS Annual Admissions Conference – in order to create a flexible system which responds to the learners needs, people must be able to use the lifelong learning loan for modular learning as well as full-time study over a number of years.[4]

 

  1.                     Furthermore, it is important that young people can gain new skills and educational opportunities, regardless of their previous attainment at school.  The OU encapsulates this opportunity for a second chance, even for those that may have left school more recently.  It does not impose any formal entry requirements on undergraduate students.  At least 36 per cent of our undergraduate students – and as many as 51 per cent – begin their studies without a full Level 3 qualification (2 or more A-levels).[5]

 

  1.                     Employment opportunities can be boosted by universities partnering with businesses to develop courses that equip young people with the skills that businesses require, and which there is a current gap in market supply. For example, in Scotland, the OU has partnered with the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations and all 32 Scottish local authorities to develop the Skills for Work portal. This enables young people and job seekers to access free training to support work skills and career prospects. Over 30 courses on the portal offer workplace skills including employability, leadership, communication and digital skills. The courses, which range from two hours to 24 hours of training, also include skills for life such as managing money and specific modules for those interested in working in the voluntary sector. The portal received over 1800 visitors in April 2021 – up over 900% since in two months - and the most popular courses focused on digital skills, leadership and followership, and developing career resilience.

 

  1.                     The OU also has an award-winning partnership with Uber which gives eligible drivers, or a nominated member of their family, the opportunity to study with the OU with their fees funded by Uber. With the majority of drivers from low socio-economic backgrounds, or with English as a second language, the programme fits very strongly with the OU’s mission to make education accessible to all, enabling those who wouldn’t usually have access to higher education to fulfil their ambitions via the flexible learning programme offered by the OU.

 

  1.                     In Wales, the OU is helping young people gain skills, and supporting their journey into employment through our participation in the HEFCW funded GoWales programme – a work experience programme providing tailored work experience opportunities for young students. By October 2022, the OU expects to have provided work experience to over 80 students through this programme. Furthermore, where it has not been possible to offer work experience to young students in the same way during the pandemic, we have been doing more general employability work with young students – including providing employment panels and virtual placements. Our two-hour ‘Ask the Professional’ insight sessions have given young students the opportunity to interact with professionals from a range of businesses and professions; including Cardiff Junior Lawyers, the BBC, and the Police.

 

  1.                     The Open University has also partnered with Jobcentre Plus to offer free training tools for young people, designed to fit flexibly around any six-month Kickstart scheme placement. Our free online courses allow learners to enhance their digital and employability skills to suit any industry placement. These free, self-paced courses provide Kickstart employees an opportunity to plug any skills gaps, build their confidence and will help younger people transition into their next job, create a business or continue to explore learning pathways open to them.

About The Open University

 

  1.                     The OU’s mission is to be Open to people, places, methods and ideas. For most of our undergraduate qualifications there are no academic entry requirements. We believe students should have the opportunity to succeed irrespective of their previous experiences of education.

 

  1.                     The OU is the largest university in the UK with 175,000, including 126,000 directly-registered students, and operates across all four nations. We teach over four in ten part-time UK undergraduates (44%). There are OU students in every single local area in the UK – we are among the five biggest providers in nine out of ten Parliamentary constituencies in England – and tend to be stronger in higher education “cold spots” with limited face-to-face provision and/or low young HE participation rates.

 

  1.                     The OU is a world leader in distance learning. Our undergraduates do not attend a campus; they live in their own homes throughout the UK.  Our students study flexibly and value the ability to fit their study around the demands of their home and work lives.

 

  1.                     The OU’s curriculum is comprehensive. We provide courses across the full breadth of science and technology, arts and social sciences and business and law. We have specialist capabilities to teach science and technology using digital media and our award-winning OpenSTEM labs. We also have over 3,1000 students on our apprenticeship programme at over 840 employers, making us one of the largest degree apprenticeship providers in England.

 

  1.                     The OU works with a range of employers from the public and private sector and from SMEs to large multinationals to support their skills needs.  75 companies from the FTSE 100 have sponsored staff on OU courses in 2019/20.

 

  1.                     The OU is crucial to social mobility – one in ten of all undergraduate entrants from disadvantaged areas study at the OU and we are the 11th biggest provider for disadvantaged young people.

 

  1.                     There is no typical OU student. People of all ages and backgrounds study with us and for many reasons – to update their skills, get a qualification, boost their career, change direction, prove themselves or keep mentally active. 

 

 

10th May 2021

 

 

[1] HESA Student Record 2019/20 for English-domiciled undergraduate first-year students

[2] http://www.open.ac.uk/courses/choose/ppcopen

[3] https://www.gov.uk/government/news/pioneering-reforms-to-boost-skills-and-jobs

[4] Michelle Donelan. UCAS Annual Admissions Conference Speech. 1 April 2021.

[5] Open University, Facts and Figures 2019/20, 2020