Written evidence submitted by The Open University (GAP0060)

Executive Summary

1.      The Open University (OU) welcomes the Committee’s focus on how to tackle the STEM skills gap in the UK. 

2.      Our response has two parts – both of which focus on the importance of education across the four nations of the UK.  The first concentrates on measures that can be taken by government to encourage STEM skills acquisition, taking account of the fact that education and skills policy is devolved across the nations. (Constructive engagement across the devolved nations on STEM education and skills is necessary here).

3.      The second part of our submission shares examples of measures that are being taken by the OU to support STEM learners. 

4.      In this submission we stress:

Measures that can be taken by government

• The STEM skills gap cannot be solved by focus on the young alone – the gap is too large and too urgent.
• Adults must be supported to upskill and reskill in STEM.
• The major barriers for adults are finance and time constraints.
• Government support is needed to support adults to study –a culture of lifelong learning must be established across the UK. 
• For England, to establish a culture of lifelong learning, three financial support measures are suggested, alongside the establishment of three national services for lifelong learners and their employers.

Measures that are being taken

• For STEM skills acquisition, online delivery offers a cost effective, large-scale solution that also gives the flexibility people need to fit study around busy working lives.
• Four examples of acquisition of STEM skills which the OU offers via online learning:
• Free short online STEM courses to boost confidence (including Badged Open Courses and Massive Open Online Courses)
• Free short online courses specifically designed to help women and others return to STEM careers
• Development of hands-on lab skills through online learning
• Tackling data science skills shortages by matching industry needs with access to appropriate training.
   

5.      The University would be pleased to provide more detail on the contents of this submission if required/helpful.    

About the OU

6.      The OU is the only UK-wide university, operating across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, as well as internationally.   It has taught over 2 million students since 1969.

• OU students study part-time, through our online, supported open learning model. 
• 76% of our students are working full or part-time.
• In 2015/16 there were 43,057 students registered to study with our STEM faculty (by headcount).
• As well as higher education and research, we offer free ‘informal’ learning routes into higher education.  Since its launch in 2006, there have been 45 million visits to our free short courses and materials on our OpenLearn website.

Measures which can and should be taken at government level

7.      As the Committee acknowledges in framing this inquiry, the UK is facing STEM skills shortages.  Tackling the skills gap is predominantly a high-level skills issue and will not be solved without bold measures at government level.  With the added context of Brexit, there is a pressing need to grow our own STEM workforce domestically, and quickly.  That need will not be addressed by a focus on the young alone – the gap is too wide and too urgent.

8.      To achieve a sustainable supply of skills which will have the flex to meet the ever-evolving needs of UK business and industry, and avoid a lurch from one skills shortage to another, the UK must maximise the potential of adults, particularly those already in work. Giving adults every opportunity to upskill and reskill is what will make the real difference. This applies to STEM as much to other UK skills shortages.

9.      The Welsh Government has realised the value of lifelong learning and has recently committed to implement the majority of the recommendations in the recent Diamond review of Welsh higher education[1].  The measures there will see a new system that, for the first time, offers parity of financial support for part-time and mature learners alongside young full-time learners.  This approach will help to address skills gaps in Wales.

10.  For higher skills shortages in England, including STEM, we believe the Treasury and Department for Education must acknowledge that all adults of working age are a crucial part of the solution.  Measures to encourage a culture of lifelong learning by reducing the financial and practical barriers adults face to upskill/reskill are needed urgently. 

11.  First and foremost, these measures must include an Industrial Strategy that acknowledges the vital role of upskilling and reskilling of adults already in the workforce – now likely to experience multiple careers during longer working lives in line with changing industrial practices and economy. 

12.  Only by including lifelong learning at the heart of the Industrial Strategy for England will future skills gaps be minimised and current ones addressed, including STEM.  To make a real difference swiftly, and in a sustainable manner, the lifelong learning strand of the Strategy would need to address financial barriers to skills acquisition by incorporating the following financial support measures:

• Further extension of undergraduate tuition fee availability to all STEM learners who already hold a degree (ELQ students).  From academic year 2017/18 the government is already lifting the previous ELQ restrictions which prevent those wishing to do a second degree in a STEM subject from accessing tuition fee loans for undergraduate study.  This exemption could usefully be broadened to include ‘Half-STEM’ degrees where 50% or more of the degree is in a STEM subject (for example a BSc in Computing and Business).
   
• Next step loans for education and training, to provide vital financial support for learners who are on a pathway to higher level learning.
   
• Personal Learning Accounts for education and training.
   

13.  The first of these could be implemented immediately at the 2017 March Budget within minimal cost to HM Treasury.  The remaining two could be introduced at early opportunities thereafter.
 

14.  The Strategy would also need to incorporate a commitment to develop the following national services for learners:
 

• Personal Information, Advice and Guidance (IAG) service for education and training.  As the Social Mobility Commission’s State of the Nation 2016[2] report recommended, a single UCAS-style portal should be developed to include vocational training alongside higher education options.
• A national credit rating and transfer service for recognition of prior education and training.
   
• A national validation service for qualifications in education and training.

15.  The OU has more detailed briefings it would be happy to share with the Committee on the above proposals.

Helping adults to acquire STEM skills

16.  Having acknowledged that adults have to be part of the STEM skills gap solution, it is then essential also to recognise the differences between young full-time learners who go straight to university from school and adult learners who may be much older and are likely to be earning while they are learning.  In England there is a 13-year difference in the median age between full-time and part-time students (18 and 31 respectively[3]).  Most adults who want to learn have to study part-time and, typically, being ‘a student’ is just one of many identities they have, as research published by the Higher Education Academy illustrates[4].  

17.  The barriers that prevent adult learners from taking up opportunities to reskill and upskill, whether in STEM or other areas, fall into two main categories – financial constraints and time constraints.  The suggested policy measures above go some way to address the financial barriers and the services that need to be in place to facilitate engagement in formal learning (including further and higher education, and apprenticeships at all levels). 

18.  For adults, the time constraints are often most effectively addressed by learning online. This provides the flexibility and value for money which people need to fit skills acquisition around busy working lives or other commitments by studying anywhere and at any time, wherever they live or work across the UK.  In wider productivity terms, it also provides a cost-effective means of upskilling and reskilling at scale.

19.  The rest of our submission is dedicated to specific examples of how online learning can be used to help people of all ages acquire STEM skills.   

First steps to STEM – free informal learning opportunities

20.  The first steps to upskilling can be the most difficult – especially for those who have low confidence in their ability to learn, coloured perhaps by experiences at school, and maybe coupled with a perception that they haven’t got enough time and money to do it. Bite-size, free online learning can be a valuable starting point on the learning journey.

21.  The OU is a leading provider of free short courses delivered online and these fall into three main types:

• Short courses –These are shorter than a BOC (see below), typically just 1 to 18 hours of online study, available for free on OpenLearn.  They are designed to give people a taste of what university study would be like.  Indeed, 5% of the content every OU course module is on OpenLearn.  There are 300 of these STEM taster courses.
• Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) – free short courses available on the FutureLearn platform[5]. These courses range from 12 to 18 hours of study in total, and are two to eight weeks long. There are set start dates, and the course can only be studied at these points. Currently, the OU has 14 STEM MOOCs running.  Topics range from Cyber Security to Basic Science: Understanding Experiments, Nuclear Energy and Histology. Learners can study a course for free but must pay a £30-40 fee to receive a statement of participation. Last year the OU’s STEM MOOCs had nearly 1.5 million visitors, and over 140,000 clicked through to the OU’s courses website.
• Badged Open Courses (BOCs) – free 24-hour length courses, typically designed to be completed over eight weeks, in what is sometimes referred to as ‘lunch time learning’[6].  Most of the University’s STEM BOCs teach skills to help people prepare to study STEM subjects or bridge knowledge gaps between study levels. The courses include rigorous assessment in the form of quizzes which must be passed at weeks five and eight in order to receive a digital ‘badge’. The badges are displayed on a student’s OpenLearn profile, but learners can also display them via social media such as LinkedIn and Twitter. Learners are free to complete the BOC whenever they want – there are no start dates or end dates.  They gain a statement of participation, and a badge if they also pass the quizzes. 

Helping women and others return to STEM careers

22.  We believe the STEM skills gap could be in part addressed by giving much more support to people to get back into STEM careers when they have taken a career break.  There is a challenge here that is specific to STEM. The industries that most require STEM skills typically evolve and change more rapidly than others. Those who have been out of their STEM career for a while may soon feel their skills and knowledge are too out of date for them to be able to return. 

23.  Of particular interest to the Committee might be the specific online initiatives we have developed to support women and others who may be wanting to return to their STEM career.  Returning to STEM[7] is an Open University BOC designed specifically for those who have studied or worked in science, technology, engineering or mathematics and are looking to return to work in one of these sectors. Through a series of web-based activities and online discussions, the course allows participants to analyse their previous experiences and skills, identify new employment opportunities and develop an action plan to enable them to find a job that will fulfil their aspirations and suit their lifestyle.

24.  As well as developing skills and confidence, the course includes the chance to learn from role models and mentors from SET industries who provide up-to-date information about trends and opportunities in each sector.  Since its launch in May 2016, over 5,500 people have accessed the course.  About one fifth of these ‘informal learners’ have gone on to access the OU’s main course website and therefore have taken the first small step to considering further more formal STEM study.

25.  Also of relevance for such ‘STEM returners’ is Reboot your STEM Career[8], an interactive toolkit to help people construct an action plan and build confidence when returning to a STEM career.  Nearly 6,000 people have accessed this since its launch in May 2016.

Development of hands-on laboratory skills through online

26.  Giving students who study STEM subjects online the opportunity to experience the practical (laboratory and field) aspects of study has been a challenge for providers of distance education.

27.  In recent years the OU has introduced an initiative to give our STEM students access to laboratory-based learning via the internet by means of ‘the Wolfson OpenScience Laboratory’[9]. This allows remote access to real laboratory equipment and to virtual experiments that can be used for online/onscreen practical activities.  A key feature is the use of real data and authentic interfaces. The laboratory won the 2014 Times Higher Education award for Outstanding ICT Initiative of the year.

28.  The most recent phase of this initiative has been the creation of our OpenSTEM Labs[10] as a means of delivering practical engagements in Electronics and Control at undergraduate level and in Space, Science and Technology at Masters level.  This has involved a major capital investment in apparatus and infrastructure to extend remote laboratory facilities to several other parts of the STEM curriculum.

29.  The OpenScience Laboratory was supported by a match-funded (£1m) project grant from the Wolfson Foundation. Major investment for the OpenSTEM Labs was provided by the Higher Education Funding Council for England’s STEM Capital initiative in 2015 (£2.8m), matched by an equal institutional commitment between April 2015 and March 2017. Thus in total we have invested almost £8m to provide authentic online facilities for developing practical skills in STEM. 

30.  In the last academic year the OU has enabled about 40,000 student hours of engagement in practical STEM; this is in addition to time spent in offline preparation for the practical work. There are currently 20 OU course modules using online practical resources in the OpenSTEM Labs, with four modules making substantial use of using the remote-access facilities labs.  Use of the lab will grow over the next few years.

31.  About one third of the content of the Wolfson OpenScience Laboratory is openly accessible and free to use. The rest of the OpenSTEM Lab assets are available for third party use and currently two other universities have arranged to use some of these resources.

32.  In the area of computing there is a requirement for access to test environments that replicate the infrastructural environment of IT networks. Our practice in this area is delivered in association with a major international industrial partner, Cisco Systems (a leader in networking equipment supply for Internet service providers and large-scale networked systems).

33.  Cisco has an international education programme for network professionals and within that the OU has the status of being a leading Cisco Academy in the UK (500-600 students across all programmes annually).  In Cisco Network academy terms, the OU is notable for high student retention (70-80%).  Over 10 years, we have invested around £300,000 in networking technology, plus £150,000 annually supporting other ‘supplier’ Academies so they have sufficient resource to teach our students as well as theirs.

Addressing Europe-wide data scientist shortages by matching industry needs with access to appropriate training – a collaborative model

34.  Our final example is a three-year project led by the OU that is designed to tackle the growing shortage of data scientists in the UK and across the EU.  Again, online delivery of skills is part of the model.  Crucially, the project has determined what data skills are needed by different industries before developing the content and means to deliver those – and it has done that through extensive face-to-face and online interviews and surveys with employers.

35.  The project, the European Data Science Academy (EDSA)[11], has three strands:

• Demand analysis: Determining the skillsets needed for data analysis across Europe’s main industrial sectors
• Curriculum development: Developing modular and adaptable learning materials, some of which are online, to meet these data science needs
• Skills delivery: Delivery of training, supported by multiplatform and multilingual resources based on the curricula.

36.  EDSA is a European Horizon 2020 project which started in February 2015, is coordinated by the OU and funded for a little under 3 million Euros. Partners are the University of Southampton, the Jožef Stefan Institute (Slovenia), Fraunhofer (Germany), the Open Data Institute (UK), the Royal Institute of Technology (Sweden), ideXlab (France), Persontyle (a London based UK startup company) and the Technical University of Eindhoven (the Netherlands).

37.  So far, EDSA’s demand analysis strand has shown that the skill most highly rated by employers is data collection and analysis followed by interpretation and visualisation – both indicating a need for data scientists to be able to produce outputs that can aid data-centric decision making.

Figure 1: Skills that a data scientist should have (Source: EDSA’s 2016 evaluation report[12]) 
 

38.  The analysis has also shown the most important technologies, tools and languages that should be included in any data science training.  Over a third of respondents want to see general purpose programming languages in the training (in addition to advanced computing and programming and open source tools and concepts).   From analysing over 400,000 job postings across Europe (soon 800,000), the project has also developed a dashboard which gives users a map and list of current jobs and related courses across Europe.

39.  EDSA’s main recommendations for data science training are:

• Incorporate soft skills training.  Only those with strong collaboration, communication and leadership skills will be able to contribute fully to data-based decision-making in industrial settings.
• Provide basic data literacy training for non-data scientists.
• Deliver training using a mixture of face-to-face and online.  There is a trade-off here.  While senior managers prefer face-to-face highly customised/personalised training, online training, particularly through MOOCs, allows delivery at scale.
• Establish a data science skills framework.  From an organisational perspective, a skills framework helps to determine existing team skills more clearly so organisations can assess more easily who should receive training.
• Providing better navigation and guidance.  There seems to be no lack of technical and analytical data science training but potential students and organisations struggle to navigate and filter the sheer abundance of training opportunities. Finding those that fit specific needs and also deliver high-quality learning experiences is important.

January 2017