Tuesday 29 June 2010

Open for Business

Open for Business has been actively involved with ‘foundation degree forward’ fdf

http://www.fdf.ac.uk/page.aspx?id=2

I was lucky enough to meet a representative from fdf. Discussions were energetic and responsive and provide confirmation of initial pathway for consideration. What indeed was this WBL and employer engagement stuff?

Utilising Open for Business’s knowhow ‘SMART’ can be one step ahead in it's developments of technology and identify the changing demographics of WBL and the employer’s changing needs (Longhurst 2009).

Many of potential employers engaged in WBL, were not always committed to the FD programmes. The develop of foundation degree programmes, always included consultation with employers, however the employer could changed, so the employers who were engaged in the initial consultation were not the same for future students. They had not been involved in the development of the programme, so were not considering the same issues. This was important for SMART, if employers changed then the focus of the mentor could change also. This meant the benchmarks were moveable. Meetings and discussions with outside providers of foundation degrees both helped and added focus to the mentorship process.

Open for Business was seeking to ensure suitability of programmes and in so doing, were creating new types of mentors. SMART understood the changing role of the mentor and the development of the technology would represent the findings from this research.