University of Warwick champions skills development
It is no secret that the UK is in the midst of a skills crisis, and the recent picture in the West Midlands has been particularly bleak.
Employers are struggling to recruit suitably-skilled workers for key jobs, and the continuing uncertainty surrounding Brexit is starting to manifest through workers’ reluctance to move jobs – or, for EU nationals, to pursue roles in the UK.
With the Government and employers both looking to each other for answers, anticipation is increasing for the region’s anchor institutions to provide solutions to the crisis.
The University of Warwick has long been championing skills development in the West Midlands and beyond through a range of innovative initiatives, challenging what’s expected from a leading Higher Education institution.
Home to some of the UK’s brightest academic minds and a commitment to generating research with real-world impact, Warwick is at the forefront of tackling the region’s skills shortage through its involvement in the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) Productivity and Skills Commission.
Professor Nigel Driffield, Professor of International Business at Warwick Business School and Deputy Pro-Vice Chancellor (Regional Engagement) at the University of Warwick, is the Commission’s academic lead, steering the research to identify realistic solutions to boost productivity and skills.
Recognising the need for an education revolution with a pioneering approach to education-industry engagement, Warwick and WMG introduced the first WMG Academy for Young Engineers in Coventry in 2014, followed by another in Solihull in 2016. The WMG Academies put career-led practical challenges at the heart of the curriculum, working in partnership with some of the region’s top businesses in a step change that ensures young people are equipped with the skills to meet the needs of UK employers.
WMG has also been championing degree apprenticeships with the introduction of its Applied Engineering Programme, a novel education route combining the best aspects of higher and vocational training. 
With the introduction of the Government’s Apprenticeship Levy from April 2017, Warwick is developing further degree apprenticeships in partnership with businesses to meet employer demand.
Students from Warwick’s core degree programmes are intelligent, dynamic and ambitious, and armed with the skills they’ve gained from studying at a world-class university, they’re keen to make an impact in the working world. Following graduation, almost a quarter of Warwick’s alumni remain in the West Midlands, and the increased productivity of Warwick’s graduates supports £288m GVA over their working lives. Inspiring the next generation of educators, Warwick trained 121 teachers in 2014/15 through its Centre for Teacher Education, 50% of whom took jobs in Coventry and Warwickshire or Solihull following graduation.
Founded on a unique collaboration between academia and business Warwick has always been entrepreneurially-minded, and it has a flair for nurturing enterprise in its students, too. Recent Warwick success stories include Xabian Technologies, the brainchild of 2016 Mathematics and Physics BSc graduate Ben Hayward, which is developing a solution for affordable prosthetics for lower limb amputees that do not compromise on comfort.
Warwick’s quality teaching and outstanding enterprise support programmes mean entrepreneurial students and their businesses are in the best position they can be to thrive and make a proactive, positive contribution to the economy following graduation.
At the other end of the education spectrum, Warwick’s Centre for Lifelong Learning specialises in upskilling and reskilling adults in the region into careers such as teaching, social work and counselling, whatever their background and existing qualifications.
Encouraging adult learners who may have been out of education for many years, the Centre’s free part-time Gateway to HE course offers an opportunity for adults to settle back into study before undertaking the BA (Hons) Social Studies degree.
To find out more about any of Warwick’s skills initiatives, visit www.warwick.ac.uk/global/regional/skills, email: regionalengagement@warwick.ac.uk or telephone 0247 657 5829.
